Posted on 08/14/2013 8:39:09 AM PDT by lowbridge
It’s crunch time in the fight over constructing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.
Both sides believe a decision by President Obama could come by the end of the year, making the next few months critical for lobbying and messaging efforts.
Opponents plan a burst of demonstrations and other events across the country to rally environmental pressure on Obama to reject the Alberta-to-the-Gulf-Coast pipeline.
Supporters are also campaigning, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) promoting its message that Keystone’s construction will create jobs, with rallies in more than a dozen “priority states” in the coming months, API spokeswoman Sabrina Fang told The Hill.
The State Department is reviewing the project and says there is no timetable on a decision.
But Obama told lawmakers in March that a decision would be coming in a matter of months, not years, raising expectations that the administration will act before the end of the year.
The State Department is reviewing 1.2 million comments to a draft environmental report it performed on the project. Once that report is finalized, a 90-day period for the department to determine whether Keystone is in the national interest will be triggered, followed by two weeks for Obama to render his decision.
Keystone opponents believe momentum has flipped to their side and think Obama — once seen as likely to approve the project — will now reject it.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Obama opposes it because he knows it will reduce our dependence on hostile Middle Easterners for our energy and because he knows that it will create jobs. He is not willing to allow either of those things to occur.
Crunch time? Why should Obama make a decision, when he can just tell his flunkies to keep putting it off and putting it off?
“We need more time to study this difficult question.”
That’s more effective than just saying “no,” which could be contested. And it’s less politically damaging, as long as the press and the RINOs continues to cover for him. Which they will do forever.
Considering the ZERO people who showed up for that Global Warming Rally in DC the other day, I suspect Obama is going to approve this in a Friday Night Document Dump as he heads out on his Labor Day vacation.
Build it WITH OR WITHOUT 0bama’s approval. Who made him KING, anyway? Build it.. Let him send the military to the Canadian/U.S. border to stop it. Gotta get this show on the road sometime, huh?
Obama owes the Saudis. That means no.
I agree, the market/people will eventually realize that the pipeline MUST be built. We will soon be a large natural gas producing nation and need infrastructure for transportation.
It going to be an energy revolution just as the trains were needed for our industrial revolution. Natural gas will replace coal energy and large fleets will run on natural gas, not batteries or sun. This will help drive crude lower and the world will see huge growth in the coming decades as energy costs finally decline and the freed up funds will be reinvested in technology and new businesses.
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.