Obama hints at possible decision on Keystone XL (tar sands pipeline)

[wtmusic]

Video

"Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to pass the buck on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline decision, saying, 'This is a decision that will be made by the State Department.'

Today, in an interview with Omaha station KETV (video here), Obama (aka The Decider) walked that back entirely:

The State Department’s in charge of analyzing this, because there’s a pipeline coming in from Canada. They’ll be giving me a report over the next several months, and, you know, my general attitude is, what is best for the American people? What’s best for our economy both short term and long term? But also, what’s best for the health of the American people? Because we don’t want for examples aquifers, they’re adversely affected, folks in Nebraska obviously would be directly impacted, and so we want to make sure we’re taking the long view on these issues.

<>

"The reporter asked Obama about 'the potential for jobs, does that play into the equation at all?' The President answered:"

We need to encourage domestic oil and natural gas production. We need to make sure that we have energy security and aren’t just relying on Middle East sources. But there’s a way of doing that and still making sure that the health and safety of the American people and folks in Nebraska are protected, and that’s how I’ll be measuring these recommendations when they come to me.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/issue/

[Pirate Smile]

1. "my general attitude is, what is best for the American people?"

'"The State Department's in charge of analyzing this, because there's a pipeline coming in from Canada,” Obama told KETV’s Rob McCartney in the White House. “They'll be giving me a report over the next several months, and, you know, my general attitude is, what is best for the American people? What’s best for our economy both short term and long term? But also, what's best for the health of the American people? Because we don’t want for examples aquifers, they’re adversely affected, folks in Nebraska obviously would be directly impacted, and so we want to make sure we’re taking the long view on these issues.

“We need to encourage domestic oil and natural gas production,” Obama added. “We need to make sure that we have energy security and aren’t just relying on Middle East sources. But there’s a way of doing that and still making sure that the health and safety of the American people and folks in Nebraska are protected, and that’s how I’ll be measuring these recommendations when they come to me.”

McCartney asked Obama if the promise of job growth will affect his decision.

“It does, but I think folks in Nebraska like all across the country aren’t going to say to themselves, ‘We’ll take a few thousand jobs if it means that our kids are potentially drinking water that would damage their health or rich land that’s so important to agriculture in Nebraska are being adversely affected,’” Obama said, adding, “because those create jobs, and you know when somebody gets sick that’s a cost that the society has to bear as well. So these are all things that you have to take a look at when you make these decisions.”'



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67387.html#ixzz1cVU2yggP

Seems pretty friggin reasonable.

[raging_moderate]

2. Make BigOil promise to keep any oil pumped thru the USA.

stay here. Most here probably know that the export refined oil product out of the USA already, and all the "drill baby drill" nonsense doesn't keep us more energy independent if it gets shipped overseas while we are importing simultaneously.

It would be interesting to see how BigOil would react if President Obama were to say he will only sign off on it it the oil/gas/petrochemicals were to be used here domestically only.

[GeorgeGist]

3. ahem ...

Canada is not a domestic source of oil or natural gas even though it's not in the Middle East (code: Mooslim Country).

[TheWraith]

4. Come on, Canada might as well be domestic production.

:rofl:

[raging_moderate]

5. of course....

I didn't say any oil "produced" in the USA, but that travels thru with it's inherent risks and costs. Why should we take that risk and cost just to have BigOil sell it elsewhere? It benefits their stockholders, but not the country at large.