President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.
Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.
Now consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil.
Finally, Obama’s decision forgoes all the project’s jobs. There’s some dispute over the magnitude. Project sponsor TransCanada claims 20,000, split between construction (13,000) and manufacturing (7,000) of everything from pumps to control equipment. Apparently, this refers to “job years,” meaning one job for one year. If so, the actual number of jobs would be about half that spread over two years. Whatever the figure, it’s in the thousands and thus important in a country hungering for work. And Keystone XL is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that Obama claims to favor.
The big winners are the Chinese. They must be celebrating their good fortune and wondering how the crazy Americans could repudiate such a huge supply of nearby energy. There’s no guarantee that tar-sands oil will go to China; pipelines to the Pacific would have to be built. But it creates the possibility when the oil’s natural market is the United States.
There are three things to remember about Keystone and U.S. energy policy.
First, we’re going to use lots of oil for a long time. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that U.S. oil consumption will increase 4 percent between 2009 and 2035. The increase occurs despite highly optimistic assumptions about vehicle fuel efficiency and bio-fuels. But a larger population (390 million in 2035 versus 308 million in 2009) and more driving per vehicle offset savings.
The more oil we produce domestically and import from neighbors, the more we’re insulated from dramatic interruptions of global supplies. After the United States, Canada is the most dependable source of oil — or was, until Obama’s decision.
Second, barring major technological breakthroughs, emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, will rise for similar reasons. The EIA projects that America’s CO2 emissions will increase by 16 percent from 2009 to 2035. (The EIA is updating its projections, but the main trends aren’t likely to change dramatically.) Stopping Canadian tar-sands development, were that possible, wouldn’t affect these emissions.
Finally, even if — as Keystone critics argue — some Canadian oil were refined in the United States and then exported, this would be a good thing. The exports would probably go mostly to Latin America. They would keep well-paid industrial jobs (yes, refining) in the United States and reduce our trade deficit in oil, which exceeded $300 billion in 2011.
By law, Obama’s decision was supposed to reflect “the national interest.” His standard was his political interest. The State Department had spent three years evaluating Keystone and appeared ready to approve the project by year-end 2011. Then the administration, citing opposition to the pipeline’s route in Nebraska, reversed course and postponed a decision to 2013 — after the election.
Now, reacting to a congressional deadline to decide, Obama rejected the proposal. But he also suggested that a new application with a modified Nebraska route — already being negotiated — might be approved, after the election. So the sop tossed to the environmentalists could be temporary. The cynicism is breathtaking.
Robert Samuelson is a columnist for the Washington Post and author of “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence.”
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This was a decision based on his political agenda, not what would be best for America!!
Not so much an act of INSANITYas it is an act of pure TREASON. This vacationer-in-chief; usurper-in-chief, COOTUS (Community Organizer of the United States), or what ever he is, (anything but a president) will do anything to keep us from being energy independent of his Arab muslim pals.
"COOTUS" — LOL! I like it — have to remember that one!
Treason.
hes being bought off by some one for his personal gaine . and to finish ruining the usa. we need to get him out of there before the elections come up . impeach him
The usurper in chief is clearly stricken with narcisism. He will stop at nothing with his agenda from hell. Preventing jobs is one of his deceitful tactics. Saving money has never entered his evil mind. The above photo is similar to the many images of adolf hitler. We are in very deep in quicksand.
That was my first thought when I saw it.
If this doesn’t tell the idiots who still support this muSLIME peice of filth, that his agenda is to destroy us and all that we, and our forefathers fought and died for, then nothing will convince them of this fact! He says that he is going to “focus on jobs”, he said that before the first time this country of fools elected him, and all he did was shove his “healthcare” fiasco down our throats. And that is going to cost us more than what we have, or don’t have now. Fines for not having it, being one way of forcing us to do what we probably cannot afford, due to the lack of jobs, and no paycheck. There is not one thing, one single thing that this MISTAKE in office has done for the GOOD of the people of America. Same as his wife, what exactly has she done as “first lady” to show her support for this country? Except to win a contest of “jumping jacks” and talk about her plan to help the children of America lose weight……….what possible good is this going to do? The poor children that she pretends to care for eat what they have, or can get and most of it is not the sort of food they have………..all due to the lack of parents ability to work. And this pipeline may have been just what these poor people needed in order to support their famlies. Obutthead rejects this, and still flaps his purple lips about his “agenda for putting “America” to work. How? Another stimulous? The last one did no good, as that money is sitting in the banks and in the pockets of those who did not need it. We needed it, and we have not seen one dime of this so called “stimulous”………..stimulated who? The banks……….and other already RICH people who did not need it. TO refuse this pipeline was the most insulting and insane act of a person who has delusions of being some sort of GOD! God, he ain’t. More like a very close relative of Satan! Evil is his name, and the destruction of America, and the American people is his game. To bring islime to America and Sharia law instead of our Constitutional law! We need jobs, you fat eared, flapping lips liar, muSLIME liar, which is what muSLIMES do, for they know no other way to be.
This is not insanity !!! It's a muslim destroying our country from the inside out !!!!!
You are exactly right. Obama intends to bring this country to it's knees, and give 400,000 Hamas sanctuary here in this country. What does that spell?
it sure makes obama gleefull knowing he can stop thouswands of american jobs and thus raising the fuel prices tremendousely and putting millins of Americans paying much more than they can afford as food costs and everything else skyrockets this is nothing short of a Travesty and someone needs 2 grab him by the hair and drag him to mexico
I would love to know why OUR military does not respond to the United States greatest threat. The military should have raided OUR WHITE HOUSE and removed this traitor long ago, after all they did take an oath to protect all of us from foreign and domestic threats and the P.O.S. occupying OUR HOUSE has been the biggest threat to us all, far greater than Iran or any of the other insane Muslim control Middle Eastern countries.
What can you expect from an idiot like the burrhead.
This anti-American idiot of a president continues to hold back America and this weak, do nothing Congress just sits there and scratches their heads !!
This is all part of the plan. If Iran and Obama keep up the stupid games the plan is for the US to have a shortage of gas…can`t go to work: a shortage of food because the trucks are not on the road: It will be cold-no heat: and when people are cold and hungry and no way to get anywhere to get food…..they riot. Then Obama sends out the troops to control us,Marshall Law …and the the SOB will cancel elections and he will make himself King or what ever title he prefers. And we are done. Slave of this SOB African who hates America. His title now is Mack Daddy with our tax money and a big AirForce 1.