Posted on 05/08/2012 8:44:55 PM PDT by neverdem
The president finds himself between an environmentalist rock and a labor union hard place
The Keystone XL pipeline is roiling U.S. electoral politics again. TransCanada refiled its application for a permit to build the pipeline with the State Department last week. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has vowed, “I will build that pipeline if I have to do it myself.” In April, the House of Representatives passed a transportation bill that mandates the construction of the Keystone pipeline. The vote was 293 to 127, the majority vote was minus 14 Republicans, but included 69 Democrats. President Barack Obama threatened to veto the bill if it includes the pipeline construction mandate. Today, the House and Senate are conferring on the transportation bill that would spend more than $100 billion on highway, rail, air, and mass transit projects over the next two years. It is not known if the Keystone pipeline provision will emerge in the final version.
Reviewing the state of play: The crude oil pipeline would be built by TransCanada at a cost $7 billion and stretch nearly 1,700-miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of the United States. The 36-inch pipeline would bring as much as 830,000 barrels of synthetic oil per day produced from Canadian oilsands to U.S. refineries. However, since it crosses an international border, President Barack Obama has the authority to refuse permission for construction to begin if he determines that the pipeline is not in the national interest. In August 2011, the Department of State issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement [PDF], which concluded that the pipeline could be built and operated safely. Once the State Department report was issued, Obama had 90 days to make his national interest determination.
The Keystone pipeline became a defining issue for political environmentalists who dramatized their...
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
What were those 14 pubbies thinking?
The rats are looking for a showdown between between the econazis and organized labor in the private energy sector. The latter may not vote for the GOP, but they have little reason to vote for the rats.
Retirement.
Thanks neverdem.
Keystone is an excellent slicing edge. Everyone who drives to work (which includes most of those die hard union guys unless they’re driving company trucks or getting a fuel allowance) senses the occupier is on the wrong side of this.
Cognitive dissonance is at an all time high in democrat country!
They are thinking like Luger....you know where that got him. LOL
IMHO, this will be the “October Surprise.” The Scamster will announce his ok in the best interests, yada, yada, yada.
Please, God, make it stop.
Oh come on. This is mild, mild, mild for Mitt.
I hope this statement was only rhetorical excess.....
Thats what I think. He can always approve it to remove it as a campaign issue, then let it die a death of a thousand delays after the election. The project dies but his fingerprints are not on it.
We've seen him announce twice he is opening up the coasts for drilling but it never really happens. What the right hand gives the left hand ties up in red tape.
Does he gots the dough? I’m not sure even his 250 million or so is quite enough.
good news.
So it goes.
I hope this isn’t rhetorical excess- the manual labor would do Mittens some good, and besides - just think how his time would be tied up from creating new mandates!
He is holding out for the LOST treaty to pass, then he can give half to the UN.
I figured out 10 years ago the way Congress operates is to pass something and tout it, but then never fund it. All the President has to do is say he will do something, let the press fawn over it, and then never complete the project.
Good medicine for the sheeple.
But then he loses a whole lot of his enviro base.
I was just thinking of Mitt getting in the way pf the working men.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.