Posted on 01/27/2014 5:18:04 AM PST by thackney
Despite years of acrimonious delay, the Keystone XL pipeline project is increasingly likely to receive the green light from the U.S. government sometime this year. ... In the end, intense pressure from constituencies close to the Obama Administration will force the President to align himself with the project. Here are the top five reasons why the government will finally be compelled to take action on this hot-button issue and why it will probably happen sooner rather than later.
1) The U.S. Midterm elections - Nothing changes policy faster than an election and this year it looks like several members of President Obama’s party will need to move to the right in order to keep their seats. Among them are a particularly large number of Senate Democrats facing reelection challenges in traditionally conservative or “red” states. They include senators from Arkansas, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, Louisiana and Alaska. In addition, two Senate Democrats, one from Montana and another from West Virginia, have said that they will be retiring this year, putting those traditionally conservative states in play for the first time in decades.
Now, it turns out that half these states up for grabs also happen to be big energy producers – Alaska, Louisiana and Montana with oil and natural gas and West Virginia with coal. In order to appeal to voters in these states, many of whom owe their livelihood to the energy industry, Democratic candidates will need some sort of energy boost. Approval of the Keystone would go a long way to combat Republican attacks that would try label their Democratic opponents as anti-energy. The stakes here are huge. If the Democrats lose six or more of hopes for a legacy deeper than a wobbly and contentious health care initiative.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
3) Canada upping the ante
4) Growing dangers of rail
5) Jobs
6) Personal enrichment
like say a full ride for both daughters to Harvard, Yale or Princeton
Obama is like Gov Cuomo, they are trapped by their environmentalist extremists. Sierra Club and other groups have 50,000 committed to bloc KPL construction. What is Obama going to do when these activists are arrested? For the extreme left in the Dem party they will see Obama KPL decision as sellout to big business just like his refusal to prosecute Wall Street Bankers for the liar loans they made to implode the finsncial system. KPL will cause the extreme left to sit out the election and guarantee GOP victory in 2014. MSM like to print and expose the fight between RINO and Tea Party in GOP, Dems have their own civil war between OWS and left establishment who get lots of money from corporate America and Wall Street. OWS will ramp up once the Dems lose power.
Keystone or not, these Donks are done.
Buffett and Soros have vested interests in the rails; they’re not gonna like it if 0traitor OKs the KPL. Just saying.
My guess “Caving on the Keystone” will be a trade off for something more important to odumbo. There is no “free lunch”.
Agreed; and America/us gets screwed six-ways-to-Sunday.
I suspect the cave will come on Thursday, July 3, buried in a pre-holiday document dump.
7) Obama’s views are ‘evolving’
1A - Canada threatens to bolt NAFTA and sell its Tar Sands oil unrestricted by “NAFTA 2/3 Oil Sold to US” rule. The Statists and Globalists, including Obama, would break right there
1A - Canada threatens to bolt NAFTA and sell its Tar Sands oil unrestricted by “NAFTA 2/3 Oil Sold to US” rule.
That is a NAFTA myth.
Article 605 of NAFTA has been interpreted by some to mean that Canada is required to sell a certain percentage of its energy output to the United States, even in the face of a severe domestic shortage. Moreover, they argue that NAFTA prevents this percentage from falling over time.
Neither of these statements is true. Canadian producers are free to sell as much oil as they wish to whomever they wish, including, for example, overseas customers. As a result, the share of total output exported to the United States can rise or fall according to the normal forces of supply and demand.
The only condition that NAFTA imposes on Canadian energy products is that all buyers in North America must have equal rights to buy those products.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/researchpublications/prb0633-e.htm
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