Can you
believe this clown? Before Christmas, The Keystone Pipeline was postponed
for two months. Today was the deadline and Obama decided to rejected the
project. In doing so, he blamed the GOP for not allowing enough
time to complete a revised environmental study.
Understand
this: the two month timeline was his doing and he ridiculed the
GOP when it appeared, initially, that they were not agreeable to his short term
extension. Today, he was forced to make a decision regarding
Keystone because he had finally run out of time. To cover up for years
of indecision in dealing with this issue, he is trying to place
the blame on the Republicans.
Keystone is
100% approved by every agency – including the EPA – and ready for a signature
as of last August -- nearly six stinking months ago. Does it need to be rerouted? Apparently it does. No big deal.
They move it to the east a few miles and get after the program. Years and years of environmental review is
not needed. Such a review would take
only a few weeks. If he wasn’t going to sign the thing six
months ago, why didn’t he deal with this
issue then? In fact, he could have asked for a different route
three years ago.
A few good reasons Obama rejected the pipeline.
ReplyDeleteMany estimates of the potential jobs created by the pipeline are way off. “Regarding employment,” the report says, “the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would likely create several thousand temporary jobs associated with construction; however, the project would not have a significant impact on long-term employment in the United States.” It goes on to note that while some have projected hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result of the pipeline, “this inflated number appears to be a misinterpretation of one of the economic analyses prepared on the pipeline.”
In fact, the pipeline would only result in a few thousand jobs. “Based on the amount of money the applicant projects it would spend on labor in building the pipeline, and the number of construction crews likely to be used in constructing the pipeline, the final EIS [Environmental Impact Study] estimated there would be approximately 5,000 to 6,000 direct construction jobs in the United States that would last for the two years that it would take to build the pipeline,” the report says.
And the overall economic impact would be minimal. Relying on the Environmental Impact Study prepared by the State Department for the pipeline in late August, the administration says that “over the remainder of this decade, even if no new cross-border pipelines were constructed, there is likely to be little difference in the amount of crude oil refined at U.S. refineries, the amount of crude oil and refined products such as gasoline imported to (or exported from) the United States, the cost of crude oil or refined products in the United States, or the amount of crude oil imported from Canada.”
By rejecting Keystone, we’re not losing out on massive amounts of oil. The administration’s report to Congress says that “there is currently excess cross-border pipeline capacity, but limited connections to the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.” But the administration says there are ways of getting that oil to refineries in Texas without the Keystone XL, namely through “other new domestic pipelines, expansions or reversals of existing pipelines, and other modes of transport such as rail, that could play a role in increasing imports of crude oil from Canada to the United States, including to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast area.”
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/01/18/why-obama-decided-against-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/
Nothing Obama has proposed offers more jobs in the immediate future. This deal has been in the works for three years. There have been two, not one, environmental reviews of the project, both positive, both conducted by the wacko's at the EPA, the latest of which was completed in August.
ReplyDeleteObama has had plenty of time. He could have changed the route for this pipeline years ago, certainly six months ago.
I think they get to the "20,000" number by adding in those jobs created by the fuel being delivered, a jobs count over a period of years .... you know, kind of like what Obama does with his estimates, when he is not simply making up numbers, that is.
I think the 6,000 jobs are important.
By rejecting Keystone, we have said "no" to self reliance in the matter of the oil import issue (from our enemies).
You should not forget that Obama wants to be Brazil's "best customer" when it comes to oil import.
ReplyDelete