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Townhall
Finance...
Time
for the Timid President
By John Ransom
8/29/11
Decision
time for a real energy policy
is near for a president whose critics on both the left and the right
have
declared him “timid.”
The
State Department gave a thumbs-up
on late Friday to the Keystone Pipeline project designed to help bring
up to 3
million barrels of oil per day to the US from Canada. The State
Department was
required to evaluate the project for environmental impact.
“There
would be no significant impacts
to most resources along the proposed pipeline corridor,” Bureau of
Oceans and
International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) Assistant
Secretary
Kerri-Ann Jones told reporters according to CNN.
The
decision by the State Department
puts Obama in a bind.
The
decision to approve the pipeline
now rests on the desk of the president, who likely doesn’t relish
approving the
pet project of then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Expect him to use
every day of
the 90-day waiting period.
He
is timid after all.
He
can approve the pipeline easily on
economic grounds- the project will create 20,000 construction jobs,
plus
another 350,000 ancillary jobs- but
he’s
being bullied by his friends on the left to stop the project in its
tracks. The
green meanies want him to put their anti-growth, anti-development,
anti-job,
misanthropic agenda above the welfare and prosperity of US
citizens…again.
.
Environmental
whackos have been
getting arrested by appointment at the White House for the last two
weeks
hoping to put pressure on Obama to scuttle the most significant
development in
energy for our country in the last 50 years.
If
successful, they Keystone pipeline
will not only significantly reduce US imports of oil from place like
the Middle
East and Latin America, but it will also help open up huge new oil
resources in
the United States by providing the confidence to develop oil reserves
in the
Rocky Mountain region.
While
it’s estimated that Canada may
have as much as 2 trillion barrels of oil in reserves, “the U.S.
Geological
Survey estimates the [US] has 4.3 trillion barrels of in-place oil
shale
resources centered in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, said Helen Hankins,
Colorado
director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management” according to the
Associated
Press.
4.3
trillion barrels is 16 times the
reserves of Saudi Arabia or enough oil to supply the US for 600 years.
“The
road to viability for the oil
shale industry is reliant on a predictable regulatory structure and an
environment in which companies can invest in research and development
and
create jobs,” said Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO), who accuses Obama
of
delaying the commercial extraction of shale oil by adding regulatory
obstacles.
“The
proper implementation of our
environmental and safety regulations already on the books is a far
better
strategy than adding additional layers of bureaucracy to the process,”
said
Tipton who held hearings recently on the subject in Colorado.
Earlier
this summer the high priest of
climate change, Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore blasted Obama for being
timid on
environmental matters, perhaps
because
he senses a sell-out coming.
It
will be a tough sell to the
American people struggling under massive unemployment that the 400,000
jobs
that will be created by Keystone aren’t more important than the worries
of
environmentalists who think that a grouse has more value than a baby.
After
all, the oil shipped through
Keystone will replace oil that is being purchased from countries that
don’t
like us very much.
OK
Obama; this is an easy one.
We’re
waiting.
And
you’re timid.
Read
it at Townhall Finance
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