Pressure mounting on Obama over pipeline decision

Chicago Tribune ^ | December 1, 2012 | JOSH LEDERMAN

[Cincinatus' Wife]

President Barack Obama faces mounting pressure on a decision he had put off during his re-election campaign: whether to approve the $7 billion proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline between the U.S. and Canada.

........................Estimates for how many jobs the pipeline would create range from a few thousand up to 20,000 or more. At 36 inches in diameter, the pipeline will have an initial capacity of 700,000 barrels a day. That's significant, because demand for oil and gas pipelines is expected to surge over the next four years, according to a November report by The Freedonia Group, a market research firm.

A TransCanada spokesman said the company expects a decision by the State Department, which is tasked with determining whether the pipeline is in the national interest, in the first quarter of 2013, and hopes to start construction on the upper portion shortly thereafter. The longer the decision drags on, the less realistic that timeline appears to be.

Officials in Nebraska are close to completing their own study of the revised route, with a public hearing planned for Dec. 4 ahead of a final decision by Gov. Dave Heineman.

[Sacajaweau]

Has he figured out yet that jobs mean tax income for the government AND stimulating the econmy??

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He’s not into stimulating the economy, he’s about de-developing the U.S. and leveling the global playing field.

[ClearCase_guy]

There is no pressure.

The election is over. He won.

He now has flexibility and he will do the things he wants to do, and will not do the things he does not want to do. The opinions of others do not matter.

[Squawk 8888]

Canada Ping!

[deweyfrank]

He’ll never approve it. He needs to award his buddy Warren Buffet for services rendered. Buffet now uses his rail holdings to ship that oil.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

His goal is the make the US defenseless against our enemies, totally smash the historic power structure that made the US successful and the envy of the world, install tyranny, and make every citizen a subject of the government. A pipeline would result in lower priced energy which is antithetical to his goals.

[Baynative]

Obama feels no pressure about anything. He is bullet proof and has pigmentation immunity to all complaints or opposition.

[Starboard]

Absolutely right! His agenda is to de-develop the U.S., establish massive government control, and burden it with crippling debt. The only thing transparent about this administration is its complete disdain for this country. To me that is patently obvious.

[CodeToad]

I still can’t figure out how the federal government can tell a state they cannot put a pipeline through their State.

[gusopol3]

Closing the 16 million acres to drilling a day after the election was to reassure his foreign (Arab) donors he is going to be shutting down production of oil and gas in this country. This term can’t be Obama 2 or Carter 3; it has to be Nixon 2— constant probing and investigating the corruption.

[Kenny]

Gosh GOP, get the word out there! Tell the people how many jobs this will cost or how much it increases our dependence on a volatile Middle East.

Where the hell are these people? I don’t ever see any arguments in the public eye. Starting to think it’s all one big cabal and there’s truly no hope.

[NotTallTex]

Has anyone noticed that now that the election is over, gas prices are rising again?

[Kenny]

And why is this all up to one man? Where’s checks & balances that one guy can cancel oil leases or not allow the pipeline.

This is truly a dictatorship if we have to rely on one guy for our every need. Get a spine, Congress!

[who knows what evil?]

I still can’t figure out how the federal government can tell a state they cannot put a pipeline through their State.

Just build the damn thing...let the feds send in troops to stop them...one 'man' should not be allowed to hold our citizens hostage.

[knarf]

The "states" are afraid of blue helmets or black gangs

Google Chicago ... they kill without impunity there.

[ClearCase_guy]

That's the old way of thinking. Once upon a time, the people had rights and the states had rights. The federal government had little real power. Then they found out that through things like the Commerce Clause and the popular election of senators, the federal government could basically have complete control of everything.

At all levels of society, we now need a "Mother May I?" from the feds. An oil pipeline? The state through which the pipeline will pass has no say in that matter.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The last thing President Cloward-Piven wants is cheap energy or an improving economy.

His ONLY goal is to "overwhelm the system."

Once you accept that, you understand everything he does, and can predict what he will do in any given situation.

In other words, there will be no Keystone XL pipeline.

[kenmcg]

Bottom line.....Obama doesn’t want anything good for the country. He’s running the country into bankruptcy. He hates the idea that we have been #1 for so many years, as he attributes this to our so called taking advantage of third world countries.He wants us to be on an equal basis with the 3rd world.Recall that one of his first things he did when assuming the POTUS was to send back to GB the bust of Winston Churchill. Bam hates Britain for its colonialism especially re. his beloved Kenya.

[cardinal4]

I work in the pipeline industry as a contract radiographer. The 20k job claim is low balling it. The ancillary jobs created alone could top 10k. Support services from hotels, to surveyors, to welders and scaffold builders (just a few different entities) are what make that 20k guess low. Truly something for every trade and walk of life. Which means the Kenyan Islamic communist will probably deny it. It benefits Big Oil..