The Washington Post editors, “The case for ultimately approving the Keystone XL pipeline — always strong — has grown stronger.
“A key environmentalist argument against Keystone XL has been that the project would encourage the extraction of bitumen, a particularly dirty oil-like substance, from the “oil sands” in Alberta. If activists could “shut in” Canadian bitumen, limiting the ability of oil companies to sell the product, they argued, perhaps petroleum firms wouldn’t be able to fully develop the oil sands. That hope always was unrealistic, and a recent announcement from Kinder Morgan, another pipeline company, illustrates why. The firm wants to nearly triple the capacity of its existing Trans Mountain pipeline between Alberta and Vancouver — a route from the oil sands to the world market — enabling it to carry even more product than the Keystone XL would. From there, much of it would probably head to Asia. . . . [I]t demonstrates a critical point: Even if environmentalists manage to stop one pipeline or another, given high world oil prices, the enthusiastic support of the Canadian government, the many transport options and the years available to develop infrastructure, it’s beyond quixotic to believe that enough of the affordable paths out will be blocked. Environmentalists might succeed, however, in relocating some construction jobs outside the United States.”
They conclude, “So President Obama’s refusal so far to authorize Keystone XL has little rational basis.”
And yet President Obama continues to block the pipeline from being built. As Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said recently in the Weekly Republican Address, “[T]he Administration continues to block the Keystone XL Pipeline—that’s the nation’s largest shovel-ready project, no taxpayer money involved, it would create thousands of American jobs and deliver more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day to our refineries from our best trading partner and our closest neighbor, Canada—all without costing taxpayers. The Keystone Pipeline is one common-sense step in the right direction to help put more people back to work, reduce prices at the pump, and position our nation for greater energy security now and in the future. . . . The shortest path to more American jobs is more American energy.”
In a speech to the AFL-CIO which Dana Milbank called “a campaign rally in everything but name” yesterday, President Obama again tried to accuse Republicans of opposing the repair of bridges and repeated a widely debunked claim he made last fall that a stimulus bill he was promoting would have funded repairs to certain bridges over the Ohio River.
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog catches Obama trying this again and writes today, “Back in September, when President Obama first unveiled his jobs bill, we gave him Three Pinocchios for remarks he made regarding the aging Brent Spence Bridge on the Ohio River. The bridge connects Kentucky and Ohio, the home states of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and it was irresistible symbolism for the White House. . . . The administration could never explain what, if anything, the jobs bill would do to improve the Brent Spence Bridge, especially since construction was not slated to start until 2015 — and Obama’s jobs bill would spend most of its money in its first year. . . . Once again [President Obama on Monday] framed it as GOP opposition to fixing the Brent Spence Bridge. But then he upped the ante by mentioning other bridges ‘between Kentucky and Ohio’ that ‘don’t work.’ So what’s he talking about?”
According to the Fact Checker, “An administration official said the president was referring to the Sherman Minton Bridge, which actually connects Indiana and Kentucky, near Louisville. Back in September, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) had to shut down the bridge because a 2 ½ inch crack had been discovered. . . . Shortly after the shutdown, a Transportation Department blog declared that this bridge was ‘another example of why this [the president’s jobs bill] is so crucial.’ But here’s the rub: While Obama claimed ‘these bridges don’t work,’ the Sherman Minton Bridge has already been repaired, ahead of schedule, and motorists are driving over it again. It turned out that, rather than being an example of an aging bridge, the crack that had been discovered actually had been there ever since the bridge was constructed in 1962, because of the type of steel used at the time. Other repairs were ordered, and the bridge reopened nearly three months ago — without needing any of Obama’s jobs-bill funds. Another nearby bridge, the Kennedy Bridge, will soon undergo redecking, but officials said the work will not lead to a shutdown. Again, the work is being done without Obama’s jobs-bill money.”
It’s worth recalling that when President Obama first brought up these bridges last September, he went to Ohio and gave a speech in front of one, the Brent Spence, to argue for his new stimulus spending. In an article titled, “Experts Say Obama’s Visit Won’t Help Bridge,” the Cincinnati Enquirer explained, “The bill itself contains no mention of the Brent Spence bridge, or any other specific projects.” And the Los Angeles Times noted, “Oops, Obama touts his jobs plan today at an Ohio bridge that won’t qualify.”
Of course, the whole event was political from the start, with Politico writing that “the president’s staff acknowledged the political nature of his own trip — and their hope that he will benefit from it.” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said the day of the speech, “The campaign has begun.”
Slapping the president with “Four Pinocchios,” for his new reference to these bridges, The Washington Post Fact Checker concludes, “Calling out the Republicans at the Brent Spence bridge was bad enough, given the bipartisan support for its reconstruction. But pointing to the Sherman Minton Bridge, which already has been repaired without funding from the president’s jobs bill, is ridiculous. Perhaps the president was using outdated talking points, but that’s little excuse. Given that the president earned Three Pinocchios before, we have little choice but to up the ante this time.”
Wait a minute, we’re confused. Koster the Democrat is going on hunting trips with Republicans and attending secret gay donor conferences with the former head of the Republican National Committee?Why all the secrecy? Good loyal Democrats are openly for gay rights, right?
Washington Blade:
Gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman was among the speakers at a secret LGBT donor conference that took place over the weekend in D.C. and was attended by advocates and high-ranking public officials.
Others listed as participants at the event — but not as speakers — were Patrick Murphy, the former U.S. House member who led the way for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and is now running for Pennsylvania attorney general, and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.Read more….
Writing for The Heritage Foundation’s blog, Lachlan Markay reports, “Explosive video of a top official at the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his enforcement philosophy against oil and gas companies to Roman crucifixions was removed on Thursday by the environmental activist who had uploaded it. ‘This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by David McFatridge,’ reads a message on the video’s YouTube page. . . . The YouTube video’s owner appears to be the same David McFatridge listed as an activist for the radical environmental group the Sierra Club. McFatridge has been active in a number of anti-hydraulic fracturing campaigns. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who spotlighted the video on Wednesday in a speech on the Senate floor, drew connections from Armendariz’s comments to the EPA’s campaign against hydraulic fracturing, and branded the agency’s efforts a ‘war on fossil fuels.’”
In an editorial today, The Wall Street Journal blasts the EPA for these comments: “It’s no secret that the bosses at the Environmental Protection Agency hate fossil fuels. But few are as candid as Al Armendariz, the regional administrator who says the agency’s ‘general philosophy’ is to ‘crucify’ oil and gas producers. That’s how EPA chief Lisa Jackson’s point man for Texas, Oklahoma and other south-central states put it in 2010 lecture. Mr. Armendariz explains that his staff’s ‘philosophy of enforcement’ is ‘like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.’ The point is to ‘make examples’ of alleged lawbreakers. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe released video of the speech on Wednesday as part of his investigation into the EPA’s now-discredited claims of water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing, including in Parker County, Texas. In that case Mr. Armendariz’s shop targeted Range Resources, a driller that has since been exonerated, and his remarks about executions raise questions not only about his own work but the EPA’s larger impartiality and judgment.”
Democrat leaders claim they’re concerned about the high prices Americans are paying at the pump, but they continue to demonstrate that they’re not interested in changing some basic policies that could produce more and cheaper American energy.
According to The Hill, “Senate Democrats will hold firm and reject House Republican demands to include approval of the Keystone oil pipeline in transportation funding legislation, their leader said Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he would not in any way help Republicans move Keystone approval across the finish line. ‘Personally, I’m not — I’m not one of the conferees — but personally I think Keystone is a program that we’re not going, that I am not going to help in any way I can,” Reid told reporters. ‘The president feels that way. I do, too.’”
Meanwhile, another Hill story reports, “Interior Secretary Ken Salazar blasted House Republicans on Tuesday for pursuing ‘fairy tale’ energy policies he said are aimed at scoring political points going into the election. . . . Salazar, echoing comments by the president, stressed that there are no quick-fix solutions to high gasoline prices, which have soared since December . . . .” It’s worth recalling that four years ago when Salazar was a Democrat senator from Colorado, he blocked a bill that would have allowed more offshore drilling as gas prices increased. But Salazar objected to the bill, calling more drilling for American energy “a phantom solution.”
To summarize, we have a president that blocked the Keystone XL pipeline, a Senate Majority Leader who says of the pipeline “I am not going to help in any way I can,” and an Interior Secretary who refers to projects like Keystone backed by Republicans as “fairy tale” energy policies and “phantom solutions.”
Yet other Democrats are not so intransigent. Last week, The New York Times reported, “President Obama is finding himself increasingly boxed in on the Keystone pipeline fight as more Congressional Democrats are joining Republicans in backing the project, which has strong labor support and could generate significant numbers of jobs in economically hard-hit states.” Early last month 11 Senate Democrats voted for a Republican amendment “to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and provide for environmental protection and government oversight.” Recently, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said, “I’m fighting for construction of the entire Keystone pipeline” and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) declared, “I’m for the pipeline.”
Last week, 69 Democrats in the House voted for a transportation bill that included a provision that would allow construction of the full Keystone XL pipeline to move forward. According to the NYT, “Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democratwho voted for the House measure, said he would be happy to vote to override a veto if needed. He said:‘I think the president has made a very serious mistake here. I’m still supporting the president. But we have to do what’s right.” Asked by The Times if he’d support such a bill Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said, “I would vote for it, yes.”
It’s time for President Obama, Harry Reid, Ken Salazar and other Democrats leaders to stop listening to environmentalist pressure groups and start listening to Americans who want more and cheaper domestic energy, not to mention the growing chorus of Democrats who support the Keystone Xl pipeline. The Keystone pipeline would allow us to import less oil from foreign countries, more efficiently move American oil, and create tens of thousands of jobs. It’s a no-brainer, and it’s long past time for Democrat leaders to stop blocking it.
The Hill reports today, “An Obama administration official apologized this week after a Senate Republican released a video in which the official compared enforcement of environmental laws to crucifixion. ‘I apologize to those I have offended and regret my poor choice of words. It was an offensive and inaccurate way to portray our efforts to address potential violations of our nation’s environmental laws,’ Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz said in a statement that the Daily Caller obtained Wednesday night. ‘I am and have always been committed to fair and vigorous enforcement of those laws.’
“The apology came several hours after Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a vocal critic of the EPA, released a 2010 video in which Armendariz stressed the importance of ‘making examples’ out of companies that violate environmental laws. He compared his enforcement philosophy to that of Roman soldiers who crucified villagers in towns they wanted to conquer. ‘I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement. And I think it was probably a little crude, and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’m going to tell you what I said,’ Armendariz says in the video. ‘It is kind of like how the Romans used to conquer the villages in the Mediterranean, they’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere and they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them. Then that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.’ . . .”
“Inhofe highlighted the comments Wednesday during a Senate floor speech. ‘His comments give us a rare glimpse into the Obama administration’s true agenda; no matter how much President Obama may pretend to be a friend of oil and natural gas, his green team constantly betrays the truth that the Obama administration is fully engaged in an all out war on hydraulic fracturing, and indeed all fossil fuels,’ Inhofe said.”
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would create, “I am not going to help in any way I can,” adding, “The president feels that way. I do, too.” And on Tuesday Interior Secretary Ken Salazar accused Republicans of supporting “fairy tale” energy policies.
It’s amazing the extent to which the Obama administration and Democrat leaders in Congress are impeding American energy development. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said recently, “For years, Washington Democrats have had the same rigid opposition to expanding domestic energy exploration. The only people they seem to listen to are extremists. . . . [W]ith gas prices at about $4 a gallon, it’s time somebody called them out on it. Ten years ago . . . Democrats voted down a bill to open up a tiny area in Alaska known as ANWR to drilling. They relied on the non-argument that it would ‘take too long’ to get the oil to market. Every Democrat who was asked about it said the same thing; that it would take too long to get the oil to market. I’ve got two pages of quotes from Democrats saying it would take at least seven to 10 years to get the oil to market. Well, here we are, 10 years later. In some places gas now costs three times what it did in April of 2002. The U.S. still imports half its oil. ANWR is still off-limits. And if you ask Democrats why they oppose more domestic exploration, they’ll tell you the same thing they did 10 years ago.”
The revealing comments from Obama’s EPA official, his Interior Secretary, and his ally in the Senate, Harry Reid tell an important part of the story as to why Washington still can’t approve a commonsense project like the Keystone pipeline, even with Americans paying ever-higher gas prices. It’s long past time for the Democrat status quo on energy to change.
The Hill reports today, “President Obama is making a concerted effort to recapture the support of young voters who have grown skeptical of his administration. Obama will visit three college campuses in swing states this week, where he’ll try to appeal to young voters by urging Congress to pass legislation to prevent interest rates on subsidized student loans from doubling to 6.8 percent this summer. He’ll appear at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Iowa, where he’ll make his student loan pitch before large audiences of the country’s youngest voters.”
Just yesterday, the AP reported, “The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge. . . . About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. . . . Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.”
Late last year, MSNBC wrote, “Their employment prospects are dim, their debt is high, their lives are on hold and a stunning number are living with their parents, even into their 30s. They are young adults, 18 to 34, struggling to begin their adult lives during the worst economy since the Great Depression . . . .”
According to a February TIME story, “[n]early 25 million adults live at home with their parents because they’re unemployed or underemployed” and a recent Pew survey found, “Roughly a quarter of adults ages 18 to 34 (24%) say that, due to economic conditions, they have moved back in with their parents in recent years after living on their own.Among those ages 25 to 29, the share moving back home rises to 34%.”
The same Pew study found “[y]oung adults hit hard by the recession… [T]he gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults—roughly 15 percentage points—is the widest in recorded history. In addition, young adults employed full time have experienced a greater drop in weekly earnings (down 6%) than any other age group over the past five years.”
No wonder then that ABC News reported on Friday, “A survey released Thursday showed that only 34 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds are ‘satisfied’ with the Obama presidency. More than half – 51 percent – said they were either ‘disappointed,’ ‘worried’ or ‘angry,’ according to the survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center.”
“Pay to Play” Jay Nixon is the victim of Democratic friendly fire after a national Democratic group released a new ad in Wisconsin that highlights Missouri’s rank as the second-worst state in the nation in terms of job creation.
The new ad, funded by the Democratic Governors Association, is meant as an attack against Wisconsin Gov. Walker, but according to the stats featured twice in the ad, Missouri ranks 49th in the nation in job creation. The DGA has already spent more than $1.1 million on Nixon’s behalf.
Nixon’s Department of Economic Development (which Nixon claims he doesn’t run) has been in disarray. The Department has gone through four directors in three years and been marred by scandals after promising millions to a company run by a felon and millions more to a now-defunct Chinese company without first doing their homework.
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