Ballsy Move, President Obama

In the fight over the payroll tax cuts, the Republicans demanded that President Obama expedite the decision over the Keystone XL pipeline, claiming the pipeline would create 100s of thousands of jobs. At the time, the State Department argued that a decision could not be rushed because enviromental impact studies would not be completed then. Nebraska went into an uproar over the placing of the pipeline and made political moves to find a new compromise site.

Keystone XL would stretch from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas, bringing the tar sands oil to port. Environmentalists claim this would be an disaster because it would run through our agricultural lands,which also produce our leading exports in terms of foodstuffs. They argued that the pipeline would threaten the regional water supplies of the Midwest and sensitive habitats. The problem is that environmentalists know the record already of the pipeline's route to the Pacific in wilderness areas of British Colombia. What President Obama wanted was a study of alternative roots to avoid sensitive habitats and the water issue. But the GOP demanded he expedite the decision.

If you missed it, our oil industry went to the White House and literally threatened President Obama as if he were a Third World ruler. Basically, they said if he didn't approve the pipeline," he would face "huge political consequences". Over the past few months,the oil industry has run countless ads saying that the Keystone XL pipeline would generate hundreds of thousands of jobs, a theme picked up by House Republicans,especially John Boehner, who has substantial investments in the partner companies of the project.

For me, there are a few other odd facts of the project. The Chinese government owns a substantial piece of at least two of the major companies involved. The other issue is that the United States would not receive any of the oil from the pipeline. The whole idea was to ship it out of Texas for export to Europe and Latin America. I read one industry estimate that gas prices in the Midwest would rise as a result of the project. I have no idea how that can be. And, of course, everybody's favorite polluters are involved: The Koch Brothers.

So if no oil,then the idea is that it can create scores of high-paying permanent jobs. One report said that it would destroy more jobs than it created. Another more modest report from the State Department claimed it would create 1,500-2,500 new permanent jobs. But no report shows it will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Politically,President Obama knew he would be giving the Republicans a weapon to use against him. They already were warned when they insisted on the expediting of the project that they basically had killed it because none of the appropriate reports would be done in time. More substantial is the threat of the oil industry--in this age where financial interests control our political life--to wage holy war on the President.

Since President Obama wouldn't be around when the pipeline turns out to be a disaster, he could have done the easiest thing and approved it. But he did the right thing and refused to approve the Pipeline in the time requested. This will also be a blow to the Harper Government in Canada, which had been pressuring the Obama Administration.

The President did the gutsy thing and made a decision in the public interest. Months ago I was worried about the XL process when it became known that the environmental impact report had been done by the American Petroleum Institute.

Now we wait the faux outrage.