Republicans, and even Canada’s former prime minister, have spent five years railing on President Barack Obama for taking “
way too long”
to grant a foreign corporation, TransCanada, permission to construct a
tar sand pipeline over 1,179 miles of American soil. Early in 2015,
Republicans even attempted to subvert the President’s Executive Branch
and State Department authority by passing legislation granting
TransCanada permission to build its Keystone XL pipeline because it was
so necessary to America’s existence that construction could not wait one
more day; the U.S. Constitution be damned.
Now, however, TransCanada are “
requesting” an indefinite and last minute “
time out”
on building Keystone XL and it begs the question; why now and why is it
not vital to America’s survival any longer? Particularly after five
years’ worth of mendacity and propaganda from Canadians and Republicans
alike that unless the President approves the construction permit today,
millions of prospective American jobs will be lost, the price of gas
will exceed the $20 a gallon mark, and America will fail and fall into
the sea.
The foreign corporation that, along with Republicans, has been behind
the gargantuan push to construct the ridiculously dangerous Keystone XL
pipeline from Canada to the U.S Gulf Coast has just begged the U.S.
State Department to suspend its review of the environmentally disastrous
project. That’s right, after convincing Republicans to attempt an
unconstitutional legislative maneuver to seize Executive Branch
authority for big oil profits, TransCanada wants America to suspend the
permitting process. One wonders why no Republicans are screaming bloody
murder.
The foreign corporation, TransCanada, offered up a bovine excrement
excuse for the suspension request and claimed that after seven years and
a monumental crusade, “
a suspension would be appropriate while we work with Nebraska authorities for approval of its preferred route through the state.”
Of all the reasons TransCanada could have proffered for asking for a
suspension of a project they have pushed mercilessly, claiming they need
more time to “work with” any American officials for their “preferred
route” across America is sheer nonsense and a seriously dirty filthy
lie.
It is more likely that the real overriding reason is to avoid the
Obama Administration’s “widely expected” rejection of the permit to
build Keystone XL; regardless of who wants it. It is also likely that an
underlying factor is that the current historically low oil prices have “
undercut the financial logic”
of TransCanada taking the project forward. The Koch brothers or oil
acolytes in the Republican movement have not weighed in on the
announcement and it seems curious that after securing
over a million
or so acres of tar sands in and around Alberta, the impatient Koch
brothers are not outraged the company now wants to put the project on
hold.
TransCanada is not the only combatant in this war on the environment
and the climate. The Koch brothers and Republicans cannot countenance
losing another battle with President Obama or the environmental movement
for that matter, and the oil industry can avoid “
the pre-election rejection by President Obama that many are predicting,”
and hope that by putting the project in limbo they can avoid losing
outright; particularly after a costly and multi-year campaign just to
procure a permit to build the pipeline. Maybe they even believe that in
a year or so all the nasty environmental activists and land owners
opposed to the project will have vanished, or that the EPA and
preponderance of climate scientists will have an epiphany that
developing tar sands will not
mean “
game over for the Earth’s climate.”
Whatever their true motivation, TransCanada knows for certain now
that the Keystone pipeline fails the, frankly weak, climate test
President Obama has laid out and is an economic disaster for ranchers
and farmers across the Midwest. It is also going to be “
devastating for the land and people of Northern Alberta,”
and absolutely worthless to the American people; except of course for
the 35 people who get a job, the Koch brothers, and the foreign export
market.
If the pipeline is, as Republicans have claimed for five straight
years, a job creating bonanza like America has never seen, necessary to
provide Americans with cheap gas, or a critical part of a robust
economic recovery; why are they not declaring war on Canada for asking
America to suspend the permit approval process? This request for a
suspension is all the proof any American needed that Republicans,
Canada’s former prime minister, TransCanada, and particularly
former-speaker of the house Boehner
have been lying through their teeth all along about the benefits of
building the pipeline. What has been missing since TransCanada announced
they want a respite from trying to push a nasty project their citizens
will not allow in Canada, is outrage from Republicans or their masters
the Koch brothers who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars
annually without the pipeline. One would expect Republicans and the Koch
brothers to be screaming foul from every television in America that
TransCanada is destroying a million prospective jobs, thwarting 45-cents
a gallon gasoline, and sending the economy into a deep dark
depression; all because their precious Canadian corporation is delaying
its plan to despoil America’s Heartland as well as the entire Earth’s
climate.
Although the President could have summarily rejected TransCanada’s
permit application long before now, he waited for all the facts to come
in that indeed, the pipeline fails his climate test. This is something
TransCanada is well aware of by now. They also likely are aware that
based on his climate agenda and particularly his recent ban on drilling
in the Arctic, it is more likely than not the President will reject
Keystone XL “
once and for all.” These are just delaying tactics
on the part of a foreign corporation in league with the Koch brothers, Boehner, and every oil-dependent Republican in Congress. They are
all counting on the next administration to toe the fossil fuel line,
obey the Koch brothers, and do big oil’s bidding because it has finally
dawned on them that this President puts the people’s welfare and the
Earth’s climate first.
Over the past two years, in particular, President Obama has made the
environment and the climate a primary concern of his Administration and
he actually made it “clear that Keystone XL can’t be in our national
interest.” It is not a massive job creator and according to the
Environmental Protection agency it will “
significantly increase carbon pollution and exacerbate global climate change immeasurably.”
The foreign corporation TransCanada, Republicans, and the Koch
brothers are resorting to what environmentalists are rightly calling “a
desperate delay tactic to prevent President Obama from following through
on his pledge.” It is glaringly apparent that the axis of mendacity,
the Kochs, Republicans, and TransCanada, are terrified of this President
and now likely comprehend that challenging his resolve or expecting him
to concede to big oil is a very stupid move. They are hoping the next
president is going to do what President Obama has already demonstrated
he will never do; choose oil industry profits over the health, safety,
and welfare of current and future generations of human beings the world
over. As if to punctuate that point, the White House has
announced that despite TransCanada’s request, the President will not “
yield to big oil” to delay his decision on Keystone XL, and that he will make the final decision before he leaves office.
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