Make Up Your Mind on Keystone Already!

While giving lip service to the need to create jobs, the President continues to stall on approving the Keystone Pipeline project, which would carry Canadian oil to U.S. refineries. This project promises not only to put people to work but to provide a steady supply of fuel from a friendly republic, allowing us to rely less upon brutal dictatorships abroad for our energy needs.

Nebraska congressman Terry Lee, a member of the Western Congressional Caucus and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, criticizes the President for his dithering on Keystone.

It’s well past time for a decision on Keystone XL. While similar pipelines are regularly approved in 18 to 24 months, Keystone XL is still sitting on the shelf at month 40. If Feb. 21 comes around and Obama has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline is not in our country’s best interest — or if he hasn’t decided anything at all — he will have some serious explaining to do to the American people.

Job creation is certainly among our country’s best interests. With our economy struggling to recover, job creation might just be our top priority. Americans want to work, but while the president twiddles his thumbs in the White House, employment opportunities grow fewer and fewer. Yet, here sits Keystone XL, promising at least 20,000 direct on-site jobs in construction, operations and supporting industries.

That is not a number simply plucked out of the air. Each of those 20,000+ jobs has been accounted for by TransCanada, the company that proposed Keystone XL.

It's hard not to be cynical about the President's decision to not make a decision about this project. It pits two of his major constituencies - environmentalists and labor unions - directly at odds with each other.

No matter what he decides, one or the other of these two groups will not be happy about it. Since he needs the support of both of them in this year's election he is, not surprisingly, attempting to put off the decision until after the election.