In his State of the Union speech President Barack Obama effectively tried to take credit for rising U.S. oil and gas production and lower gasoline prices as if to refute the polls that report that the country seems to have the opposite view—the country is not moving in the right direction.
Never mind that his Administration has thrown up one roadblock or regulation after another to the use of fossil fuels.
“At this moment—with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry and booming energy production—we have risen from recession, freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,” he said. “We are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years,” the President said without betraying the slightest bit of perceived irony.
This was right before he threatened to veto the Keystone XL pipeline even while calling for more infrastructure spending to improve our economic competitiveness. He urged business to bring jobs and revenue home from overseas—then campaigned for even higher taxes on capital gains and those who are above average earners—the exact opposite.
Mr. Obama would reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline because it would be used to ship oil from Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. “Let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline,” Mr. Obama said. Maybe his staff should tell him that we already have the world most integrated energy infrastructure and that Keystone XL not only helps keep the Canadians in that system but gives the US and other nations the global export benefits of one the most efficient energy transportation systems anywhere.
But a veto of Keystone XL effectively tells Canada it no longer has reliable market access to the US energy infrastructure to rely upon to gain access to world markets. Environmental objections to Keystone XL have all but been rejected by the US State Department and other Federal Agencies desperate to find some excuse the president could use to plausibly veto the project.
A veto of Keystone opens the door for the Canadians to build three times the amount of new pipelines to build Canadian-only exports access to both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts as an alternative. How in God’s green earth is that more environmentally friendly—the president ought to tell his anti-fossil fuel base.
Congress should approve the Keystone XL pipeline and dare the president to veto it. If he does, then the markets are poised for payback when the president gets the the blame for rising oil and gasoline prices (that are likely to come before the end of his term in all probability). Keystone XL won’t have anything to do with it—that’s been the point all alone—Keystone helps make the integrated North American energy infrastructure—already the envy of the world—even more flexible.
Congress should add approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to the fast track trade negotiation bill the President wants to finish another legacy project—the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. They belong together because Keystone XL helps North America strengthen its exports to Asia—just what the president said he wanted—infrastructure that creates jobs to expand business and exports that brings revenue home.