48 Days Left for Obama to Decide to Stop Blocking Keystone Jobs

January 4, 2011

While Obama Campaigns to Keep His Own Job, Workers Wait on Him to End Bureaucratic Delay of Job Creation

President Obama has an established an extensive record of both ignoring and actively harming American job creation during the last three years. Letters from job creators calling on President Obama to approve construction of the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline demonstrate the shocking extent of the president’s disregard for job creation.
Despite projections that tens of thousands of jobs would be created from the Keystone pipeline, President Obama punted a decision on approving the project past the 2012 elections, destroying jobs in the process.
Congress had to pass a bipartisan agreement to force Obama to finally make a decision about the job-creating project by late February. Democrats have already shown a willingness to cave to demands from their radical “green” activist base at the expense of job creation, and it now appears a politically desperate Obama may do so again.

BACKGROUND

President Obama has an established an extensive record of both ignoring and actively harming American job creation during the last three years. Letters from job creators calling on President Obama to approve construction of the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline demonstrate the shocking extent of the president’s disregard for job creation:

MID-CONTINENT OIL & GAS ASSOCIATION OF OKLAHOMA: “ENORMOUS ECONOMIC BENEFITS” FROM KEYSTONE: “Keystone XL offers the potential for enormous economic benefits during construction. In Oklahoma, construction of Keystone XL involves a direct investment of $845 million by TransCanada, more than $1.2 billion in construction-related expenditures, and tax revenue of $25.3 million for state and local governments. During Keystone XL’s 100-year lifespan, it will pay more than $668 million in property tax payments.” (Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association of Oklahoma letter to Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK), 3/7/2010)

AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE AND ASSOCIATION OF OIL PIPELINES: “CRITICALLY IMPORTANT SOURCE OF ENERGY, JOBS, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH FOR THE UNITED STATES”: “Our organizations are writing to you to emphasize the significance of the Canadian oil sands as a critically important source of energy, jobs, and economic growth for the United States. We support the Department of State’s granting of permits for the construction, operation and maintenance of pipeline facilities crossing the U.S. border that are vital to connecting U.S. refineries with oil sands production in Western Canada.”(American Petroleum Institute and Association of Oil Pipe Lines letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 7/15/2009)

LOCAL OFFICIALS: BEAUMONT, TX CITY MANAGER: “As a city official from the State of Texas, we strongly encourage the U.S. Department of State to approve an energy infrastructure project that not only will strengthen long-term energy security in the United States but also will provide a powerful private sector economic stimulus to the communities along the pipeline route during its construction at a time when our economy continues to struggle.” (Beaumont, TX City Manager Kyle Hayes letter to U.S. Dept. of State, 5/27/2010)

Despite projections that tens of thousands of jobs would be created from the Keystone pipeline, President Obama punted a decision on approving the project past the 2012 elections, destroying jobs in the process:

“OBAMA PUNTS KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE” UNTIL AFTER 2012 ELECTION: (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

WORKERS LAID OFF, LOCAL JOB MARKET ON HOLD DUE TO DEMOCRATS’ POLITICAL GAMES OVER KEYSTONE XL PROJECT: “Layoffs and a brief company shutdown is what employees face at Welspun Tubular Company, which makes steel pipes for the oil industry. Company leaders say miles of pipe are on the property and that has caused five dozen employees to lose their jobs. … But plans are delayed on the federal level. Now leaders say the local job market is affected. ‘We had to make a staffing reduction with some of the temporary employees. Due to the KXL pipeline not being shipped out. We have 500 miles of pipe just sitting in the yard, expected to be shipped out, that some of the employees were working on,’ said President Dave Delie.” (Hubert Tate, “Welspun Announces Company Cutbacks,” Fox 16, 12/12/2011)

KEYSTONE PROJECT PROJECTED TO CREATE MORE THAN 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

Congress had to pass a bipartisan agreement to force Obama to finally make a decision about the job-creating project by late February. Democrats have already shown a willingness to cave to demands from their radical “green” activist base at the expense of job creation, and it now appears a politically desperate Obama may do so again:

OBAMA HAS TO MAKE KEYSTONE DECISION WITHIN 60 DAYS: “The only potential job creator in the Senate bill is the plank requiring Mr. Obama to make a decision in 60 days on the Keystone XL pipeline.” (Editorial, “A Payroll Tax Deal,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/23/2011)

BUT OBAMA MIGHT SABOTAGE KEYSTONE PROJECT ANYWAY: “And he might ruin that by killing the pipeline to please his rich green supporters who think you can power a modern economy with windmills, solar cells and switchgrass. But at least now he’ll have to decide before the election, and if Mr. Obama kills the pipeline he might doom a Democratic Senator or two.” (Editorial, “A Payroll Tax Deal,”The Wall Street Journal, 12/23/2011)

THE DEMOCRATS’ LONG RECORD OF JOB-DESTRUCTION:

NEW EPA RULE TO DESTROY 183,000 JOBS A YEAR, 1.65 MILLION JOBS DESTROYED THROUGH 2020: (“EPA Finalizes New Rule That Will Hurt American Economy,”American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, 12/21/2011)

LIKE CLOCKWORK: DEMOCRATS’ GREEN BASE REJOICES OVER EPA’S JOB-DESTROYING DECISION: “Environmentalists rallied so hard for the Obama administration on Wednesday, you’d think power plants were shooting cotton candy from their smokestacks.” (Erica Martinson, “EPA Power Plant Rule Has Greens Pro-Obama,” Politico, 12/22/2011)

GREEN GROUPS HAD THREATENED TO ABANDON OBAMA IF HE APPROVED KEYSTONE: “Environmental groups have been protesting the pipeline that would run from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries, and there have been rumblings that greens would abandon Obama next fall if he approved it.” (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

PROJECT HAS BROAD SUPPORT FROM UNIONS: “The pipeline has the support of many Republicans in Congress and also major labor unions like the Teamsters, Laborers’ International Union of North America and segments of the AFL-CIO.” (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011)

FMR. TOP WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: KEYSTONE OPPONENTS “NAÏVE”: (Sean Pasternak, “Goolsbee Says U.S. Opponents of TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline are Naive,” Bloomberg, 11/28/2011)

MORE GOOLSBEE: CANADIAN TAR SANDS WILL BE DEVELOPED WHETHER AMERICA GETS INVOLVED OR NOT: ” ‘It’s a bit naïve to think the tar sands would not be developed if they don’t build that pipeline,’ said Goolsbee, speaking today in Toronto at the Economic Club of Canada. ‘Eventually, it’s going to be built. It may go to the Pacific, it may go through Nebraska, but it’s going to be built somewhere.'”(Sean Pasternak, “Goolsbee Says U.S. Opponents of TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline are Naive,” Bloomberg, 11/28/2011)