Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama Blames Republicans For Keystone XL Decision
ZeroHedge ^ | 01/18/2012 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 01/18/2012 1:52:58 PM PST by RobertClark

The big news of the day, aside from the idiot rally finally being back on full bore, is that the Obama administration finally pushed Canada's hand in telling it to sell its crude to China instead of the US, which we are confident it will gladly do. Much of this was largely priced on, as was the fact that opportunity for significant job creation was just kicked to the curb. What was not however expected, is that in keeping up with the fine tradition of taking responsibility for his decisions and actions, kinda sorta, America's president said that it was really the republicans whose fault it is that Keystone XL is now and will remain in its blueprint stages. From The Hill: "Obama said he was not acting on the merits of TransCanada Corp.’s plan, but instead was forced to make the decision based on the “arbitrary” deadline mandated by GOP provisions in December’s payroll tax cut extension deal. "As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," Obama said in a prepared statement. “As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree,” Obama added. In other words, do you remember where you were when the republicans blocked the Keystone Pipeline?

Naturally, Republicans were not happy, and will use this faux pas to the fullest extent.

House Republicans blasted Obama for his decision to reject the pipeline at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

"President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. "The president is selling out American jobs for politics.”

Boehner vowed to continue pushing for approval of the pipeline.

"This is not the end of the fight. Republicans in Congress will continue to push this because it is good for our country, it is good for the economy and it’s good for the American people," he said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that he has invited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify before his panel next week on the pipeline decision.

President Obama, while nixing the project, sought to show that he backs expanded oil-and-gas development.

“I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil,” Obama said.

“In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security – including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico – even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas,” said the president.

“And we will do so in a way that benefits American workers and businesses without risking the health and safety of the American people and the environment,” he added.

The sad thing is that due to yet more political bickering, nobody is a bigger winner here than China and OPEC: precisely the two organizations that America should be most concerned about, and not who has how many votes where. But such is the terminal game of political marionettes which we have.

In the meantime, The Ogallala Aquifier will be appreciated in all its pristine beauty by ever more unemployed Americans, whose jobs skills petrify as most they remain without a job for a record 40+ weeks.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: china; energy; keystone; keystonepipeline; obama; ogallala; oil; pipeline
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last
What a pantload. FUBO!!!!!!!!!!!
1 posted on 01/18/2012 1:53:00 PM PST by RobertClark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

If this was via veto...Congress has the power to right it!!


2 posted on 01/18/2012 1:56:23 PM PST by Sacajaweau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark
OBAMA DOESN'T LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD...

OBAMA KEYSTONE, OBAMA KEYSTONE
3 posted on 01/18/2012 1:58:12 PM PST by FrankR (What you resist...PERSISTS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau
If this was via veto...Congress has the power to right it!!

It wasn't via veto. The State Department is rejecting the permit. Thus, Canada has made it abundantly clear that it will sell the Alberta oil to China absent this pipeline to US refiners.

4 posted on 01/18/2012 2:00:01 PM PST by RobertClark ("Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: FrankR
OBAMA DOESN'T LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD...

He does, and he knows what he is doing. He just thinks no one else lives in the real world nor pays attention to what he does, as opposed to what he says he does (except the looney left of his).

5 posted on 01/18/2012 2:01:51 PM PST by b4its2late (Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not sure about the former.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

I thought he was gonna blame the RINO gov (Willard’s friend) of Nebraska...


6 posted on 01/18/2012 2:03:01 PM PST by CainConservative (Newt/Santorum 2012 with Cain, Huck, Petraeus, Parker, Watts, Duncan, & Bachmann in Newt's Cabinet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

email I got from Obamaloons last night:

Thank you for writing. President Obama has heard from many Americans concerning the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project, and we appreciate hearing from you. The President is committed to creating the most open and transparent Government in American history, and values your input. Given your interest in this matter, you may be interested in reading a recent official White House response to a petition on this issue. To learn more, please visit: www.WhiteHouse.gov/Energy. Thank you, again, for writing.

at the point of "open and transparent" , I was laughing so hard, Mrs Wobbly asked what was up.

7 posted on 01/18/2012 2:06:06 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB (Congress: Looting the future to bribe the present.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

Oh, horsefeathers Barry. You are scared to death over losing the enviro vote.


8 posted on 01/18/2012 2:16:34 PM PST by NonValueAdded (Limbaugh: Tim Tebow miracle: "He had atheists praying to God that he would lose.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark
The Ogallala Aquifier will be appreciated in all its pristine beauty

Does "pristine beauty" represent code words for "criss-crossed by many existing pipelines"?


9 posted on 01/18/2012 2:25:36 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thackney

So, Obama made a deal with the Republicans in Congress to get the Payroll Tax Extension and now reneges on it. But didn’t the Republicans drop XL in order to lose the bad press?


10 posted on 01/18/2012 2:36:38 PM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

More than anything, we need to use this Executive Branch decision to be used to do away with the EPA. It is the prime example of a law passed by Congress misused.


11 posted on 01/18/2012 2:38:49 PM PST by bestintxas (Somewhere in Kenya, a Village is missing its Idiot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

Well, we claim romney, mclame, snowe, and collins as repubs, why not 0buth0?


12 posted on 01/18/2012 2:42:34 PM PST by rawcatslyentist (It is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; ~Vattel's Law of Nations)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: massgopguy
So, Obama made a deal with the Republicans in Congress to get the Payroll Tax Extension and now reneges on it.

The republicans forced a 60-day deadline for a decision in the legislation for Payroll Tax Extension. That deadline is Feb 21, 2012.

14 posted on 01/18/2012 2:45:33 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: thackney

This is not photoshopped. On the other side of clinton was nancy pelosi.

15 posted on 01/18/2012 2:46:49 PM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: RobertClark

Obama, or the people who are running him, have made a decisive turn to the left, and have clearly committed to a campaign of racial incitement and the Big Lie.

Based on their success with the Tea Party, I would say they have a very good chance of victory.


16 posted on 01/18/2012 2:47:09 PM PST by Jim Noble ("The Germans: At your feet, or at your throat" - Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: massgopguy
For reference, that 60 day limit was on top of the +3 years this permit has been in the works.

In September 2008, TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP filed an application for a Presidential Permit with the Department of State to build and operate the Keystone XL Project.

It was only AFTER the final Environmental Impact Statement had been issued, after the draft had been approved and subjected to public comment, that they decided the route would not be acceptable, after previously stating it was the best route of the 14 other options.

http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/clientsite/keystonexl.nsf?Open

17 posted on 01/18/2012 2:49:10 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau
If this was via veto...Congress has the power to right it!!

Congress has no concept of what they are dealing with.

Obama, or whoever is running him, has chosen to free the administrative state from the (weak) regulation and supervision of Congress, and Congress is much too scared to say, "boo".

If Articles of Impeachment were not filed within 24 hours of Obama's "recess" appointments occurring while Congress was in session, you can pretty much rest assured that they have read the tea leaves and will not oppose him in any way.

18 posted on 01/18/2012 2:51:39 PM PST by Jim Noble ("The Germans: At your feet, or at your throat" - Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

This is what counts as an "ecologically sensitive" area in the Obama administration.




19 posted on 01/18/2012 2:59:22 PM PST by RC51
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: NonValueAdded
...scared to death over losing the enviro vote.

--------------------------

This Administration is clueless.

Look out Zer0, the hope and change is a coming... and not from you.

Troubled Business-1sm

20 posted on 01/18/2012 3:44:05 PM PST by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson