Jobs, Nabobs and A Pipeline
It is no secret that the President (and apparently his administration) do not want Canada to bring tar sands oil through our country to refineries in Texas via the Keystone XL pipeline.
P&R points out that the President’s very decision in the matter shows us more about his grandiose thinking than the real issues involved:
I shouldn’t have to bother with Congress. I’m the Messiah! Did Jesus need the disciples’ consent? Did he have to get some silly Congress to approve? If you’d just get these evil Republicans out of my hair, I’d work some miracles – you’ll see!
Here is real issue, though. We do not currently have–as a country–the energy we need without using fossil fuels. Canada has crude oil that we can process into a portion of those needed fuels. And, even if all the refined oil is shipped off to other countries, we benefit because of the jobs which are created to build and maintain the pipeline and to refine the fuel.
Some people seem to think that the states through which this pipeline would pass are virgin stretches of desert and prairie which are untouched by the dirty hand of man. Not so.
Are there issues to work out with the states through which the pipeline would pass including some very important questions about the proper and improper use of eminent domain? Absolutely. Last I checked, however, the states were largely in favor of this project.
It is hard to understand, as even the Washington Post notes, why Obama does not want jobs–arguably “good jobs” and tens of thousands of them:
ON TUESDAY, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel.”
It added that regulatory “and permitting obstacles that could threaten the development of some energy projects, negatively impact jobs and weaken our energy infrastructure need to be addressed.”
The Post goes on to note that the position taken on Keystone XL gives the President the immediate opportunity of removing some those self-same obstacles–since he is the one who has created them.
Here is hoping (because I have little reason to believe) that the President will get his much ballyhooed jobs laser back into focus–’cause right now I’m blinded by the scatter.
Share this post with | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | StumbleUpon

