What are President Obama's priorities? One thing is for sure, American jobs, prosperity or energy independence are not among them. A few days after the Iranian government threatened to shut the Straits of Hormuz through which 40% of the world's oil must pass and on the same day that forecasters predicted gasoline to reach $5 a gallon by May, President Obama denied a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline project. The question is why?
This must have been a gut wrenching decision for the president to have to choose between two of his big constituents - Big Labor and the Radical Environmentalists. "Should I grant the permit to TransCanada for the pipeline which would mean tens of thousands of well paying union jobs or should I bow to the demands of the radical environmentalists?" No voting present here! Clearly the overriding concern for Mr. Obama was throwing a bone to the rabid green crowd. Unfortunately, when called upon to make a decision, President Obama has a knack for coming down on the wrong side.
On the one hand, the pipeline would mean thousands of jobs at a time when we are in a period of prolonged high unemployment. And these jobs would be skilled, high-paying jobs. Furthermore, it would not just create jobs during the construction phase but once completed, it would create many long-term jobs in the way of maintenance, monitoring, and operation of the pipeline in addition to all the jobs in the refineries on the US Gulf Coast that would process the oil into gasoline and other important products. Moreover, it would decrease our dependence on Middle East oil while at the same time further strengthen our economic ties to our good neighbor to the north.
On the other hand, the environmentalists argue that there needs to be further environmental impact studies and that we should not help exploit Canada's tar sands oil, encourage the continued use of fossil fuels, risk harming the delicate ecosystems along the path of the pipeline, and add to greenhouse gases by refining the oil in our refineries. However, these are very weak arguments indeed.
The US Department of State (not known to be a particularly pro-business, conservative, bunch) conducted an extensive, three year environmental impact study that concluded the pipeline would have little, negative impact on the environment including the Ogalla aquifer and the Sandhills region of Nebraska. Furthermore, TransCanada agreed to work with the State of Nebraska to re-route the pipeline to avoid critical wildlife areas and add many more safety features such as additional monitoring systems and shutdown valves. Apparently this isn't good enough.
Additionally, the decision to not allow the pipeline to be build across the US will do nothing to prevent the continued use of fossil fuels or the development of Canadian tar sands oil. Shortly after learning of President Obama's decision, the Canadian government announced it would build the pipeline through Canadian territory in order to sell the oil to China so it will do nothing to lessen the potential for harm to the environment or reduce the amount of greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere. As a matter of fact, I can almost assure you that oil refining in China is far less environmentally friendly than it would be in the US. I would also argue that transporting the crude oil from the west coast of Canada by Chinese tanker is far more likely to present a hazard to our environment than a pipeline as an oil spill at sea has a higher probability of occurrence and would be much more difficult to clean up than a leak from a land-based pipeline.
So to recap, President Obama's decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline has damaged our relationship with Canada, will hurt our economy, and does nothing to safeguard the environment. To think this decision is in the best interest of American and reflects the right priorities from our president, requires what Hillary Clinton once called "A willing suspension of disbelief."
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