According to CNBC, president Obama has decided to reject the permit application for the Keystone XL Pipeline. This pipeline project would have transported oil from Canada to the refineries on the Gulf coast in Texas. It would have given the USA a secure oil source for hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil each day. It also would have created over 20,000 construction jobs and over 100,000 permanent jobs once in operation. After four years of review of the application by the federal government, Obama had tried to delay a decision on the pipeline until after the election by claiming that more time was needed for review, but the Republicans in Congress forced Obama's hand by requiring a decision no later than February 28, 2012.
The opposition to the pipeline has been from environmentalists. There is no merit to the opposition, however. One objection is that the oil comes from tar sands which supposedly will add to carbon emissions. If Obama's denial of a permit would have killed the Canadian project, then one would have to take the issue seriously. Once the USA rejects the project, however, the pipeline will be built across Canada to Vancouver and the oil will be exported to China. The Canadian prime minister has already said that the oil would go to China, so there is no mystery here. Environmentalists also worry the the refining of the oil might produce unwanted emissions. Of course, the problem is that if the oil is refined in China, the refineries will not be as advanced as those in Texas. Nor will the Chinese be as concerned with air pollution. According to the most recent statistics, the average Chinese refinery gives off about three times the amount of air pollutants for each barrel of oil refined compared to the American refineries. In other words, killing the pipeline and sending the oil to China will harm global air quality much more than refining the oil in Texas. The final issue raised by the environmentalists is that the pipeline could leak and harm the water supplies in various states like Nebraska and its neighbors. If this were the first pipeline built in the USA, they might have a point. There are already over two million miles of pipelines in the USA carrying oil and natural gas, both refined and unrefined. These pipelines have been operating for close to a century. In all that time, there has never been an acquifer that has been damaged due to a pipeline spill. Indeed, the point of a pipeline is that it has various and frequent control valves that can quickly stop the flow of product in the event of a break. The complaints about the pipeline are just excuses; the truth is that environmentalists do not like any project that results in oil or natural gas being used as fuel in the USA.
Obama's choice was between a hundred thousand plus jobs for middle class Americans and increased American energy security on the one hand and bowing to the demands of disoriented and misguided environmental extremists on the other hand. Obama chose the extremists and their campaign contributions rather than the jobs for the American people.
I do not care who the GOP nominates. Any one of the candidates would be better than Obama. America needs a president who will put the good of the country ahead of the needs of his own re-election campaign. Obama has got to go!
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