Stop Tanking America: Time to Approve the Keystone Pipeline, Don't Let Politics Get in the Way

April 28, 2012

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With unemployment over 8 percent and gasoline near $4 per gallon, Americans could certainly use some relief right now. Unfortunately, President Obama is letting election-year politics get in the way of commonsense solutions like the Keystone Pipeline, which is hurting American families. Opening up the Keystone XL pipeline would create jobs, grow the economy, and provide relief at the gas pump. AFP is calling on President Obama to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project today.

Last week the House voted on an additional extension of the surface transportation bill, which also included a provision to take President Obama out of the Keystone permit process so that he can no longer block commonsense solutions. Here’s what’s interesting about the vote: Not only did it pass, of 69 Democrats, up from 47 Democrats on a previous vote. More and more, the President is standing alone on this issue as the rest of country wants the pipeline approved. More importantly, this recent vote means that the House now has the 2/3 majority required to override the President’s veto threat.

Opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline is a political move by the
Obama administration to pander to environmentalist groups and demonize fossil-fuel companies.

• “[T]o give the go-ahead [on Keystone] before the election was to risk losing the support of the environmentalists who make up an important part of his base,” observes Joe Nocera in the New York Times.

• “Given the extensive network of crude-oil pipelines that already criss-cross the United States, and its history of largely safe operation, it seems clear that the decision to deny the Keystone XL pipeline was political,” writes Kenneth Green in National Review Online.

• Obama’s rejection sends “a clear message that special interest demands are of more importance than more energy and much-needed job creation,” affirms Nicolas Loris of the Heritage Foundation.

American families and taxpayers cannot afford to allow the administration to pick and choose winners in the energy marketplace. It’s time to put commonsense solutions before special interests; it’s time for the President to permit the Keystone pipeline.

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