"Last month a bi-partisan majority in Congress passed legislation demanding a decision on the pipeline within 60 days. Congress took this unusual step because the Obama White House said it would wait until after the 2012 elections to make a decision. The administration now claims it is denying approval because it can't make an informed decision in 60 days. But according to the Wall Street Journal, "The U.S. government has been reviewing the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline since 2008."
So this project has been under government review for four years -- that's 1,460 days -- and Obama still can't give us an answer? We developed the atomic bomb in less time. We built the Empire State Building in less time. The Hoover Dam took less than five years to build.
But Obama just can't bring himself to approve a pipeline that would provide America with oil from Canada and create tens of thousands of jobs in the process -- even when his own advisors recommend it. He rejects the one really "shovel ready" project on his desk while spending billions on failed alternative energy companies.
Why would Obama do this? Because the radical environmentalist movement has made the Keystone pipeline a litmus test issue. They have drawn a "line in the sand" on the use of "dirty" tar sands oil.
But the oil will be used. The pipeline will be built -- going west, instead of south, to load the oil on Chinese tankers. China desperately wants it. In fact, the Chinese are already aggressively buying up interests in Canada's tar sands and Prime Minister Harper is headed to China next month. According to Canadian news reports, "A decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to delay approval for a major pipeline expansion through the country led to Harper talk about finding other customers for Canadian oil."
By the way, petroleum analysts are warning that 2012 could be "the most painful year at the pump that we have ever seen."
My friends, let me remind you what President Obama's former National Security Advisor, Gen. Jim Jones, said last month about the failure of this administration to develop a serious energy policy:
"If we get to the point where we cannot bring ourselves to do what is in our national interest, then we are clearly in a period of decline… A nation that fails to secure the energy its citizens and its economic engine need to keep functioning leaves itself vulnerable to external contingencies in a dangerous and uncertain world and to the whims of foreign leaders and other actors who may not always have its interests at heart.""
Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families
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