Go figure.
7 Years In and the Public Still Wants Keystone XL Pipeline Built http://t.co/SFd31msVdl pic.twitter.com/I6b8H1XIhq
— Sean Hackbarth (@seanhackbarth) September 19, 2015
68% of registered voters in that particular poll. Not that the neo-Luddite religious fanatics opposing Keystone care about what the voters think, of course. In fact, it probably just stiffens their resolve. 2017 can’t come fast enough…
Moe Lane
Barack Obama was literally too afraid to show his face after vetoing Keystone.
As expected: the President has decided to side with environmentalists over blue-collar unions (and the rest of the country, mind you) by vetoing the bipartisan Keystone Pipeline bill. But did Barack Obama at least do so publicly, to great fanfare? Since this is so important, after all? Of course he didn’t. That would imply moral courage. Nah, Barack Obama did so with his head down and as timidly as he dared – and these days, Barack Obama can dare to be pretty darn timid.
“The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously,” Obama said in a brief notice delivered to the Senate. “But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people.”
Obama vetoed the bill in private with no fanfare, in contrast to the televised ceremony Republican leaders staged earlier this month when they signed the bill and sent it to the president. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans were “not even close” to giving up the fight and derided the veto as a “national embarrassment.”
Continue reading Barack Obama’s exquisitely timid Keystone Pipeline veto.
It only took three relentless Congressional electoral cycles to get Barack Obama to admit it, too. Not that the administration wants to admit it, even now. They just ran out of options:
The White House on Tuesday for the first time issued a veto threat over Republican-backed legislation to approve the Keystone pipeline, setting up a likely showdown between President Obama and the GOP-controlled Congress in the coming weeks.
“If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday, stressing that the president wants to wait for a State Department review process to finish.
Free translation: President Barack Obama thinks that your heating and gasoline bills are far too low as it is, and God forbid that either should get any lower! – Certainly that’s what Obama’s rich, indeed fat-cat hardcore Green buddies think*; and it turns out that they speak much more loudly in the President’s ear than can, say, blue collar unions**. Not that anybody was really expecting anything different, but now we can spend the next two years hammering home just who the President thinks is worth his time and attention. Spoiler warning: there are entire factions of the Democratic party that don’t measure up to Obama’s rather arrogant standards, and they’re not going to enjoy discovering that. Continue reading It’s official: the Obama administration hates it when you have cheap Keystone oil.
A colleague suggests that Mary Landrieu is beyond DOOM, in fact.
Yup. Senator Mary Landrieu’s last, desperate leap for safety came up short: the Keystone Pipeline bill that Rep. Bill Cassidy championed in the House went down in the Senate. 59-41, of course: Harry Reid ends his career as Senate Majority Leader as he began it. Which is to say, by toadying to the rather disassociated, yet hardcore partisan, establishment figures that run the Democratic party these days. Continue reading Keystone: Failed. LA-SEN runoff: …DOOM.
That’s one way to put it, at least:
The House on Friday passed legislation to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, setting the stage for a showdown in the Senate next week.
The legislation was approved 252-161, with 31 Democrats joining Republicans in backing a construction permit for the controversial project, which would bring oil sands from Canada to refineries in the United States.
…although I should note that the term ‘controversial’ is, well, controversial: basically, the most progressive Democrats out there hate the thing, largely because they don’t like Americans to have cheap energy*. Everybody else thinks that the idea is just swell; unfortunately – for the Democrats – the aforementioned progressives made a better offer. Short-term thinking for the win! Continue reading Keystone bill passes House: eyes now turn to Senate.
The Foster’s Daily Democrat minces no words:
Sen. Shaheen has been tagged by Republicans with the dubious honor of siding with the Obama Administration 98 percent of the time. Even if we grant this is an oversimplification of her voting record, Sen. Shaheen is unquestionably one of the president’s faithful. That being the case, she will have to answer for her de facto boss’ actions (or inactions) during this off-year election cycle.
Those actions include running away from Keystone for political gain.
Bolding mine. Despite the name, the paper is generally considered to be Republican-leaning, or possibly just Republican; it’s certainly not been shy about criticizing the current administration*. So this is not DOOM by any means for Jeanne Shaheen. But what it is is an indication that the only reason why Barack Obama’s going to get away with a delaying action on Keystone at this point is because he’s not actually running for re-election. Those members of his party who do have to run in November do not have that luxury. They will get pressed on the subject. Continue reading New Hampshire paper slams Jeanne Shaheen for Keystone cowardice.
Mind you, I want the unions to win this one. After they’ve gone round and round with the Greenies a few more times. Which is horribly partisan of me; then again, so is everybody else.
A letter distributed Friday by the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) to the districts of 27 House Democrats calls for union members to make sure their representative “feels the power and the fury of LIUNA this November.”
Their crime: signing a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last month urging him to reject Keystone, which would carry oil sands from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
What makes this particularly savory is that the Congressmen involved are hardcore progressives; the letter is hard to find, but what lists I’ve seen of signatories suggest that they’re not too used to intra-party squabbles of this sort. This is free media that can’t particularly splash back on us, in other words; and there’s going to be hurt feelings among our political opponents either way. Pass the popcorn.
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.
Continue reading “Hey, America! You want some good infrastructure jobs and more oil?” #keystone
Some people might think that this news might disappoint me, given that I am of course a partisan hack.
Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana will probably become the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee early next year, giving the gavel to a lawmaker with deep ties to home-state oil producers and refiners. The shift stems from President Barack Obama’s nomination of Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana to be U.S. ambassador to China, and the likelihood that the current energy panel chairman, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, will replace Baucus at the head of the Senate Finance Committee.
[snip]
The energy committee’s top Republican, Lisa Murkowski, hails from another oil and gas producing state, Alaska. That may improve chances for bipartisan alliances around industry priorities such as expanded exports of natural gas sought by Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG:US) and Dominion Resources (D:US) Inc., as well as TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Continue reading Mary Landrieu expected for Energy chair, #Keystone approval, defeat in re-election.
Because George W Bush is a sensible man.
Former President George W. Bush said building the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is a “no-brainer” for economic growth.
“I think the goal of the country ought to be, ‘How do we grow the private sector?’ ” Bush said at a Pittsburgh luncheon with energy executives, according to DeSmog Blog.
“If private-sector growth is the goal and Keystone pipeline creates 20,000 new private-sector jobs, build the damn thing,” Bush said.
Via The Daily Caller. Note that I deliberately removed the link to DeSmog Blog: I actually don’t have problems with religious fundamentalists per se, but radical Greenie-Gaian theocrats are simply intolerable at any level of interaction.
Moe Lane
PS: Yes, I downgraded it to ‘Darn’ in the title. RedState is a family site and its RTs should reflect that.