Obama Says NO to Oil Pipeline, Claims Jobless Bennefits Will Create More Jobs

This exemplifies what is wrong with the Obama presidency.

"I would not ask anyone to do something I'm not willing to do myself," Obama said when asked if he would go on vacation while keeping Congress in Washington D.C. "We are going to stay here as long as it takes [to get unemployment extended and pass the payroll tax cut]."

As Obama called for passage of those bills, he also responded to a recent Republican push to require him to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. "However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline," he said, "they're going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance."

It's amazing that Obama is going to admit; lower taxes result in job creation! I'm not exactly sure how extending unemployment benefits leads to job creation, nor has anyone actually explained it in a half-way coherent way, but for the sake of argument let's assume that it does. If, as Obama claims, extending unemployment benefits and approving the Keystone pipeline will both create jobs, why not do both? Why must we do one or the other? Obama claims to have been focused on jobs since his first year in office. But Obama also claims that paying people to not work will result in job creation, so I don't know about the legitimacy of his claims.

Obama's own Jobs Council has suggested oil be derived from more local sources.

In a new report, Obama's jobs council urges him to expedite the production of fossil fuels close to home, in part by "allowing more access to oil, gas and coal opportunities on federal lands."

I believe the real reason for denying the Keystone pipeline permit is completely political. Obama doesn't want to anger the environmental movement before the 2012 presidential election. If he angers a few thousand union workers in the process it's no big deal. Union workers will most likely to vote Democrat anyway. If reelected Obama is almost certain to approve the pipeline project, by that time he won't need the support of those concerned about the environmental impact.

In the meantime blocking the pipeline will cause another issue. Canada is not going to wait on the US political process to sell their oil.

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.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”

The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.

Harper “expressed his profound disappointment with the news,” according to the statement, which added that Obama told Harper the rejection was not based on the project’s merit and that the company is free to re-apply.

Canada this month began hearings on a proposed pipeline by Enbridge Inc. to move crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast, where it could be shipped to Asian markets.

Obama just can't help himself when it comes to angering our allies. We also loose the opportunity to import more of our oil from a politically stable country --Canada.

How is this in the best interest of the United States?