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The Obama administration is expected to reject the controversial Keystone Pipeline this afternoon, according to Fox News. The State Department is expected to vote against the pipeline this afternoon. Transcanada will however be allowed to reapply with an alternate route going through Nebraska. The administration will be unlikely to approve the pipeline under the timeline for the payroll tax cut extension law which requires a decision by February 21 The project has been extremely controversial for two main reasons. Those in favor of the pipeline point to the 8.5% unemployment rate, and point out that the pipeline could create much-needed...

In a post last month, I noted that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s patience with Obama’s dithering over the Keystone Pipeline in order to pander to the rainbow and unicorn crowd that forms his political base wouldn’t last forever. Harper, I wrote, fully understands what motivates Obama, and it’s not sound energy policy:

When U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue proclaimed that the Keystone XL pipeline would create 250,000 jobs, he touched a nerve in the environmental community. “That’s just not true,” Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s international program, told reporters Friday, calling Donohue’s jobs estimate “wildly inflated.” It’s a familiar refrain from the environmental community, which has been working overtime in recent weeks to counter Republican and industry claims that the 1,700-mile pipeline would create a mini-job boom in the United States. The fight over the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil sands crude from...

Politics: The day after the president announces he would reward businesses that bring jobs into the U.S., the Chamber of Commerce asks: What about the pipeline from Canada that would bring both jobs and energy? The irony was mind-boggling when President Obama addressed a group of business leaders at the White House last Wednesday on his plans to reward "insourcing." "There are workers ready to work right now," he told them. "In the next few weeks, I will put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to bring jobs home and invest in America — and eliminate tax...

(Reuters) - Republicans in the Senate are drafting a bill that would approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, circumventing President Barack Obama who is reluctant to sign off on the project, an aide to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven told Reuters on Wednesday.

The political and environmental debates swirling around the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas miss a crucial point, energy analysts say: The Canadian oil is needed to replace fast-dwindling production from two other major suppliers of oil Mexico and Venezuela. The United States remains the largest consumer of oil in the world, requiring more than 8 million barrels a day of fuel imports to feed its appetite, with nearly half of that coming from oil-rich neighbors in Latin America as recently as 2005. But oil production south of the border has fallen off dramatically, and Canadian...

see link in first post

Greens say President Obama has no choice but to kill Keystone XL pipelineBy Andrew Restuccia - 12/28/11 12:20 PM ET Republicans who lobbied aggressively for a measure to force President Obama to make a speedy decision on the Keystone XL pipeline have ensured the project’s demise, environmental groups say. The activists said Obama will be forced to reject the pipeline — which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast — under a measure in the two-month payroll tax cut extension that requires the administration to make a decision on the project within 60...

Despite the language in the tax package, Obama can kill the project and likely can still delay it. He could reject it based on the national interest argument, or he could give it a thumbs up, but delay it by awaiting a route study. If Obama decides the pipeline is not in the national interest, "it would effectively be the end of the project," said Johnston, although TransCanada would likely still move forward with a smaller leg of the pipeline from the Cushing, Oklahoma oil hub to Texas. Advertise | AdChoices Even if Obama approves it within 60 days, he...

With all the political posturing in Congress over the Keystone XL tar-sands oil pipeline, it’s easy to lose sight of the real issue: This pipeline is dangerous, unnecessary, and would cost the American people far more than we can afford. What we’re watching unfold in Washington, DC, is more than just a high-stakes political power play — it’s a scam undertaken by Big Oil’s congressional puppets on the orders of oil companies that have billions of dollars at stake. The politicians pushing the pipeline are (how can I put this politely?) lying to the American people and pandering for dirty...

Keystone climbdown leaves Obama supporters scratching their headsBy Amie Parnes - 12/17/11 06:54 PM ET President Obama put two conditions in end-game talks on extending the payroll tax holiday. He wanted to pay for the extension with a surtax on millionaires, and he made clear that the Keystone XL oil pipeline should be kept out of the legislation. “Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject,” the president said. “So everybody should be on notice.” In the end, Obama got neither demand. Just a week after saying he would reject a payroll tax...

Senate Democrats say the Obama administration will kill the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, a controversial issue in the debate to extend the payroll tax holiday. Senate leaders on Friday agreed to a two-month backstop measure to extend payroll tax relief, which included House-passed language to expedite a decision on the pipeline's construction. The Senate will vote on the measure Saturday morning. Republicans hailed inclusion of the pipeline provision as a victory, but Democrats said the practical effect of the language would be to kill the project. “They’ve just killed the Keystone pipeline. They killed it because they forced the...

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders reached tentative agreement Friday night on legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for two months while requiring President Obama to accept Republican demands for a swift decision on the fate of an oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs. Senate negotiators agreed to the two-month extension after failing to reach an agreement on extending the tax cut for another year, CBS News Capitol Hill producer John Nolen reports. A vote could be held as early as Saturday on the measure. Any deal would also require House passage before it could reach...

Ready for your Massachusetts IQ test? Which sounds smarter to you: A) Building a pipeline to bring oil from Canada, or B) Continuing to import oil from terror-sponsoring nations like Saudi Arabia. A) Killing jobs in the middle of a recession, or B) Putting 20,000 blue-collar American workers to work. Running for U.S. Senate as, A) The candidate in favor of American jobs and energy independence, or B) As the candidate who opposes them. If you picked A on all of the above, congratulations. You’re smarter than a Harvard professor! And her supporters. Yesterday afternoon, while you were at the...

The State Department has released a statement that is favorable to the Keystone XL pipeline...

The State Department is warning Republicans that forcing a decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline within two months wonÂ’t bring the project approval they're seeking. House Republicans are including a provision in payroll tax cut legislation that would require State to issue a permit for the proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline within 60 days, unless the president determines that itÂ’s not in the national interest. Senate GOP leaders are also pushing the Keystone provision. But a State spokesman said Monday that the 60-day time frame would leave the administration unable to issue the permit for TransCanada Corp.Â’s proposed $7...

Jobs: The president says that extending unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut will create more jobs than an oil pipeline from Canada. There are at least 20,000 members of the 99% who would disagree. You can see why the economy is in trouble. Vice President Joe Biden, the stimulus sheriff, says he turned first to MF Global's Jon Corzine for economic advice and President Obama thinks 20,000 people getting extended unemployment benefits does more for the economy than 20,000 people getting paychecks to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. In the president's view, extending the payroll tax cuts...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: From TheHill.com: "A pending legislative package to extend the payroll tax credit and unemployment insurance will create more jobs than the approval of the Keystone pipeline, Obama said yesterday. 'Here's what I know,' he said. 'However many jobs might be generated by the pipeline, they're going to be a lot fewer than the jobs created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.'" In fact, here's the president saying that. This was this morning, actually, in Washington talking about this. OBAMA: I know that, eh -- the -- the suggestion right now is that somehow,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I have a theory. We're going this payroll tax business. Folks, let me tell you something. Obama announced yesterday after meeting with the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, that he's gonna veto any bill that extends the payroll tax cut if the bill lifts his ban on the Keystone pipeline. Now, all we've heard for the last several weeks is how vital this whopping 2% payroll tax cut extension is to the preservation of the middle class. They even have a countdown clock at the White House. Days, hours, minutes until the middle class experience a...

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama delayed until after the 2012 election the decision on whether to proceed with construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, designed to transport crude oil extracted from oil sands formations in Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Environmental activists have long criticized the project, but National Review columnist Mark Steyn argued that by putting off the decision, the White House is demonstrating poor judgment and twisted priorities. During an appearance last week on “The Source” with Ezra Levant on the Sun News Network in Canada, Steyn criticized the Obama administration for putting...