Posted on 03/24/2013 2:35:48 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Just FYI, President Obama is officially the last man standing in the trumped-up battle over the Keystone XL pipeline’s construction; the state of Nebraska, the State Department, the House, and now even the Democrat-controlled Senate have all given the project very much on-the-record green lights. As fond as the president is of intoning on the need for bipartisanship and of imploring Congress to come together and really do some stuff, there’s finally bipartisan agreement on the pipeline from all sides and he just can’t take yes for an answer:
The Senate on Friday voted 62-37 to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in an amendment to Senate budget.
Sen. John Hoeven’s (R-N.D.) amendment was largely symbolic, but served as a clear statement that the Senate backs the pipeline.
“It puts the Senate on record in support of the Keystone pipeline project. And that’s just appropriate,” Hoeven said. “The Department of State has done four environmental impact statements over the last five years — four — and said there are no significant environmental impacts. And it’s time that we in the Senate stepped up with the American people.”
All Republicans voted in favor. The Democrats who supported the measure were Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Tom Carper (Del.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Chris Coons (Del.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Joe Manchin (W. Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.).
Again, I’m inclined to think that the most probable reason for Obama’s ongoing noncommittal attitude is because they’re cooking up some big Climate-Change-Championing scheme with which to assuage the eco-radical crowd and maintain his environmentalist creds to introduce around the same time as the pipeline’s ultimate approval (something in the same vein as his recent “I’m trying to please everyone, so let’s drill more oil and use the revenue to get off of oil”-initiative, but bigger and even more partisan).
Our esteemed Green Knight in Recyclable Armor mused yesterday that the “time has come” for a carbon tax at last — is that what the Obama administration is up to?
Why is it ok to import oil from Canada by pipeline and it is not ok to drill and use our own abundant oil?
Our oil is cleaner and cost a lot less to obtain and move to the refinerys.
So just what is keeping us from using our own oil?
Watching the timing of this. Will Obama pull the pocket veto bit??
posted at 11:31 am on March 2, 2013 by Jazz Shaw
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There must be some fans of The Walking Dead at the White House and the DNC these days, because there are apparently some bad ideas which never die, no matter how many stakes you drive through them. One of these is the carbon tax, not so subtly invoked during the State of the Union address, and now making a comeback with some of the usual list of suspects in Congress. But this time it may be coming with a twist. You want your Keystone XL pipeline and all of the jobs, opportunity and energy advantages it offers? Well show us the money.
Having failed to lower the sea levels in his first term, President Obama, in the first SOTU of his second term, highlighted the need for fighting climate change and proposed an Energy Security Trust Fund to siphon off money from those who actually produce abundant and useable energy to fund alternative energy sources which constitute a rounding error in the percent of energy produced by various sources.
Two days later, Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., dutifully introduced carbon tax legislation to put the nail in the coffin of those fossil fuels President Obama blamed for causing Superstorm Sandy, droughts and floods, stopping just short of a plague of locusts.
The bill would impose a $20-per-ton fee on so-called carbon polluters allegedly driving climate change.
The timing certainly is curious – assuming you slept through the last decade that is – but the national appetite for a carbon tax doesn’t seem to be there, thankfully. With the price of natural gas remaining low and availability high, combined with discoveries of increasing domestic oil deposits, people in a struggling economy can see the benefits waiting in the wings. Businesses who provide most of the jobs in the country are paying attention as well.
Manufacturing is a key driver of the Dayton-area economy and industry insiders say a carbon tax would hurt a fragile recovery.
“I just think that it’s national suicide,” said Greg Knox, CEO of Franklin-based Knox Machinery. “In talking to my customers, we’re just appalled by the fact the government would choose to consider some of this legislation in light of how many problems we have now in our economy.”
The GOP has managed to get kicked around in the polls pretty badly lately on issues from gun control to the sequester. It might be time to shift the conversation a bit and get back the high ground by focusing on something where there’s a clear majority in favor of their positions. The pipeline and opposition to any form of national carbon tax could be a couple of good places to start.
Build the damn pipeline, with or without 0bama!
It won’t be approved. His EPA/Dept Int or whatever, will kill it.
See the updates regarding what Obama might be up to!
Looks like my area will once again get spared the heavy snows. Only a few inches at most are projected. The mid Atlantic states sure have had their share of snow this year.
The EPA is done ih heir work. That’s not where it’s at.
At the moment, the State Department is studying it. I guess they’ll just have to study it a little harder—and a little longer.
It hasn’t gotten to Jean Kerri’s desk yet. I believe that Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for the Oceans, is working on it.
No, I take that back. It doesn’t go to straight to Jean Kerri until it has been approved by Kerri-Ann’s boss, the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.
the asshole in chief
I thought the State Department had rendered their finding.
Thanks Ernest.
Where’s it at, now?
I’m not sure about that. On March 1 the State Department said that they couldn’t find anything unduly damaging to the environment, but I thought they said it needed further study. I could be wrong.
I think it will be denied. The way coal has been treated the last few year makes this deal a no go. Instead they will ship the oil intrastate by train. The first clue to me was the recent deal by Kinder Morgan to ship by train.
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