Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity

Washington Post ^ | 1/19/2012 | By Robert J. Samuelson

[tobyhill]

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.

Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.

Now consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil.

[One_American]

I got the map here.

Not sure why that would be. I saw another map briefly on TV the other day. I was far from the screen and the map was small but it looked like a giant blob of red across the entire country. The middle section was completely covered.

[WOBBLY BOB]

the good news is the Electricy Fairy at Disney World promised Obama today to up her output to compensate for the decrease of coal and oil.

[KC Burke]

Many of the news stories on TV have been showing the vast grid map of ALL pipelines in the nation. That is a giant spiderweb of red lines.

Your link shows many already in place pipelines.

The Keystone and the alternate additional route are shown here:
http://casualmereluxeeco.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/map-of-keystone-pipeline-and-addition.jpg?w=640

[One_American]

Thanks KC. My point of posting the map was to show that many pipelines already do exist. How could constructing this one more be so controversial? Just another load of crap from this administration.

[ozzymandus]

I don’t think it’s insanity. I think it’s a combination of treason and stupidity.

[KC Burke]

You are right. There are a lot of pipelines and also the distribution and feeder lines that come off for the utilities.

This is all the zero growth greenies that want no oil transported or refined. Obama is just a shill, a stalking horse if you will, for every leftist notion out there in la-laa land.

[TheOldLady]

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[sheikdetailfeather]

"No. It’s a cold, sober, considered, calculated act of sabotage and treason."

That deserved repeating.