Obama’s XL Pipeline Etch A Sketch: The Knobs Do Nothing

In a March 22, 2012 Gallup Poll, asked as part of its annual Environment Survey, 57% of Americans approve of construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.  Forty-four percent of Democrats and 51% of independents approve as well.  That polling information is the chief reason for the current occupier of the Oval Office to “shake up” his XL pipeline decision.

In an “etch a sketch” moment of his own, the errand boy sent by grocery clerks announced that he would speed up the permit process for the southern section of the pipeline—just in time for the presidential election.  No obvious political expediency in evidence here.  Meh.

Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) says when Obama stands in Cushing for his photo-op that he’s pulling a fast one on Americans.

 

In an interview with KJRH, Sullivan, Chairman of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, said, “President Obama claiming credit for speeding up the Keystone pipeline is like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet—it is claiming credit where credit isn't due. This is clearly an attempt to deflect attention from $4 gas and his failed energy policies, and Oklahomans won't buy it.  The southern portion of Keystone XL doesn’t cross international lines and doesn’t need presidential approval.  In fact, this administration has done everything in their power to delay the Keystone process—just last week the President personally lobbied members of Congress to vote against it,” Sullivan stated.

“Simply put, the southern portion of keystone—from Cushing, OK to the Gulf Coast—is being built in spite of the Obama Administration, not because of them.  This portion of the pipeline does require numerous permits, but those come from state authorities, army corps of engineers and fish and wildlife services, not the president,” he concluded.

Here’s an excerpt of an Op-Ed which appears in today’s The Oklahoman:

"Forgive us, sir, if we don’t share your grudging acceptance of fossil fuel as some “temporary” alternative to the energy sources you prefer. It’s not that we dislike wind power. Lord knows we have plenty of wind. Suburban Oklahomans have embraced wind for their electricity, just as their homesteading ancestors embraced windmills on treeless plains. The head of a national wind energy trade association is a former member of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry."

"She loves wind power. But she also gets the criticality of hydrocarbons. Do you?"

"Mr. President, it’s not that we don’t want a bridge to a future that doesn’t rely on imported oil. In fact, we think a key truss on that bridge is a fossil fuel called natural gas. We have lots of it, but your administration seems keen on restricting its exploration."

"In the town that fossil fuel built, we don’t feel trapped in the past, as you put it the other day. We not flat earthers. We’re deep earthers. We don’t cling to our rotary rigs or nodding donkeys (pumpjacks). We recognize their necessity."

"State Rep. Lee Denney, who represents the area you’ll visit in Cushing, notes that a future without oil and gas exists only in your head, not in reality."

"So demagogue all you want about under-taxed oil barons. Just remember that you didn’t arrive here on a solar-powered aircraft. What flows in and out of the Pipeline Crossroads of the World is oil. Getting it to Cushing is expensive and risky."

"Eighty-two years ago, on March 26, 1930, the rumbling at a drilling rig in southeast Oklahoma City turned to a roar. Terrified roughnecks fled when high-pressure natural gas sent pipes and rocks into the air. It took 11 days to tame the Wild Mary Sudik well. But tame it we did."

"Eight decades later we’re still taming hydrocarbons around here, in the town that fossil fuel built."

Linked at Proof Positive and Say Anything.