Posted on 12/29/2011 6:08:42 PM PST by Libloather
Greens say President Obama has no choice but to kill Keystone XL pipeline
By Andrew Restuccia - 12/28/11 12:20 PM ET
Republicans who lobbied aggressively for a measure to force President Obama to make a speedy decision on the Keystone XL pipeline have ensured the project’s demise, environmental groups say.
The activists said Obama will be forced to reject the pipeline — which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast — under a measure in the two-month payroll tax cut extension that requires the administration to make a decision on the project within 60 days.
“The president is going to have no choice but to reject the pipeline,” said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of international programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “I don’t see any wiggle room.”
The GOP-backed provision forces Obama to weigh in on the pipeline well before the 2012 election, a scenario the president sought to avoid. The pipeline is a thorny political issue for the White House, as its splits parts of Obama’s base. Environmental groups vehemently oppose the project, while some major labor unions support it.
Environmental groups said they are working to assure Obama that rejecting the pipeline will not hurt him politically.
“We expect the president to do the right thing and to stand up to big oil and the political games being played by congressional Republicans,” said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president for conservation and education at the National Wildlife Federation. “We’re confident that the American public will support the administration denying this dangerous pipeline.”
But proponents of the project are putting pressure on Obama to approve the pipeline and said there will be dire political consequences if the project is scrapped.
“If the president is serious about job creation and energy security, now is the time to act on the Keystone XL pipeline,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a statement. “This is the perfect example of a shovel-ready project that makes sense for our economy.”
Obama last month sought to delay a final verdict on the pipeline by calling for review of alternative routes around the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska. The move delayed a decision on the project until 2013.
Casey-Lefkowitz said approval of the pipeline in the next 60 days would violate the law, which requires additional environmental review of the alternative routes Obama has called for.
“I don’t think they legally can say it’s approved, because what approval would indicate is that they have finished this review process, which they haven’t,” Casey-Lefkowitz said. “Republicans overreached this time in trying to pressure the president to do something when he’s already decided that additional review is needed.”
The Keystone measure from the GOP is written in a way that forces Obama’s hand, Sierra Club spokesman Eddie Scher said.
“It seems like [Republicans] wrote themselves into a corner,” he said.
Bill McKibben, a vocal opponent of the pipeline and founder of 350.org, agreed.
“[The administration] said it was going to take a year — it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone that they can’t do it in 60 days,” McKibben said. “One assumes that they’re good for their word.”
Obama administration officials have made similar comments in recent weeks. The State Department, which is leading a multi-agency review of the proposed pipeline, has said the administration will have little choice but to reject the project because the expedited timeline will not leave enough time to conduct the necessary review.
Other administration and White House officials have made similar comments. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said earlier this month on Twitter that the GOP-backed Keystone provision “simply shortens the review process in a way that virtually guarantees that the pipeline will NOT be approved.”
McKibben said opponents of the Keystone pipeline plan to hit back in the coming months at Republicans who pushed for the Keystone measure, by painting them as pawns of the oil industry.
“It became clearly a function of the fossil fuel lobby doing its thing,” McKibben said. “In any other realm of our life, that would be regarded as incredibly unfair.”
Though they believe the Keystone measure will force Obama to reject the pipeline, environmental groups said they are prepared for continued efforts by Republicans and some centrist Democrats to ensure that the pipeline project moves forward.
“Other things could happen, but not under this bill,” Casey-Lefkowitz said.
Isn't that racist?
The majority of Americans don't want to be paying in excess of $3/gal at the pump. The small but vocal environmentalist wackos do.
Today the news media is talking that gasoline prices could reach $4.00 per gallon by next summer. Go ahead Obama - don’t approve the pipeline. Make our day!
Ummm. Crazy-Leftowitz... the CONGRESS WRITES THE LAWS.
Stroke of the pen, law of the land... how cool is that?
/johnny
That’s fine. We’ll put it back online Jan 20 of next year.
That’s fine. We’ll put it back online Jan 20 of next year.
You do know that Obama is staying for life and then hand down to the wife or one of the kids(well he’s thinking that way)
It’s time to make Obama Crap or get up off the pot, something he hates to do.
He would much rather vote present by putting it off.
It is my belief that closing down the pipeline could cost him the election. There aint that many Greenies out there.
Killing Keystone will cost Americans jobs, insure we are dependent on environmentally slovenly, terrorist sponsoring, enemy states for our energy.
That he will do so is a given.
Next Summer gas will be over $4.00/Gal and unemployment will be 9%. Imagine how helpful to Obama a picture of the ChiComs shaking hands with the Canadians over their new oil deal will be.
This is rural country area where folks must travel 20+ mile just to a grocery store..if you need major shopping you must travel 60 to 100 miles..
we must defeat obama in Nov. but I fear ‘cheating’ untold..it will be terrible..
OK. “Green-Americans.” Or do I have to say “Selfless-Green-Americans.”
Of course the old, and not PC, term must have been “Greengros.” :)
“It seems like [Republicans] wrote themselves into a corner”
Is that the best the Democrats an do? The title of this pathetic piece speaks for itself. It’s the Left who have painted themselves into a corner, and for once it seems that the Republicans are refusing to let them off the hook.
So what are you offering your fellow Dem voters in the unions to get them to swallow this? Who has more power in the Dem Party?
I told a lefty friend of mine who sent pictures of the work being done at that tar sands that it was going to be done whether we bought the oil or not. Canada was going to develop that resource and ship it overseas.
The real issue is the left doesn’t really care. They just don’t want capitalist pig America to benefit from the oil.
I despise the left.
The liberals’ penchant for putting people into groups has always created potential train wrecks like this. This one pits unions against greens.
I think it was brilliant to force the decision, it is a no-win politically for Obama, either way.
It is my understanding that donations to enviro groups are plummeting, which means less quid for the quid-pro-quo dynamics in all Obama decisions. Private sector unions are also relatively tapped out, unlike public sector unions.
The money edge probably goes to the unions on this one, in which case we’ll get the pipeline. Or Soros will provide more for the enviros to pass on. It’s sad but instructive, this decision should be based on what’s best for the country, but it won’t be with this occupant of the WH.
Build the pipeline and kill the Greens!
Here are two excellent discussions of this by Gary Bray.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2825826/posts
That one explains how lowering the price of oil will do more for the economy than the phony "Payroll Tax Cut" and building Keystone is part of that.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2824659/posts
This shows the connection between Keystone and a well being drilled by the Brazilian oil company Petrobas in which George Soros is heavily invested. We have already loaned (gave) them $5 billion for the project.
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