President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected a Canadian company's plan to build a U.S.-spanning, 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries, raising the stakes on a bitter election year fight with Republicans.
Though the project promises thousands of temporary jobs for the recovering U.S. economy, Obama said a February deadline set by Congress would not allow for a proper review of potential harm from the $7 billion Keystone XL project.
"As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," Obama, a Democrat, said.Obama said his decision was not based on the pipeline's merits but on what he called an arbitrary Feb. 21 deadline set by Republicans in Congress. They set the deadline as part of a tax bill that Obama signed into law in late December.
"I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration's commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil," Obama said.
Do you think that Obama's rejection of the pipeline goes against his plans to increase jobs/employment and do you agree with Gingrich's accusation?
Do you think that Obama made the right call by following the deadline?
How do you think this decision will affect his upcoming reelection?
6 comments:
In my opinion President Obama seems to have made the right decision. While the Oil company building the pipeline alleged it would create thousands of jobs in the sector for Americans, a government figure put the number of potential jobs only around 5,000. Furthermore, an independent study done by Cornell University found that this pipeline would have only created between 2,000 and 4,000 jobs.Thus in my opinion the environmental impact this would have had on the U.S. was not worth the miniscule amount of jobs it would have made. President Obama has already added some several thousand jobs to the Oil and Gas sector since his presidency. Having a pipeline run from Canada to Texas is no joke and I'm glad that there will not be one as of yet.
I think that Obama has made the wrong decision. Any jobs created are good and also the pipeline would probably drive gas prices down. Gas would be made more available. There would also be jobs that would be created maintaining the gas lines. I think that the environmental protection argument is played out, spills are extremely rare and are always cleaned up. I believe that Obama is going against his promise to create jobs. I think that the environmental impacts would be similar to the environmental impacts that happen daily from factories and building housing complexes. I would have liked to see the pipeline go in.
I find it difficult to fathom the Republicans, especially Gingrich. They we extremely unsupportive of Obama’s job’s bill which would create tens of thousands of temporary jobs, now all of sudden they are supporting a pipeline that will create a mere few thousand jobs and they jump all over Obama for not accepting it. Obama does not oppose this pipeline, in fact he supports it and wants it to created. However he cannot accept a half-assed bill with holes it is that could possibly result in a deadly, costly and most importantly, avoidable oil spill. Obama said he would approve of the bill as long as he was given more time to review and approve it. The Republicans did not allow this and essentially tied his hands. Clearly this was just a political stunt by the Republicans to try and put Obama in a bad light.
Obama says he will do anything to create jobs. The keystone pipeline xl is the perfect opportunity to create thousands of jobs. I understand Stephens point, how this very well could have been a stunt from the republicans... But either way, I think this pipeline needs to pass. Hashim brings up a point that the pipeline may only create 3,000 jobs... 3,000 jobs is a lot of jobs! Our president should be doing almost anything to create jobs, like he said he would. Another reason the pipeline should be built is because gas would be much more accessible for the country. I know everyone would be happy if we didn't have to rely on oil from the middle east. With soaring gas prices, more accessible gas and lower prices is on everyone's wish list. The republicans are not giving up on gettin Obamas approval, and I think it would be a wise decision for him to pass the bill, as even fellow democrats who are running for reelection have criticized him for this.
I do not think that Obama has made the right decision in shooting down the plan for this oil pipeline. While I understand that it will have some negative effects on the environment, that cannot outweigh the problems with the economy. With this pipeline would come cheaper, more available gasoline, as well as new jobs. This country is in a situation with a basically stagnant unemployment rate, and Obama cannot afford to be killing job creation plans.
Although I do believe that the rejection of the Keystone Oil Pipeline was an opportunity missed, I respected Obama's decision for the reason he made it.
I do think that because this is such a large and expensive project, all aspects of construction and the effects it will have on our nation must be condsidered. Therefore, I do think that rushing the analyzation of the project just to make a quick profit might have caused researchers to overlook a potential threat or harm to society.
Despite the fact that the Canadians will simply look to china to reroute their system, I beliieve that under pressure Obama made the right decision and protected the interest of the country by making a calm decision.
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