Posted by Tina
Christopher Helman of Forbes headlines the Presidents move as “A Stunning Act of Political Cowardice.”</b? Democrats up for reelection in the Senate are expressing shock and disappointment…but $10 million from green activist billionaire Tom Steyer pledged that money to support Democrats in this year’s races if the Prez would delay Keystone.
Words used to describe this “politics over jobs” decision by President Obama:
Lisa Murkowski: “nothing short of a stunning act of political cowardice.”
Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “Once again, the administration in making a political calculation instead of doing what is right for the country. It’s clear the administration needs to grow a set of antlers, or perhaps take a lesson from Popeye and eat some spinach.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee called the delay “irresponsible, unnecessary and unacceptable.”
Sen. Mark Pryor (Arkansas) said in a statement “there’s no excuse for another delay.”
While Sen. Mark Begich (Alaska) said, “I am frankly appalled at the continued foot-dragging by this administration on the Keystone project.”
As an added bonus over the weekend AP reports that fuels made from corn waste are more polluting that gasoline. So much for the brilliance of environmentalist…so many of their “better ideas” turn out to be unworkable, just as bad for the environment, or downright pollution ugly!
But the money’s good! Taking cash from a billionaire activist Greenie in exchange for another Keystone delay was a lousy decision that works against the interests of the people but helps Democrat politicians…now that’s just perfect.
The LA Times offers an alternative explanation:
“A further delay in the evaluation of the pipeline, which already has lasted more than five years, is necessary because of a Nebraska state court decision in February that invalidated part of the project’s route, the State Department said in a statement.
Shortly after the court ruling, administration officials had said the Nebraska case would not have an impact on their deliberations. But in the new statement, the State Department said federal agencies could not evaluate the pipeline’s impact until the “uncertainty created by the ongoing litigation” is resolved.
That could take awhile [sic]. Nebraska officials have appealed the case to the state Supreme Court but have said they do not expect a ruling until late this year at the earliest.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-administration-keystone-xl-pipeline-delay-20140418,0,6905254.story#axzz2zWvlka56
One way and another the green lobby, its millionaire supporters and it’s millions phony reports are blocking the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. Were it not for the extremists greens this project, and the jobs that go with it would have gone forward long ago.
Unemployment remains high. Gasoline prices remain high. Green energy alternatives do not bring prices down or offer perceptibly cleaner air. Corn energy turns out to be more polluting.
It’s time to put the extremists on hold so the people can back to get work again.
IBD
CS Monitor
Heritage
Transcanada
Companies have to actually do things to win the approval for their projects. They have to meet very stringent regulations and then wait until impact reports are done. They have diligently met every exception with a willingness to adjust and work with the various state and federal agencies.
The only thing green activists do is protest and file law suits…they do NOTHING to actually deliver a product that meets the federal, local and state regulations. Think about it…who does more in terms of safely delivering an affordable product that benefits every American, the oil companies and the associated support companies or unreasonable activist greens?
Tina, it’s very frustrating that whenever a claim you make is challenged, you simply act like that claim doesn’t even matter to your argument, and just move on to making more claims. (It doesn’t help that most of those turn out to be pretty baseless as well.)
“Were it not for the extremists greens this project, and the jobs that go with it would have gone forward long ago.”
It’s not just “extremists” raising concerns about the pipeline. The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has warned that the pipeline will drastically increase greenhouse gases:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42537.pdf
Many scientists have also cautioned the president about the impact:
http://tarsandsaction.org/2011/08/03/scientists-keystone-xl-obama/
It’s unfair of you to simply dismiss your opponents as “extremists” simply because their evidence-based conclusions don’t fit your narrative.
“Unemployment remains high. Gasoline prices remain high.”
The pipeline will do very little to reduce overall employment and even less to reduce gas prices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/will-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-lower-gasoline-prices/2012/03/01/gIQAtWkXlR_blog.html
Some analysts have even argued that gas prices will increase due to the pipeline:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/22/news/economy/keystone-pipeline/index.htm
I admit I haven’t examined the studies well enough to know what impact the pipeline will have on gas prices, but it’s a great deal more complicated than you’re making it out to be. You claim that Obama is putting politics over getting people back to work and lowering gas prices, but really, the effects are highly debatable and unknown at this point.
“Corn energy turns out to be more polluting.”
Again, you are simplifying the issue in a very misleading way. What the article you cited actually said was that corn fuel was worse for global warming in the short term, but better in the long run. What that tells us about which fuel source we should use for now is something that rational people can disagree on, but since you don’t even believe in global warming in the first place, I’m really not sure why you are acting as if this is rock-solid evidence for your case. Unless you thought misrepresenting the article would score you some easy points.
I believe the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles. I believe these cycles are as natural as the tides, the turning of the earth, and our placement in the universe. We’ve been in a cooling cycle for several years now.
I believe that the impact we have on the environment is miniscule and therefore it is useless (but politically useful) to be alarmist about it.
I believe we can and should work to improve air and water quality but I also believe there is a point after which there can be no more improvement. You see, .00000000000000001% is just not worth the effort and time.
We are here and we are part of nature.
I believe that whatever improvements we do make from the natural creativity of people will never satisfy extremists. Their agenda is neverending…no oil and low population growth in the extreme…they haven’t considered the end result is death.
I believe that the tall tales that are to told to scare us are bogus and I believe it is especially vile to scare little children with these stories and lies.
I believe that caution and preventive measures are both wise and good. I have watched for about forty years as government and industry, through regulation, research and development, have done what can be done to improve both methods and conditions. In the process we have greatly improved the quality of our water and air. We have also been forced into schemes that have proven to be useless, wasteful and in some cases harmful. A certain additive to our fuel in California, for instance, was both costly and bad for the environment. Not all green ideas are smart.
New ideas and developments that come about out of the entrepreneurial creativity of man will be wonderful…I look forward to witnessing many of them. Alarmists can not force this to happen.
I believe we have reached the point now where demands for improvements exceed what is wisely possible, especially when the time frame for meeting the latest standard is way too short (coal industry) and costly. The extremists don’t care that people lose jobs or that the price of fuel is unnecessarily high or that industries must cut back and lose opportunity.
After over five years and a myriad of studies by various groups the environmental impact results are in. The Keystone Pipeline is as safe as it is possible to make it. It is as safe as sending the oil by rail is…possibly more so…and we are already doing that and it will not end.
The green radicals do not accept reality and are taking the matter of the pipeline to court just to buy time and to delay delay delay. They are also lobbying, using the influence of cash, to prevent its being built.
Their overall agenda is to completely eliminate the oil industry…a pipe dream, no pun intended, because there is currently no viable alternative that can supply the demand…(they also hate nuclear power).
Arguments from these radical elements in our society gum up the works and screw things up for everyone but they do not care. None of these people contribute anything. They do not contribute to solving the challenging problems or bringing cheap energy to the public. If they were realistic or sincere the pipeline would have been built by now. The jobs that go along with it and the revenue that would flow from it would also be realized.
More yammering is just more expended hot air that accomplishes nothing. The lawyers and protesters create more pollution traveling around and talking for hours on end. Enough already!