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Rushing Keystone XL Decision Means No Pipeline

By caheidelberger on 2011.12.17

Hat tip to NWF's Jeremy Symons!

Thursday's GOP debate in Sioux City gave Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann a chance to express their support for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso perpetuates the lie that speeding the Keystone XL decision will speed the creation of 20,000 pipeline jobs (again: 20,000 is TransCanada's own number; that number is bogus, bogus, bogus). Senator John Thune is accusing President Obama of breaking arms to keep Congress from rushing the Keystone XL permit process.

But hey, Big Oil Republicans! You want to rush the Keystone XL? You want to force the State Department to issue a final ruling before it has a chance to review all the details? Go ahead, make my day:

In determining whether a permit is in the national interest, this process requires consideration of a myriad of factors, including environmental and safety issues, energy security, economic impact, and foreign policy, as well as consultation with at least 8 federal agencies and inputs from the public and stakeholders - including Congress.

The State Department has led a rigorous, thorough, and transparent process that must run its course to obtain the necessary information to make an informed decision on behalf of the national interest. Should Congress impose an arbitrary deadline for the permit decision, its actions would not only compromise the process, it would prohibit the Department from acting consistently with National Environmental Policy Act requirements by not allowing sufficient time for the development of this information. In the absence of properly completing the process, the Department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit for this project [State Department, response to briefing question, 2011.12.12].

Rush the decision, and the President has to deny the permit. It would be irresponsible and illegal to approve the pipeline without gathering all information and hearing all stakeholders first. Just as would have happened if Kristi Noem would have had her way last summer, forcing a hasty, ignorant decision forces State to say no to Keystone XL. And that's a win for American landowners, people and livestock who drink water, and those of us who recognize we need to focus on conserving oil, not burning more of it up.

p.s.: President Obama may be taking this argument to heart, backing away from the threat to veto the coupling of the Keystone XL rush with the payroll tax cut extension.

pp.s.: Jon Huntsman likes Keystone XL, but in response to the pipeline question in Thursday's debate, he also mentioned his desire to "disrupt the oil monopoly."

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caheidelberger

7 Comments

  1. Kelly Fuller 2011.12.17

    That State Department message is a masterpiece of DC-speak, with multiple interpretations possible.

  3. Owen 2011.12.17

    From Factcheck.org. How the truth can be twisted.

    Bachmann criticized President Obama’s decision to delay the Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the president’s efforts to appease “radical environmentalists” came at the expense of building a pipeline “that would have brought at least 20,000 jobs.” But that jobs figure is inflated.

    That jobs estimate — widely cited by proponents of the pipeline — comes from a report commissioned by the company pushing the pipeline, and it is based on “person-year” jobs, the equivalent of one full-time job for one year. If the same person works the same job for two years, it is counted as two person-year jobs. The State Department in August estimated the number of direct jobs created by the Keystone pipeline at a much more modest 5,000 to 6,000.

    Last month, FactCheck.org corrected Bachmann’s claim in a Nov. 22 debate that President Obama had “canceled” the oil pipeline from Canada. In fact, the Keystone XL pipeline extension has been delayed, not canceled, to give the government time to review an alternative route proposed to avoid Nebraska’s sensitive Sandhills area.

    In making her pitch during the Fox News debate for immediate approval of the pipeline, which would extend from Canada to the Gulf Coast, Bachmann cited job creation figures that have been used frequently by proponents of the pipeline.

    Alex Pourbaix, president of Energy and Oil Pipelines for TransCanada Corp., the company proposing the pipeline, cited the 20,000 jobs figure in testimony before a House subcommittee on energy and power on Dec. 2.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.12.17

    All dead on, Owen. Bachmann and a lot of other people promoting Keystone XL have traded in exaggeration and misinformation. This pipeline is far from the boon TransCanada promises.

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