6 Reasons We Need To Approve The Keystone Pipeline Now

On Friday afternoon, the Obama Administration quietly declared that it would be delaying – yet again – the Keystone Pipeline project, this time indefinitely.

This latest decision is nothing more than a political favor to the President’s far left base, and is costing Americans thousands of jobs and energy security.

Here are just 6 reasons we need to approve the Keystone Pipeline right now:

 1. 61% of Americans favor constructing the Keystone Pipeline. 

A significant majority of Americans, including a slim majority of Democrats in Obama’s own party, support approving the Keystone Pipeline. But President Obama continues to ignore the American people, and instead is listening to far left liberal environmentalists like billionaire Tom Steyer.

2. There is wide bipartisan support for the Keystone Pipeline. 

The President likes to say he works as a bipartisan politician. In reality, Obama’s delay of the Keystone Pipeline puts him on the wrong end of one of the most bipartisan issues in Washington. Not only do 11 Senate Democrats currently support Keystone, but both Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have said they support the project.

3. The Keystone Pipeline will create at least 42,000 new jobs. 

President Obama’s own State Department found, in its 2013 review of the project, that the Keystone Pipeline would create at least 42,000 jobs. In this abysmal economy, we can’t afford to keep thousands of Americans out of work – but when it comes to President Obama, no price is too high to satisfy his liberal base.

 4. The State Department confirmed the Keystone Pipeline will have minimal environmental impact. 

That same review by the State Department also found that the Keystone Pipeline would have a minimal effect on the environment, chiefly because the Canadian oil will still find a way to get to the market. There’s no environmental concerns to be had here, and yet President Obama continues to hide behind long-disproven concerns.

5. Obama’s own allies support the Keystone Pipeline.

Major labor unions, such as the AFL-CIO that routinely support Democrats, have made it clear that the economic benefits of the Keystone Pipeline are in the interests of American workers. “It’s not the oil that’s dirty, it’s the politics,” one union claimed on Friday. Too bad that, for President Obama, listening to far-left environmentalists is more important that shoring up the American economy.

6. The Keystone Pipeline will boost America’s energy independence. 

Securing America’s energy independence to avoid relying on foreign oil has been a top bipartisan priority for both Republicans and Democrats. Thanks to new technologies, we’ve already become the number one producer of natural gas. Yet Obama has repeatedly shunned the Keystone Pipeline, which would provide a reliable and major boost for America’s oil needs and allow us to trade with Canada, a reliable trading partner, instead of with countries overseas. If President Obama is serious about improving America’s energy independence, he needs to approve the Keystone Pipeline.