Canada Courts China’s Energy Market After Obama Rejects Keystone Jobs

February 8, 2012

Canada Forced to Look to China After Dems Reject Keystone Pipeline as Political Payback for their Washington Special Interest Allies

Canada is seeking new markets for its energy reserves, and China is now atop of list of countries that stand to benefit.
President Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress chased Canada into the arms of China after President Obama rejected a bipartisan proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline and create 20,000 shovel-ready jobs.
While Democrats are busy dishing political payback to their Washington allies to prepare for their 2012 campaign, millions of Americans remain unemployed and desperate for economic opportunities. Yet Democrats continue to prioritize political payback over immediate job creation.

Canada is seeking new markets for its energy reserves, and China is now atop of list of countries that stand to benefit:

CANADIAN PM LANDS IN CHINA FOR FOUR-DAY TRIP, “COURTING CHINA AS A CUSTOMER FOR CANADIAN NATURAL RESOURCES”: “The prime minister is courting China as a customer for Canadian natural resources — insisting it’s in Canada’s national interest to send oil and gas to Asia — and looking to sew stronger economic ties with the world’s fastest-growing economy.” (Jason Fekete, “Harper Lands in China for Four-Day Visit,” Vancouver Sun, 2/7/2012)

HARPER “SEARCHING FOR NEW ENERGY CUSTOMERS” AFTER OBAMA’S KEYSTONE REJECTION: “Currently, Canada only exports oilsands crude to the United States, but the Obama administration’s recent decision to reject, for now, the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline has Harper searching for new energy customers.” (Jason Fekete, “Harper Lands in China for Four-Day Visit,” Vancouver Sun, 2/7/2012)

President Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress chased Canada into the arms of China after President Obama rejected a bipartisan proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline and create 20,000 shovel-ready jobs:

CANADA HAD WARNED IT WOULD TURN TO CHINA FOR OIL EXPORTS AFTER OBAMA’S KEYSTONE DECISION: “President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.” (Theophilis Arigitis and Jeremy Loon, “Obama Keystone Denial Prompts Canada to Focus on China,” Bloomberg, 1/19/2012)

“THE ANTI-JOBS PRESIDENT” REJECTS JOB-CREATING KEYSTONE PIPELINE:(Editorial, “The Anti-Jobs President,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/19/2012)

GREEN GROUPS 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)

OBAMA THROWS 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS IN THE DUMPSTER: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

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)

While Democrats are busy dishing political payback to their Washington allies to prepare for their 2012 campaign, millions of Americans remain unemployed and desperate for economic opportunities. Yet Democrats continue to prioritize political payback over immediate job creation:

12. 8 MILLION AMERICANS UNEMPLOYED: (“The Employment Situation,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2/3/2012)

OVER 3 MILLION “MISSING WORKERS” WHO HAVE DROPPED OUT OF LABOR FORCE: “There are currently over 3 million ‘missing’ workers who should be participating in the labor force but are not actively seeking work.” (“Jobs Preview 2012: The Year of the Missing Worker,” HPS Insight, January 2012)

IF U.S. LABOR FORCE WAS SAME AS IN JAN. 2009, UNEMPLOYMENT WOULD BE 11.0 PERCENT: “If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share of the total population was the same as it was when Barack Obama took office—65.7 percent then vs. 63.7 percent today—the U-3 unemployment rate would be 11.0 percent.” (James Pethokoukis, “Why the Official 8.3 Percent Unemployment Rate is a Phony Number—and What It Means for Obama’s Re-Election,” The American, 2/3/2012)

COMPARED TO WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION LAST YEAR, UNEMPLOYMENT WOULD BE 8.9 PERCENT: “2. But let’s not go all the way back to January 2009. In January 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent with a participation rate of 64.2 percent. If that were the participation rate today, the unemployment rate would be 8.9 percent, instead of 8.3 percent. As an analysis from Hamilton Place Strategies concludes, ‘Most of the shift of the past year is due not to the improvement in the labor market, but the continued drop in participation in the labor force.’” (James Pethokoukis, “Why the Official 8.3 Percent Unemployment Rate is a Phony Number—and What It Means for Obama’s Re-Election,” The American, 2/3/2012)