A demonstration of another sort

On Sunday, thousands of protesters descended upon Washington D.C., forming a human chain around the White House. The reason for their anger…the Keystone pipeline.

We told you a bit about this project here, but the planned pipeline will run from Canada to the Gulf Coast carrying some 1.1 billion barrels of oil per day.  Approval is in the hands of the State Department, and although the proposal has passed every environmental hurdle, the administration sent it back “for further reveiw” in April. 

The President has decided to involve himself personally in the matter.  White House spokesman, Clark Stevens, had this to say about the President’s decision:

[he] recognizes that there are a number of critical issues involved in this decision, including climate change and impacts on public health and natural resources.

Translation, I need the votes of the environmentalists.

However, there is another critical issue in play…organized labor

It is estimated that construction and operation of the pipeline would create 20,000 construction jobs and 118,000 spin-off jobs.  Not bad in an environment of 9% unemployment.

The unions–from the Teamsters, to the Plumbers and Pipefitters, to the Laborers–are out in front pushing for this giant job creator.  ‘We can’t wait to get America building again,’ blares a union-sponsored website in support of Keystone…

And, they have good reason. 

The EPA has labored over an ozone rule (estimated job losses: 7.3 million), power plant rules (1.4 million), a boiler rule (789,000), a coal-ash rule (316,000), a cement rule (23,000), and greenhouse gas rules (even Joe Biden can’t count that high).

But, the President also needs the votes of the union members.  The union leadership will, of course, throw money at the campaign, but what about the members themselves?

…a poll out of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania just found that 59% of union households now say they want someone in the White House other than Barack Obama.

Can the President hold both groups at bay until after the election by simply sitting on the decision?

I’m not so sure.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

10 Comments

  1. Tim-in-Alabama on November 7, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Stop this prairie dog murdering pipeline. Obama wants us to be Brazil’s biggest oil customer!



  2. Plainvillian on November 7, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    The president better organize his community.?



  3. Gary J on November 7, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    they hurt ? prairie dogs? Darn darn



  4. Common Man on November 7, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    Oh, the pipeline will get built to satisfy union labor but I’m sure Obama will use an executive order to prevent one drop of oil entering it, satisfying the treehuggers. It’s like the New Britain Busway…”We’re on a Road to Nowhere”.



    • ricbee on November 7, 2011 at 11:05 pm

      Sounds like a good guess to me. Let’s hope Obama is not the one deciding about the oil.



  5. JollyRoger on November 8, 2011 at 12:26 am

    So we’re drilling in Canada and then pumping the oil down to where we could simply drill for oil in the first place???? I believe lots of countries including Brazil, China, Norway, India, Venezuela…? go to the Gulf for their oil drilling.? Does it all boil down to ~138,000 construction jobs, and a 2,000 mile pipeline connecting oil to oil- effectively, a pipeline to nowhere??
    ?



    • Dimsdale on November 10, 2011 at 1:06 pm

      You could make the same argument about oil from the Middle East.? I think the issue is that there are no refineries on the US/Canada border.



  6. winnie on November 8, 2011 at 8:17 am

    The State Department is now doing a review and could gum things up until after the 2012 election.? In that case, O doesn’t even have to make a decision and can promise both groups (environmentalists and unions) that he’ll have their backs.? I’m guessing that’s exactly what will happen…
    ?



  7. Lynn on November 9, 2011 at 7:29 am

    I have no comment of my own. The MIGHTY SEVEN have said it all. LOL you hit every point possible in this surreal ObamaWorld we live in. Well, I dunno, Dims you haven’t weighed in yet.



    • Dimsdale on November 10, 2011 at 1:05 pm

      Since you asked….I am all for the pipeline, as well as the use of the product it transports and building more refineries to process it.? The greenies fail to recognize that Canada will simply sell the oil to China if we don’t buy it, and I think their emissions record speaks for itself.? It’s all the same air, but they can’t go to China to protest, now can they? ? The so called “dirty oil” will be extracted regardless of its final disposition.? They argue that there are areas of Nebraska that need to be bypassed due to considerations about the Ogallala aquifer, but fail to note that the current pipeline boasts no environment issues whatsoever.? They are protesting a problem that doesn’t exist.? I don’t see all the horrible predictions coming true that were made about the Alaskan pipeline, so their track record, in a word, sucks.
      ?
      The ?bamaroids are making a political decision, not a good decision, proving once again that it isn’t what’s good for the country driving their decision making process, it is “what’s good for ?bama’s reelection prospects” that is driving it, i.e. the delay is political, not critical.



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