You Won’t Believe Just How Costly Obama’s Keystone Delay Is

President Obama has become accustomed to making up excuses, sometimes completely false ones, for why he is delaying the Keystone Pipeline. It’s already been five years since the Keystone Pipeline requested a permit from the State Department for construction, and the Obama Administration continues to throw hurdle after hurdle at the project.

With the delay of this no-brainer energy project stretching to as far as 2015, the lost benefits that Americans are losing from this project’s delay are adding up. Does this White House really want to be responsible for billions of dollars sent to the Persian Gulf, hundreds of thousands of barrels a day in imports, and tens of thousands of jobs?

From the American Action Forum:

“Standing in the way of approval is a regulatory process that still requires the State Department to publish an additional Environmental Impact Statement, agencies to make individual determinations of whether the pipeline is in the national interest, and Secretary of State John Kerry to make a final decision on whether to approve this pipeline.  As a reminder, when the pipeline first went through this process, the State Department had issued a favorable determination of “no significant impacts.

“It’s unlikely we’ll see any action on a decision this year, and TransCanada recently revised their in-service date for the pipeline to the second half of 2015.

“This delay is costing Americans in real terms.  Forum calculations and State Department data demonstrate:

– Roughly 700,000 barrels per day in secure imports. The Keystone XL pipeline would increase the share of North American oil in our import steam above 40%, supplanting up to one third of imports from Persian Gulf nations.

– Billions sent to Persian Gulf.  Not only will the United States spend more on oil imported from overseas, but it will send up to $7.7 billion more dollars to oil suppliers in the Persian Gulf.

– More than 40,000 jobs and billions of dollars of earnings waiting in the sidelines. Construction of the pipeline would generate 42,100 annual jobs, including thousands in parts of the country with limited employment opportunities outside farming and government services.  Collectively, these new jobs would amount to $2.1 billion in earnings.”

House Republicans have repeatedly stood behind and fought for the Keystone Pipeline in Congress, while President Obama continues to ignore facts and drag his feet in order to satisfy a handful of left-wing environmentalists. Mr. President, don’t let your liberal agenda rob Americans of the benefits from the Keystone Pipeline. Too much is at stake.