‘“Yes! Let’s build the Keystone pipeline”

2/11/15
 
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from The Gray Area:

Today Congress passed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill and sent it to President Obama for signature or veto. He has said he will veto the legislation.

Realizing that neither house of Congress has the votes to override the President’s veto, many say why waste time passing a bill that will never be signed. The reason is simple, to force the President to personally deny the bill. During his first 6 years all he had to do was let his Democrat Senate just delay and postpone votes on the bill. Now he has to make a decision. And, if he does veto, it will be clear to the country where the obstruction in our government is coming from. If you don’t agree with him, then you get nothing, no negotiation, no progress. A Keystone bill veto will present this to the American people with absolute clarity.

Here is what Speaker Boehner said today: “We build pipelines all around America every single day. Keystone has been reviewed and approved numerous times. Even the president’s own State Department will say that it creates 42,000 new jobs,” said Boehner. “But instead of listening to the people, the president is standing with a bunch of left, fringe extremists and anarchists. The president needs to listen to the American people and say, ‘Yes! Let’s build the Keystone pipeline.‘”

Last year during another delay by the President and his team in the Senate, even members of his own party had this to say, “a stunning act of political cowardice”.

The best quote came from Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “Once again, the administration in making a political calculation instead of doing what is right for the country,” said O’Sullivan, according to Bloomberg. “It’s clear the administration needs to grow a set of antlers, or perhaps take a lesson from Popeye and eat some spinach.”

… even Democrats are calling Obama a coward:
– Sen. Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee called the delay “irresponsible, unnecessary and unacceptable.”
– Sen. Mark Pryor (Arkansas) said in a statement “there’s no excuse for another delay.”
– While Sen. Mark Begich (Alaska) said, “I am frankly appalled at the continued foot-dragging by this administration on the Keystone project.”

A veto is just another delay. The pipeline helps our economy, creates jobs, adds 830,000 barrels of oil per day, further reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Something we have talked about and not done since 1973.

Lets build the pipeline. Obama can then still take credit for the results. Just like he has for the shale oil boom he never wanted nor could stop.