The announcement that the Keystone XL oil pipeline will be the first order of business for the new Republican Senate was especially welcome news since President Obama again revealed his ignorance of the oil market during his Dec. 19, press conference.
The Keystone XL pipeline will be the first order of business for the Republican-led Senate next month. (KDLT.com)
Continuing his “good for Canadian oil companies, but not a benefit to U.S. consumers” line, he fails to mention that Bakken Shale in North Dakota will also utilize the pipeline. And he also seems to dismiss the jobs that will be created along the route.
“We’d have thought he’d have picked up at least some basic knowledge about the dismal science (economics) in his six years in the White House,” the Wall Street Journal editorialized. They criticized his view on the global market, saying “it doesn’t seem to pass the basic supply-demand test.”
I have observed the president’s position on Keystone and the oil supply for years, as he took credit for drilling on private lands while nixing federal land drilling. And I saw him bow to environmentalists on Keystone while misrepresenting emission facts.
While there were rumors that he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline after the mid-term elections, his comments in Burma and again at the G-20 summit in Australia were more of the same blather.
“Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else,” he said during his Nov. 14, Burma press conference.
Two days later, In Brisbane, Australia, he said, “I won’t hide my opinion about this, which is that one major determinant of whether we should approve a pipeline shipping Canadian oil to world markets, not to the United States, is it does contribute to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change?”
The Washington Post gave the president three Pinocchio’s for his uneducated, simplified statements, while reporting that Gulf Coast refineries, including the modernized Valero refinery, were eagerly awaiting the crude. The lighter crude from the Bakken and Eagle Ford Shales would be available to export onto the global oil market.
Movement of oil via pipeline presents a fraction of the danger involved in shipping oil by rail. Emissions from the pipeline would be less than that from rail shipments. (chicagotribune.com)
“If global supplies increase, all other things being equal, the global oil price would fall for everyone, “said the Wall Street Journal, “including American consumers.”
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised an open discussion on energy amendments to Keystone, showing that Republicans are ready to change the way the Senate has been operating.
If a bill passes Congress, will the president sign it? With taxpayers experiencing lower prices at the pump, he just might believe he can continue to stonewall.
