Organizing For Freedom

(The piece below outlines my assertion that the President is intentionally striving to make fossil fuels scarce and expensive. The author, Thomas Pyle, of the American Energy Alliance goes deeper and more eloquently into the subject.)

One of the reasons the unemployment rate has been stuck above 8 percent for years is because the Obama administration is actively blocking the private sector from creating jobs. Approving the Keystone XL pipeline, now in its third year of review, would have gone a long way toward boosting American job creation and strengthening our energy security. But the President prefers the politics of energy poverty and has sided with environmentalist radicals over hardworking Americans and their families.

The decision for the president should have been simple because the question is simple—is a pipeline from Canada to the United States in the “national interest?” Precisely what part of stable oil supplies, tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and strengthening trade with our closest ally is not in the national interest?

Apparently, that’s not good enough for the Obama administration. Somewhere along the way, it seems, the president has misunderstood the difference between what is good for America and what is good for the special interests that support him and staff his favorite lobbying groups.

The opponents of the Keystone XL claim that the pipeline would be an environmental catastrophe, yet the Obama administration’s extensive environmental review found otherwise. In fact, the State Department’s environmental studies confirmed what we knew from the beginning—that a new pipeline would have a limited environmental impact, much less so than transport by barge, truck, or railcar. That pipelines have a limited environmental impact is one of the reasons we have more than 50,000 miles of crude oil pipelines in the U.S. already.

Another common complaint is that a pipeline will increase greenhouse gas emissions. This argument only makes sense, however, if the oil were to stay in the ground forever. But as Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of the

President Obama today chose his re-election prospects over the welfare of thousands of American workers who would have built the XL pipeline.

Obama blamed his action on the fact that the environmental impact of the pipeline had not yet been determined. This is preposterous since another pipeline from the same Canadian source is already in place and brings oil from the north to Oklahoma each day.

This pipeline has been studied from every angle and discussed at length by dozens of governmental departments. The job was ready to go and waiting only for the federal OK. Estimates were that the pipeline construction would have provided around 120,000 jobs immediately and up to 300,000 in the near future.

But environmental activists, who give Obama and the Democratic Party huge amounts of campaign cash, did not want the pipeline. Obama tried to delay any decision until after the election. But, when the Republicans tied the decision on the pipeline to the extension of the payroll tax, he was placed in a tough spot. Unions wanted the pipeline and the high-paying jobs it would produce. The greenies wanted nothing to do with the filthy dirty oil that it would bring and possibly delay the conversion to greener energy sources such as solar and wind power. This despicable liquid would kill the flora and fauna and pollute the nation’s drinking water. This is the same old environmental wacko mantra.

Unable to please both sides, Obama did what he does best. He shoved the blame for the decision off onto the State Department and made up the excuse that it hadn’t been studied thoroughly enough.

The whole situation boils down to this…Obama says that it is too much of a risk to do this project that would cost the US taxpayers not one cent and would produce thousands of jobs and the accompanying income taxes. Yet, he can use taxpayer money to make several loans of 500,000 to 1.2 million dollars to various solar companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy.

This is just another cap and trade ploy. It is a movement to drive up the price of oil until it reaches heights that are not financially feasible. Then, hopefully, the public will be forced to turn to alternative fuels that are not yet ready for mass marketing and not currently financially feasible either. It was his announced plan to do this before his election. But, people were so busy being snake-charmed by his dazzling smile and his message of hope and change that it mattered little to them.

Well, folks, you got your change and unless we drive such thinking from Washington soon there will be no hope.