Free Republic

Nearly a dozen Senate Democrats, including five up for re-election this year, are pressing President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and they say they want a decision by the end of next month. Most Republicans support the pipeline, but the 11 Democrats who wrote a letter to Mr. Obama urging him to approve the project deliberately made it a one party-effort. While a set of bipartisan signatures can be a powerful thing in the art of Washington letter-writing, these lawmakers clearly want to accentuate the pressure Mr. Obama faces from his own party on this issue. “It’s...

Yet another poll on the general public’s feelings on the Keystone XL pipeline, this one from Pew, is out today confirming pretty much everything we already knew about the beleaguered project: That the majority of Americans are cool with it, while the majority of the opposition is coming from out-of-touch wealthy liberals. Shocker. As the Obama administration deliberates over whether to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built, the proposed pipeline continues to draw broad support from the public. Currently, 61% favor building the pipeline while 27% are opposed. These views have changed little over the past year.As previous...

The saddest thing about a guy like Obama, as opposed to say, Bill Clinton, is that if you went forward in time and showed him all his mistakes, showed him an alternate vision-- one that's successful for the country-- he is such an ideologue that he would reject the advice out of hand. But still that doesn’t mean that I won’t share the five things Obama could do to turn the country and the economy around. Some of these are things anyone could do. OK, anyone but Obama: 1) Negotiate with Republicans on Obamacare—This signature piece of legislation is...

On Wednesday, a Nebraska judge struck down a state law that would have allowed TransCanada to use the power of eminent domain to seize private land to help construct a short 300-mile segment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline between Cushing and Steele City, Nebraska. The law in question, LB 1161, allows Nebraska Governor David Heineman and TransCanada to avoid regulators in siting a crucial portion of the pipeline. Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy sided with three landowners who challenged the law, finding that regulatory power over industrial companies such as TransCanada must remain with agencies such as the...

The Keystone oil pipeline is good idea for the United States, Warren Buffett said Monday, even though it would take away some business from his Berkshire Hathaway rail subsidiary BNSF. The long-delayed leg from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska should be approved, the billionaire investor told CNBC. "I would vote 'yes,'" Buffett said in a "Squawk Box" interview, but added he has "no idea" if President Barack Obama will approve it. "I don't believe in the Keystone pipeline because of the jobs you'd make building it. You can build anything and create jobs," he said. "I just believe it's a useful...

Give Obama this: When he wants something, no one moves more quickly and decisively. From unilaterally rewriting Obamacare at least 18 times to bypassing Congress and implementing the DREAM Act’s immigration policies by fiat, Obama rules by decree. His executive orders recall the late Yul Brynner’s portrayal of Pharaoh Ramses II in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). As the maximum leader of Egypt said: “So let it be written. So let it be done.” Now that’s leadership. “America does not stand still,” Obama likewise declared in his January 28 State of the Union address. “And neither will...

"All of that is rhetoric and nonsense," says Girling, about the criticism. "As things sit right now we do have an approved route in Nebraska. ... seen as environmentally sound through five environmental reviews by the federal government and through the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.... We'll eventually get through that process. It's just a matter of determining what is the legal process for us to have it reviewed."

"......Fiona Hill, a former National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, credited Putin with strengthening Russia economically since gaining power in 2000. Though Russia still has economic challenges, Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies gives Russia a trump card that did not exist during the post-Soviet chaos of the 1990s, she said. "In the years since Putin has come to power," she said, "he has removed our leverage." Putin has also increased the capabilities of the Russian military; crushed or co-opted dissent; and gained iron control of Russia's media. Throughout the crisis in Ukraine, Russian...

Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to add a new element to the Keystone XL oil pipeline debate: its effects on health. The California Democrat claims negative health effects from the proposed pipeline's development were ignored by the State Department's environmental impact review. "The Environmental Impact Statement was woefully inadequate when it came to exploring human impacts of the pipeline," Boxer said Wednesday at a press conference held with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and anti-Keystone XL activists and environmentalists. She said Keystone will add pollutants to the air that will increase the likelihood of peopel getting cancer or heart disease. "I do...

The nation’s governors emerged from a meeting with President Barack Obama Monday claiming harmony, only to immediately break into an on-camera partisan feud in front of the West Wing. Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal lashed out first, saying if Obama were serious about growing the economy he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and take other executive actions. […] Jindal’s statements were the kind that Republicans often make on television appearances or at partisan events. But his colleagues had been instead expressing wide agreement and appreciation for the president’s time. Some of the governors began shaking their heads, and...

Remember: We actually pay people to report on stuff like this. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), while not exactly non-partisan, doesn’t always see eye to eye with either party in D.C. Yes, sometimes the effects of proposed Democrat economic policies are so obvious that even the CBO is forced to agree with Republicans. The CBO just reported that the Democrats plan to raise the minimum wage would cost between 500,00 to a million jobs. Initially. No. Duh. At least that many jobs; really, probably more. “The CBO analysts said their estimate of employment losses was approximate,” says Fox News. “They...

A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a setback for the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries. Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that a law passed in 2011 improperly allowed Heineman to give TransCanada eminent domain powers within the state. Stacy said the decision should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates pipelines and other utilities. Heineman said Wednesday that state...

If you follow an all or nothing strategy you usually end up with nothing!I was very disappointed that both Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-KY) both caved on efforts to exact a compromise from Obama for a debt ceiling increase. I had hoped that attaching approval of the Keystone pipeline would force Obama to accept this worthy and environmentally safe project and help create tens of thousands of new good paying jobs for Americans. But Tea Party Republicans in the House refused to vote for ANY increase in the debt ceiling. Had Speaker Boehner brought up a...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...

With the President delaying, again, parts of Obamacare, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker John Boehner have declared they will not raise the debt ceiling unless the President does two things: (1) delay Obamacare by a year and (2) approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. In fact, Congressman Paul Ryan is standing shoulder to shoulder with them, telling Robert Costa, “Shutting down the government puts us on the wrong side. The fight is on the debt limit”. Further, the GOP won’t even bother fighting on a continuing resolution because they feel so strongly the debt ceiling is the path forward...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is shifting his focus to the nation's energy policy, starting on Monday. At the Heritage Action for America's Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Cruz will make the case that while President Obama should approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Republicans need to come up with other ideas to expand the country's energy production. Aides to the Cruz told The Washington Post that the senator is drafting a bill called the American Energy Renaissance Act, which he will announce at the event on Monday. "There is only one thing that will stop us from embracing...

On January 31, the State Department released its final Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XS pipeline, concluding once again that its construction would have a net neutral effect on carbon emissions. The study also confirms that the pipeline itself would have little to no impact on Canadian oil sands extraction rates or on global oil consumption. Canada will continue to develop the oil sands and consumers will continue to buy oil for the foreseeable future with or without the Keystone XL. The relevant questions surrounding the pipeline’s construction are who will benefit from the development and transit of this...

For over five years, the Obama Administration has delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline because of alleged concerns about environmental impacts, especially climate change. The Administration’s non-decision process has been strongly supported by its activist environmental allies who have made extreme and unsupportable claims. Now, the truth comes out from the former Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, who finally admitted that the decision is “a political one, and one founded in science” and just yesterday by former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, who said that Keystone is a “win-win.” In spite of these admissions, environmental activists continue their...

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is launching a new campaign against proponents of Keystone XL, and one possible target is Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.). Steyer's green group NextGen Climate Action posted a list of candidates who are strong advocates of the controversial TransCanada oil pipeline on its website, asking people to pick which one it should target for its Keystone XL television ad. NextGen Climate Action is lining up Landrieu, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) as potential targets. Also on the list is former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, who is...

While the White House is still — still — adamantly insisting that their eventual Keystone XL pipeline decision (whenever that may be) will be absotively, posilutely not-at-all political after their former Energy Secretary Steven Chu openly conceded that “the decision on whether the construction should happen was a political one and not a scientific one, Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he believes the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada should be built. Salazar said at an energy conference in Houston Wednesday that the pipeline could be built safely, as long as conditions are imposed. Those conditions would require the...