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<p>LINCOLN, Neb. – Days after the Obama administration threatened to delay approval of a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico -- angering unions while appeasing environmentalists -- the company seeking to build the pipeline says it's willing to reroute the project to get it back on track.</p>

Canada’s prime minister says he made it clear in a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama that Canada will step up its efforts to sell oil to Asia since the Obama administration delayed a decision on an oil pipeline. ... Harper says the U.S. move highlights why Canada must increase its efforts to diversify its exports to Asia. He says he communicated that clearly to Obama.

In the end, it came down to a conversation between two of the most powerful people in the world. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with President Barack Obama about a pipeline set to run from Alberta’s oil sands down through the U.S. Midwest to reach refineries on the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. ... “It’s blatant politics,” said David Wilkins, former U.S. ambassador to Canada, in an interview Friday. Mr. Wilkins lobbied for Keystone on behalf of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “It’s politics at its worst. It was a move by...

So much for the U.S. being the bastion of free enterprise and respecting due process. With the State Department announcing Thursday it wants to explore alternative routing for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, after the project has been subject to 36 months of review - dutifully following a prescribed process that resulted in thousands of pages of documentation - the U.S. has signalled to the world it is not open for business. Businesses need certainty and transparency to make investment decisions; that has been destroyed with one news release. Read between the lines and things get even more interesting. This announcement...

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that he was looking at exporting more oil to China after the United States delayed a decision on a controversial pipeline. President Barack Obama's administration last week put off a decision on Keystone XL project after a major protest campaign by environmentalists, who say the pipeline would be prone to accidents and worsen climate change. The conservative Canadian leader, taking part in a summit in Hawaii hosted by Obama said the pipeline decision had produced "extremely negative reactions" and that he discussed oil exports with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Thousands of demonstrators marched around the White House this past weekend in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project, which would bring oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to Texan refineries. This is ironic. Environmental groups frequently enlist conservative support for alternative energy by claiming that imported oil from the Middle East is a national security concern, but the demonstrators’ attempt to convince President Obama to deny the necessary permits for this pipeline punctures any illusions that the environmental movement’s infatuation with alternative energy is motivated by a concern about national security. It is estimated by geologists that...

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward LOVE and good deeds. Heb 10:24 The Occubama death camps have overstayed their welcome. Sounds like the mayors of most the cities have tired of the rapes, deaths, drugs and pollution to the point of doing the unthinkable, kicking the Obozo campaign workers out. What now, do they have to go find a job in the obama wasteland? While they are literally starving to death due to self inflicted economic wounds they will protest any elimination of gummit regulation which would alleviate the bleeding. The ABDNC digital megaphones...

Over the past six months, the Keystone XL Pipeline’s prospects have oscillated between probable and unlikely. The current rumors surrounding this project suggest that Obama is going to bow to the insatiable wing of his Party, the Greens, and delay the Keystone pipeline until after the 2012 election. This is a huge mistake. TransCanada has said they will scrap the desperately needed construction project if it is delayed another year—the pipeline has already been pending for three years. With unemployment lingering around nine percent, the country can ill afford to scuttle this economic stimulus. Drawing an arbitrary line in the...

The Solyndra scandal has made the high cost of President Obama’s politicized approach to energy policy a major issue. But with the decision to delay a decision about completing the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada until after the 2012 election, the bankruptcy of this administration’s approach to this issue has been confirmed. As Alana wrote yesterday, Obama has effectively bowed to pressure from environmental groups in order to secure his base heading into his re-election effort. But in doing so, the president has handed the Republicans a club with which to beat him over the course of the next...

Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA, On Delay of Keystone XL Pipeline Construction Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2011) – Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – made the following statement today in response to the U.S. State Department delay of the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline: Environmentalists formed a circle around the White House and within days the Obama Administration chose to inflict a potentially fatal delay to a project that is not just a pipeline, but is a lifeline for thousands of desperate working men and women. The...

The Obama administration on Thursday said it was delaying a decision on the contested Keystone XL pipeline while it studies an alternate route through Nebraska, effectively pushing any action well past the 2012 election and into 2013. The State Department, which announced the decision, has been reviewing the proposed project since 2008 to determine whether it is in the national interest. “As a result of this process, particularly given the concentration of concerns regarding the environmental sensitivities of the current proposed route through the Sandhills area of Nebraska, the department has determined it needs to undertake an in-depth assessment of...

Roughly 20,000 oil industry construction jobs are being thrown under Obama’s 2012 campaign bus, largely because the president needs to pump up his sagging support among the environmentalists. The pitch came Thursday when President Barack Obama put his leadership behind a State Department plan to study alternative routes for the pipeline, which is intended to bring oil from Alberta in Canada to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast. “We should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood,” said Obama’s afternoon statement. The construction jobs, and the revenue from...

The Obama administration will announce Thursday that it is reevaluating the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a move that will likely delay a final decision on the project, sources briefed by the administration said. TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline would carry oil sands crude from Alberta to refineries in Texas. The pipeline has set off a firestorm in Washington, with critics raising environmental concerns and proponents arguing the project will boost the economy. Reuters reported on the decision to reevaluate the pipeline route earlier Thursday. The State Department and the Whte House did not immediately respond to a...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Pushing for everything from natural gas vehicles in state automobile fleets and increased energy production and research to expanding the state’s smart grid and embracing the planned Keystone XL pipeline, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin laid out her broad “Oklahoma First Energy Plan” at Wednesday’s day-long Governor’s Energy Conference. The Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University, along with the Karl F. and June S. Martin Family Foundation and others was joined by corprorate sponsors like BP to support and present this energy conference. Fallin, joined by State Sec. of Energy C. Michael Ming, addressed a large...

The inevitable appears about to take place: The Obama administration is said to be considering a manoeuvre that would save it from having to render a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta until after the presidential election next year. The [external] Los Angeles Times reports: The Obama administration is considering a move that could delay a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline by requiring sponsors to reduce the project’s environmental risks before it can be approved, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations. The step might put off a decision until after the 2012 election...

Not cheering yet? You should be. In all likelihood, you are Big Oil. Nearly half the population holds stock in oil and natural gas companies through pension funds—there are 145 million retirement accounts invested in oil and natural gas companies. The average value of these pension accounts is less than $55,000. 48.6 million American families hold IRAs that are invested in oil and natural gas companies—80 percent of these IRA holders earn $70,000 or less. All in all, corporate management owns 2.8 percent of oil companies; middle class Americans largely own the rest. But Americans looking to retire comfortably aren’t...

One of the holiest words in the Democratic economic lexicon is “infrastructure.” Yet the proposed Keystone XL pipeline represents a big, honking $7 billion, 1,700-mile-long infrastructure project that the Obama administration is delaying and the environmentalists are opposing. If Pres. Barack Obama thinks the country lacks its former economic verve, he need look no farther than the Keystone XL fiasco for a demonstration of one reason why. Keystone XL meets every possible standard. President Obama wants “shovel ready” jobs. The materials to build the pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast are waiting to go. The president rightly notes...

In yet another large, symbolic show of stock celebrities and lively characters, tens of thousands of hand-holding protesters encircled the White House Sunday to express opposition to a proposed transnational oil pipeline. The gathering aimed to demonstrate to President Barack Obama that he has all the support he needs to reject a permit for the Keystone XL, which would flow south from the oil sands of Canada to the refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast — and, along the way, protesters say, potentially threaten the clean water supply of America’s heartland.But the presence of thousands of people outside his house...

In yet another large, symbolic show of stock celebrities and lively characters, tens of thousands of hand-holding protesters encircled the White House Sunday to express opposition to a proposed transnational oil pipeline. The gathering aimed to demonstrate to President Barack Obama that he has all the support he needs to reject a permit for the Keystone XL, which would flow south from the oil sands of Canada to the refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast — and, along the way, protesters say, potentially threaten the clean water supply of America’s heartland.But the presence of thousands of people outside his house...

SPARKS, Okla. – Near a remote, dirt road intersection not far from this Lincoln County community, there are at least five visible cracks in the road, evidence of the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that was centered here late Saturday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Having experienced an earthquake both at Red Dirt Report headquarters in Oklahoma City and another one while visiting Oklahoma State University in Stillwater – all in less than 24 hours, your Red Dirt Reporter, along with RDR contributor Ted H. Smith and photographer Marie Mentesana did our research as to the location of the quake’s...