Unlikely: Obama claims Keystone Pipeline could raise the price of gas...

Is Obama back on the choom?



The Hill reported:

President Obama said the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline would not be a major job creator and could increase gasoline prices, but added that the White House decision will rest on climate change.
“Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator. There is no evidence that that’s true,” Obama said in a New York Times interview published Saturday.
Obama, in some of his most extensive remarks ever on the pipeline, also said Canada could “potentially be doing more” to curb emissions from the oil sands.
His comments follow his closely watched late June pledge that Keystone XL would only receive a federal permit if the “net” effects of the pipeline would not “significantly exacerbate” carbon pollution.
Obama reiterated that threshold in the newly published interview and said that would be the basis for his decision.
“I meant what I said; I’m going to evaluate this based on whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our atmosphere. And there is no doubt that Canada at the source in those tar sands could potentially be doing more to mitigate carbon release,” he said.

Interesting: Obama signaled GOP he will approve Keystone pipeline...

Left-wing environ-wacko freak-out in 3...2....1...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama indicated during his lunch Wednesday afternoon with House Republicans that he would approve the

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama indicated during his lunch Wednesday afternoon with House Republicans that he would approve the Keystone pipeline, Rep. John Carson told reporters.
Obama previously blocked the completion of the pipeline, citing environmental concerns. But Carson and other Republicans present at the meeting said they were told the White House would drop its objection.

, Rep. John Carson told reporters.
Obama previously blocked the completion of the pipeline, citing environmental concerns. But Carson and other Republicans present at the meeting said they were told the White House would drop its objection.

Obvious: State Department finds Keystone Pipeline will not harm environment...

Barack Obama and his tree hugger supporters hardest hit...

Via Washington Examiner:

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline will not harm the environment, the State Department — in a blow to environmentalists who want to block the project — wrote in a newly-drafted report on the latest proposed route.

“[T]he draft Supplemental EIS concludes that approval or denial of the proposed Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands, or on the amount of heavy crude oil refined in the Gulf Coast area,” the State Department draft report says, as Think Progress noted.

The report comes to the dismay of environmental activists. “We’re mystified as to how the State Department can acknowledge the negative effects of the Earth’s dirtiest oil on our climate, but at the same time claim that the proposed pipeline will ‘not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects,’” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement. “Whether this failure was willful or accidental, this report is nothing short of malpractice.  President Obama said that he’s committed to fighting the climate crisis.  If that is true, he should throw the State Department’s report away and reject the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline.”

Keep on reading…

Obama administration kicks the can down the road on final Keystone XL oil pipeline decision...

There is no good reason for this except hatred of fossil fuels.

(Reuters) – The Obama administration’s decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada’s oil sands.

“We’re talking the beginning of summer at the earliest,” said the source, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the TransCanada Corp project, which has been pending for more than four and a half years. “It’s not weeks until the final decision. It’s months.”

A series of steps still have to be taken by the State Department, where the decision will be made because the 830,000 barrels per day crude oil pipeline crosses the national border. The pipeline will link Alberta’s oil sands and North Dakota’s Bakken shale fields to refineries and ports in Texas.

The State Department did not comment for this story, but last week a spokeswoman said it did not anticipate making the decision before the end of March. Previously, the department had hinted the decision could come in the middle of the first quarter.
The administration may be delaying because the pipeline has become a symbol for both opponents and supporters of development of Canada’s vast oil sands.

Al Gore: Bringing more oil in via the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is "quite literally insane"

Lower energy prices are insane? Al Gore should stick to being a sex poodle....

Via Guardian:

The former vice-president and climate champion, Al Gore, has called on Barack Obama to seize the moment and use his re-election victory to push through bold action on climate change.

The president has faced rising public pressure in the wake of superstorm Sandy to deliver on his promise to act on global warming.

But none of those calling on Obama to act carries the moral authority of Gore, who has devoted his post-political career to building a climate movement.

Other environmental leaders are also trying to seize the moment. Activists have called a demonstration at the White House on 18 November to demand Obama block the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to expand production from the Alberta tar sands by pumping crude to Texas refineries.

Gore said he supported their campaign. “I do agree with those who are trying to stop the Keystone pipeline. The tar sands are just the dirtiest source of liquid fuel you can imagine,” he said. “At a time when we are desperately trying to bend the emissions curve downwards it is quite literally insane to open up a whole new source that is much more carbon intensive and that makes the problem worse.”

Unlikely: Van Jones Claims EPA saved more lives than US Military and Keystone Pipeline is like crack

Obama made this lunatic his 'Green Jobs" czar...

Via Washington Examiner:

Van Jones, former green czar to President Obama, suggested that the Keystone XL pipeline could harm America the way crack cocaine destroys the human body as he called for a grassroots environmentalist movement to push for cap and trade.

Jones praised the activists who fought Keystone by developing a drug metaphor. “They said, ‘we’re not going to let them jab this dirty needle of a pipeline into America. We’re not going to let them take the dirtiest energy ever created and cook it up and stick it into this country,” he said at the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington D.C. this morning. “Through their courage, the project was derailed.” Obama and the White House have tried to limit the perception that they yielded to environmentalists on the issue, instead saying that the pipeline could be built once a suitable route is planned and approved. [...]

Jones’ crack cocaine metaphor followed his suggestion that Republican budget hawks would cause American children to die. “They say we’ve got to eliminate the EPA — just wipe it out,” he said. “The EPA, which has probably saved more American lives in the past 30 years than even the Department of Defense. The EPA which is keeping the poison out of our childrens’ bodies.”

Read more here…

Obama supporter Warren Buffet on Keystone Pipeline: "...it certainly seems like it makes sense to me"

Warren Buffet didn't drink all the kool-aid.

Via E2 Wire:

Billionaire Warren Buffett said this week he supports the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, inserting himself in a politically divisive debate on the project.

“I’m not an expert, but it certainly seems like it makes sense to me,” Buffett said Monday when asked on Fox Business Network whether he would support the pipeline if it doesn’t threaten an environmentally sensitive region in Nebraska.

“There are an awful lot of pipelines running in the United States and net, they’ve certainly been a huge plus for the country.”

But Buffett — an Obama supporter whose name has been used by the White House to sell a plan to increase taxes on the rich — steered clear of criticizing the president.

“I don’t think that issue is done with yet,” Buffett said when asked whether he was disappointed in President Obama’s decision to reject a key permit for the project in January.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: No Turning Back On Selling Oilsands Crude To Asia

President Obama is an energy policy idiot. No one who really cared about the U.S.'s energy supply would have rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even if President Barack Obama approved the controversial Keystone XL pipeline tomorrow, at least some Canadian oil would still flow to Asia, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a public one-on-one interview here with Jane Harman, head of the Wilson Centre think-tank, Harper said Obama’s rejection of the controversial pipeline — even temporarily — stressed Canada’s need to find other buyers for oilsands crude.

And that wouldn’t change even if the president’s mind did.

“Look, the very fact that a ‘no’ could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets,” Harper told Harman in front of a live audience of businesspeople, scholars, diplomats, and journalists.

Obama blames Republicans for Keystone pipeline cancellation. Claims they were rushing it, but his State Depart. has studied it for 3 years

Obama is still trying to blame Republicans for his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. He claims they were rushing the decision. The truth is his State Department has been studying the pipeline for three long years.

CUSHING, Okla. (AP)  – President Barack Obama firmly defended his record on oil drilling Thursday, ordering the government to fast-track an Oklahoma pipeline while accusing Congress of playing politics with a larger Canada-to-Gulf Coast project.

Deep in Republican oil country, Obama said lawmakers refused to give his administration enough time review the controversial 1,170-mile Keystone XL pipeline in order to ensure that it wouldn’t compromise the health and safety of people living in surrounding areas.

“Unfortunately, Congress decided they wanted their own timeline,” Obama said. “Not the company, not the experts, but members of Congress who decided this might be a fun political issue decided to try to intervene and make it impossible for us to make an informed decision.”

Obama actively lobbies against the Keystone Pipeline

It's almost like he wants the price of gas to keep going up.

Via Politico:

President Barack Obama is intervening in a Senate fight over the Keystone XL oil pipeline and personally lobbying Democrats to reject an amendment calling for its construction, according to several sources familiar with the talks.

The White House lobbying effort, including phone calls from the president to Democrats, signals that the vote could be close when it heads to the floor Thursday. The president is trying to defeat an amendment that would give election-year fodder to his Republican critics who have accused him of blocking a job-creating energy project at a time of high gas prices.

Obvious: Bill Clinton Favors Laying Pipe (Video)

Bill Clinton speaking to energy innovation summit:

“One of the most amazing things to me about this Keystone pipeline deal is that they ever filed that route in the first place since they could’ve gone around the Nebraska Sandhills and avoided most of the dangers, no matter how imagined, to the Ogallala [aquifer] with a different route, which I presume we’ll get now, because the extra cost of running is infinitesimal compared to the revenue that will be generated over a long period of time,” he said.

“So, I think we should embrace it and develop a stakeholder-driven system of high standards for doing the work,” Clinton added.

Chutzpah: WH Spokesman Jay Carney claims Republicans forced Obama to cancel Keystone Pipeline

Jay Carney things you are a fool...

“The reason why the Keystone XL required the review that it did is because it crossed, that pipeline crossed an international boundary. The State Department, by tradition and rule, reviews those requests for permits and was in the process of doing just that when the Republicans forced us to deny it because tried to compel the administration to grant a permit to a pipeline for which the route didn’t even exist.”

Poll: 51% of likely voters want Keystone oil pipeline built

The Keystone oil pipeline is yet another issue President Obama is on the wrong side of with voters.

Via Washington Whispers:

President Obama is on the losing side of the fight over building the Canada-to-Texas Keystone oil pipeline, with most Americans in two new polls favoring construction even if it is an environmental threat.

Two new Rasmussen polls confirm GOP charges that Obama’s move last week was aimed at wooing liberal environmentalists irked at his first three years in office.

In one poll published Monday, Rasmussen found that 56 percent of likely voters at least somewhat favor the pipeline, with 36 percent strongly favoring it. Just 27 percent are opposed.

And in a new poll just out, Rasmussen found that even more, 59 percent, believe creating jobs is more important than protecting the environment, a sure sign of the economic plight in the nation. Just 29 percent say that the environment trumps jobs.

Keep on reading…

Obama buddy Warren Buffet to benefit from Keystone XL pipeline cancellation

On of Obama's cronies is benefiting from an Obama decision? Who would have guessed?

Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.

With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an interview. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”

The State Department denied TransCanada a permit on Jan. 18, saying there was not enough time to study the proposal by Feb. 21, a deadline Congress imposed on President Barack Obama. Calgary-based TransCanada has said it intends to re-apply with a route that avoids an environmentally sensitive region of Nebraska, something the Obama administration encouraged.

The rail option, though costlier, would lessen the environmental impact, such as a loss of wetlands and agricultural productivity, compared to the pipeline, according to the State Department analysis. Greenhouse gas emmissions, however, would be worse.

Flashback Video: Obama's failing promise to end Middle East and Venezuela oil imports within 10 years

It has been about for three and a half years since Obama first made this promise. He also said something similar in his 2011 State of the Union Address. Watch this 2008 campaign video.



Let's see how President Obama is doing.

Chart via EIA:

You can see oil imports were trending down in the last years of the Bush Administration and the first year of the Obama Administration, but they headed back up in 2010. Some of this may be related to the economy, but we have to consider Administration policies. Bush was drilling friendly. President Obama issued a ban on much new drilling. His strategy was to dump billions of our taxpayer dollars into green energy and electric cars. After the bankruptcy of Solyndra (and others) and poor Chevy Volt sales, this has proven to be a failed strategy so far. President Obama had an opportunity to recover by approving the Keystone Pipeline from Canada. This pipeline would have supplied up to 590,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil to the U.S. Instead of opting for Canadian oil, President Obama has opted to keep buying oil from his Arab buddies and despots like Hugo Chavez. Here is a great video explaining Obama's insanity on the Keystone Pipeline.

Video Gold: Canadian Talk Show Host Destroys Obama Over Keystone Decision

This is great stuff.

.

Ezra Levant hosts a show, The Source, for Canada’s Sun News.

Shocking Deception: President Obama blames Republicans for cancelling Keystone XL pipeline

President Obama had the ball. He decided to forfeit the game.

Via Mediaite:

Speaker of the House John Boehner lambasted President Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline during a press conference on Wednesday. “President Obama expedited approval of the Solyndra loan project, but won’t approve a project that’s been under review for over three years…President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese.”

President Obama defended himself in a statement saying Republican’s hurried deadline on the issue forced him to make the decision.

“The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment,” Obama wrote. “I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil.
Keep on reading…

Democrats Cave on Keystone Pipeline?

In one of President Obama's dumbest moves, he delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline and threatened to veto legislation including it. Republicans have called his bluff and it looks like Democrats are on board too. The Keystone pipeline will create jobs immediately and is supported by unions. Environmentalists oppose the pipeline.

Via Townhall:

...A senior GOP source tells me that Democrats have agreed to a two-month extension of the temporary payroll tax cuts -- plus unemployment benefits and the "doc fix" -- with some extra Christmas goodies for conservatives.  Quote: "Two-month extension, PLUS Keystone.  Fully paid for; no tax hikes.  Hallelujah."  Rumors are flying that the president is preparing to retreat from his ill-advised veto threat over Keystone, as conservatives, Democrats, and labor unions have rallied around it:
 

White House spokesman Jay Carney declined several opportunities to say that President Barack Obama would veto the tax cut if it contained language aimed at expediting the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline project. Obama last week said he would reject efforts to tie the pipeline to the payroll tax…Carney told reporters he would not comment on what language regarding the pipeline would be acceptable to the president.