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Pipeline denied

Obama and his State Department need to look more closely at the route, they say. So they’re going to have to delay any decision until after the 2012 elections:

The State Department announced on Thursday that it will explore a new route for the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, pushing a final decision on the controversial project past the 2012 election.

President Obama was under intense political pressure from environmentalists as well as Republicans over the $7 billion pipeline project that would cut through six U.S. states.

Obama framed the decision as one that was based on a desire to make sure “all the potential impacts are properly understood,” and White House officials insisted the decision was made by the State Department.

Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood,” Obama said in a statement.

Republicans, who said the Canada-to-Texas pipeline would have created thousands of jobs and would reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil, immediately slammed the decision and said Obama was caving to his political base.

“More than 20,000 new American jobs have just been sacrificed in the name of political expediency,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “By punting on this project, the president has made clear that campaign politics are driving U.S. policy decisions — at the expense of American jobs.”

Nonsense. This isn’t a political move designed to appease, for now, the environmentalist base of the progressive movement. That would be cynical.

No, what this is is the kind of deliberative, smart leadership that will protect children and old people and while promoting health and safety and a clean clean planet.

And if you disagree, well, that’s just because you like pollution and hate the earth. And children. And old people. And health. And safety. And corporate fat cats.

Racists.

60 Replies to “Pipeline denied”

  1. apotheosis says:

    Can’t they just route it along that intermodal superhighway to Mexico thingie?

  2. Abe Froman says:

    Let’s just hope that the response is more cutting than “drill, baby, drill” this time around. If Obama wants to live in a Third World country so badly, I hear Kenya is pretty.

  3. geoffb says:

    Just more oil to be shipped across the ocean to Asia while we then buy from other sources. The utter stupidity of the “Smart Power” bunch of ninnies.

    The concerns that concern them are re-election related ones only.

  4. newrouter says:

    how about “pipe, baby, pipe”?

  5. sdferr says:

    There is no harmful lashing B. Obama will not suffer the nation to take. The greater the wounds, the more he is pleased.

  6. And Rachel Maddow asks why we can’t build anything anymore.

  7. BBHunter says:

    “…White House officials insisted the decision was made by the State Department.”

    – Message to his Union base – “Don’t blame chocolate Jesus, it was the SD’s fault.”

    – And they’ll be dumb enough to buy it. Political life is so much easier when your base is useful idiots.

  8. newrouter says:

    if ricky perry was smart he’d do an ad about ENERGY with some blue collar folks pointing at this lead from behind stupidity. and the next one on epa

  9. Squid says:

    It bears repeating: the easiest job in the world next year is going to be “Anti-Obama Campaign Ad Producer.” The adverts have all written themselves.

  10. newrouter says:

    i was just trying to get ricky’s mojo back in the primary after his brain fart about doe last night.

  11. Swen says:

    Say what? The State Department is exploring a new route for the pipeline?? Usually the project proponents propose a route — there’s a lot of engineering, economic, environmental, and other issues that go into selecting a route and I’d be very surprised if the State Department has any of the expertise to even begin to tackle that job. Then once the proposed route is identified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviews the proposal, along with the various federal and state land managing agencies, the EPA and other federal and state environmental agencies, reps from the municipalities and private land owners involved, and etc. Lots of etc. Never have I heard of the State Department getting involved and I’ve worked on dozens of pipelines.

  12. Swen says:

    Of course the onlyest pipelines coming out of Canada I’ve worked on went to California. Perhaps that’s what they have in mind for a route change?

  13. newrouter says:

    “The State Department is exploring a new route for the pipeline??”

    your not the rube baracky is talking to.

  14. newrouter says:

    your-you’re

  15. Blake says:

    My recently rebuilt 1911 and I are heading to the range tomorrow. I’ve some anger management issues that call out for lots of loud noises and holes in paper. I’m not sure why this fucking pipeline political shit brought out that information.

  16. LBascom says:

    A $7 billion pipeline is dangerous?

    Sheee-it, California ain’t scared. We’re spending $96 billion for a 200mph train and track, actually carrying people.

    And, oddly enough, while being at least as invasive as a pipeline, no environmentalists making nary a peep.

  17. dicentra says:

    Be warned: Anyone who expresses anything but UTTER AND COMPLETE OUTRAGE over the Penn State thing will suffer my wrath.

  18. newrouter says:

    i can only express utter and incomplete outrage. sorry.

  19. guinspen says:

    Godspeed, Madam President.

  20. Blake says:

    Dicentra, there’ve been so many outrages the last few years it’s wearing me down.

    From our government sanctioning the murder of border patrol agents to Penn State turning a blind eye to a pedophile, things are really getting out of hand. One wonders just how much more can happen.

  21. Squid says:

    Screw you, dicentra. It’s my alma mater, and I’ll express any damn emotion I want to.

    Feel free to pile your sanctimony and disapprobation on top of all the rest. Try to be creative, though — you’ve a shit-ton of competition, and I’m bored with the repetition already.

  22. geoffb says:

    Last nights debate on Youtube in 8 parts.

  23. Stephanie says:

    Might I suggest a Penn State post so that those that want can post thoughts and new info there and those who have had their world shaken can ignore and ‘process?’

  24. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Oil is so 20th century. Haven’t you heard? We’re like the Saudi Arabia of wind!

  25. Stephanie says:

    Cumslut Hoochie has her sights over the target again.

  26. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Let’s just hope that the response is more cutting than “drill, baby, drill” this time around.

    Herman Cain knows how to lay pipe?

  27. dicentra says:

    I was accepted to Penn State but I chose Cornell. Not that Cornell doesn’t have horrors of its own… its football program is a disgrace for other reasons entirely.

    I was just arguing with some moron over at #hhrs (@mizzoujgrad, so not even a Penn St alum) who thinks it’s not fair to the current players that they should lose the football program. Because, hey, they didn’t do anything, right? Why punish everyone for the mideeds of a few?

    Provoked beyond endurance, I called him a fool and was chastised for name-calling. But I ask you…

  28. dicentra says:

    As for the pipeline:

    GEEZ JEFF, CUT THE MAN SOME SLACK! OBVIOUSLY THE SHOVELS WEREN’T READY!

    There. On topic;

  29. newrouter says:

    mean while in van jones land

    Let me highlight that last bit, in case you missed it:

    Prote[st]ers surrounded the scene of the shooting and made a human chain to keep photographers from filming the victim.

    From what I could see in the raw video, the Occupy protesters also seemed to be interfering with and/or not cooperating with the police.

    The murder happened around 5pm; perhaps not so coincidentally Occupy Oakland had heavily advertised their one-month birthday party starting today — at 5pm:

    You are cordially invited to Occupy Oakland’s one month birthday celebration!
    Thursday November 10, 2011
    5-10pm in the Amphitheater of Oscar Grant Plaza
    Music, Dancing, Retrospective Slide Show & much more!
    please bring donations of cakes, sweets & party favors!
    SHOW HELLA LOVE FOR OCCUPY OAKLAND!!!!!

    Link

  30. Dana says:

    If the oil-sands pipeline is going to cost $7 billion to build, wouldn’t it make more sense to build the pipeline to South Dakota, and then build a new refinery there? You dramatically shorten the distance the pipeline has to travel, and still create the jobs by having to build the new refinery. And South Dakota would surely love the jobs that would be created in the new refinery there. Why does it have to go to Texas?

    I’m not President of the United States, nor a candidate to become President, nor even a rocket scientist for NASA, but I was able to figure out that one!

  31. motionview says:

    How many fatal shootings at TEA Party rallies? Rough estimate OK.

  32. BBHunter says:

    – How many shootings of any kind?

  33. mongo78 says:

    If the oil-sands pipeline is going to cost $7 billion to build, wouldn’t it make more sense to build the pipeline to South Dakota, and then build a new refinery there?

    I’m guessing that even if they refined the crude oil in SoDak, they would still have to build interconnections to the product distribution networks (gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, etc.) most of which probably originate in Texas.

  34. BBHunter says:

    – Meanwhile, at the @OWie encamp,emt in Burlington VT., a protester shoot himself and died, prompting the local officials to talk about closing it down,

  35. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Per Dana’s 30 and mongo78’s 33:

    The Hyperion Energy Center of Elk Point, S.D. is currently in permitting hell.

  36. motionview says:

    This just enrages me. Perry makes a mistake, and the consultants on our side tell him that he has to, HAS TO, put on a geek show and stand there and let the People’s Ridicule Brigade pillory him. In fact, get out there and just goof on himself. The only thing missing is the closing ow my balls.

  37. newrouter says:

    “And South Dakota would surely love the jobs that would be created in the new refinery there. Why does it have to go to Texas?”

    EPA and baracky

  38. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Take solace in the fact that Dan Riehl now has to eat his own words, motionview.

  39. newrouter says:

    BLOCK: That’s true, but you gotta remember, Stacy, how many dozens of trips that Mr. Cain made into Florida prior to the Florida straw poll and all the Tea Party groups that he spoke at their rallies, OK? We had built an infrastructure down there. When you and I were out in Maryland [in July] in the driveway of, I can’t even remember whose house it was, and I said, ‘Stacy, we built these infrastructures in these states.’

    RSM: Yep.
    BLOCK: Through the Tea Party movement. I remember going into, for God’s sake, Fargo, North Dakota, in February or March, freezing my butt off, and the first people we met was the Tea Party groups, the 9/12-ers, the grassroots organizations. This is why I say that we’re running a million miles an hour — they can’t catch us, Stacy, ‘cause you can’t build those infrastructures overnight.

    RSM: Yeah, well, speaking of building things overnight, I got a little note back from a friend who says y’all may be rolling out your new Web site [Friday].
    BLOCK: Yeah.

    RSM: Which was my big beef.
    BLOCK: Yeah.

    RSM: So, you’re re-launching the site tomorrow with a new design?
    BLOCK: Yes, and you know, I have been so busy the last 10 days that I’m 99.9 percent sure that we’re rolling it out tomorrow, because we’re rolling it out on Veteran’s Day — tomorrow’s Veteran’s Day — but I haven’t had even a chance to call the developers and say, ‘What time are you flipping the switch?’

    Link

  40. geoffb says:

    Cain campaign announces campaign chairs for all 67 Florida counties

  41. Ernst Schreiber says:

    That’s good news, as long as they’re not repeating the Giuliani strategerem.

  42. geoffb says:

    The way every thing is pushed up and with SC and FL being winner take all, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado proportional and all the ones in March being proportional. Not sure about Maine, Minnesota or Michigan as far as proportional or WTA, AZ is WTA.

    Taking SC and FL along with a good proportion in the others would give a healthy lead going into March which being all proportional would be hard to overtake until the WTA ones begin in April with Maryland, Wash-DC, and Wisconsin.

    It appears that in all that traveling around the States Cain has been taking advantage of the already in place Tea Party activists to form his organizations. This is what I had thought Palin was doing and she may have and with her not running they have simply switched to Cain. I’d read some where that his organization is heavy with Wisconsin Tea Party people. They due to the Gov. Walker thing would have contacts with others all around the nation.

  43. geoffb says:

    Tell me no secrets, tell me some lies
    Give me no reasons, give me alibis
    Twinkle that you love me before I die
    Say anything, I’ll believe, don’t care why

    Don’t it make my brown shirts
    Don’t it make my brown shirts
    Don’t it make my brown shirts black

  44. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I’d forgotten that the Republicans have introduced the Democrat’s proportional taint into their primary elections.

    Well, good for Cain (or whomever emerges as the anti-Romney) as long as they can either stay in front or just behind.

  45. geoffb says:

    The way it is set up there is no reason, except funding, for anyone to drop out until after April.

  46. Joe says:

    Look on the bright side, Obama might have pissed off a few union workers.

  47. geoffb says:

    Fiancee gets new definition.

  48. serr8d says:

    Oh! Way, way OT; but the most expensive photograph ($4.3M) inna WORLD. EVAH.

  49. guinspen says:

    A Sneed source who is familiar with several men Bialek dated claims she registered on a Jewish dating Internet site years ago. But when dates showed up, she’d tell them she wasn’t Jewish…

    Oy.

  50. Carin says:

    ook on the bright side, Obama might have pissed off a few union workers.

    Yea sure. they don’t have to fall in love, just fall in line.

  51. Mueller says:

    #30
    They are extremely expensive to build. They require a lot of skilled labor. The EPA clearances could take a decade to complete.It’s simpler and more cost effective to run a pipeline to an existing refinery and just expand its capabilities.

    For an idea of the problems involved in building a refinery at a remote location, google,’come-by-chance refinery’

  52. Abe Froman says:

    Oh! Way, way OT; but the most expensive photograph ($4.3M) inna WORLD. EVAH.

    Would’ve been cheaper to go to the same location and take a shot with your phone.

  53. MissFixit says:

    Ok I’m having trouble concentrating on the evil government and the world ending shortly because OMG that Penn State shit is UNREAL.
    The whole program should be shut down and the players can transfer elsewhere. Life’s not fair.

    In other news: my boys are not playing football. ever. I told them they can play golf. Or badminton. (they are too small for football anyway, thank God)

  54. MissFixit says:

    Would Romney move the pipeline forward or would he cave to the environmentalists? I have no faith in him whatsoever. Just wondering if there’s been any statement on that

  55. Abe Froman says:

    Why are you raising sissies, MissFixit? That’s a job for liberal parents. ;-)

  56. MissFixit says:

    I know too many guys who had so many concussions/head injuries in football, and the coaches didn’t care, would put them right back in the game.
    No thanks. My boys can go hunting with their grandpa, somebody who actually gives a shit about them!! ;)

  57. Ernst Schreiber says:

    For an idea of the problems involved in building a refinery at a remote location, google,’come-by-chance refinery’

    Or you could google some combination of “Gorilla Project” “Hyperion Energy” and “Elk Point, S.D.”

  58. Mueller says:

    I wasn’t involved with any of those.

  59. Monday morning links…

    Nudemen Clock. Clever Fran Lebowitz: on learning about ballet and choreography from Jerome Robbins Mead: The Education Change is Coming Faster Than You Think Congressional Inside Traders Are Above the Law REVEALED: Nancy Pelosi Blocked Credit Card…

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