“Hey, America! You want some good infrastructure jobs and more oil?” #keystone

What’s that, America?

Support for the Keystone XL pipeline reached a two-year high in the latest ABC News/ Washington Post poll, with the public overwhelmingly saying it would create jobs, while dividing on its potential environmental impact.

Two-thirds favor government approval of the 1,700-mile, $5.4 billion pipeline to move oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, up 6 points from 2012, vs. two in 10 opposed. Eighty-five percent think it would create jobs, with 62 percent feeling that way strongly – up 11 percentage points.

Why, that sounds like an excellent notion, I hear America say?  Well, I agree with America.  Two problems, though.  One, the President does not think that creating a bunch of infrastructure jobs in order to increase access to Canadian oil is a no-brainer: he is, in fact, sufficiently in thrall to the energy-hating, job-hating, and frankly kind 0f Western Civilization-hating radicals in the environmental movement as to tacitly oppose the Keystone XL pipeline with every bureaucratic weapon in the government’s arsenal.  Two, Barack Obama is too much of a cowa… ah, is reluctant to support said radicals in public (and more importantly, the public record).

Yeah, I don’t know if that’s actually a better way to put it, either.

Seriously, though: I know that this administration hates having to make tough calls, but this is one of them.  Either Barack Obama can outrage the blue collar unions who would most benefit from a construction project of this size, or he can outrage the environmentalists who have gotten the bit in their teeth and decided that the pipeline cannot be allowed to go forward.  One or the other.  There’s no way to make both happy.

And since it turns out that America itself is on the side of the unions of this one, well…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: One fun note about the poll: it’s of adults.  Imagine the opinions of likely voters (spoiler warning: they won’t be less supportive).