Obama Kills Keystone XL Pipeline, Tens of Thousands of Jobs, and Throws Unions Under the Bus

Talk about a trifecta!  The President, once again, has taken the opportunity to deny the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.  For those of you that are unaware, the pipeline would go from Canada, to US refineries, giving us an influx of affordable source of energy.  That, and we’d be buying it from an good, decent people that make pretty decent beer, and, as a plus, have no desire to kill us.  Estimates vary, but the uppermost guesses indicate that hundreds of thousands of jobs could be eventually be created.  These would be private sector jobs, that would impact many communities.  However, Obama is denying permission for it to happen.  For more, here is some excerpts from Redstate…

According to a State Department release [emphasis added]:

Today, the Department of State recommended to President Obama that the presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline be denied and, that at this time, the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline be determined not to serve the national interest. The President concurred with the Department’s recommendation, which was predicated on the fact that the Department does not have sufficient time to obtain the information necessary to assess whether the project, in its current state, is in the national interest.

Since 2008, the Department has been conducting a transparent, thorough, and rigorous review of TransCanada’s permit application for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project…

For more than three years, the State Department has conducted its “transparent, thorough, and rigorous review.” However, apparently, the Obama Administration believes that three years wasn’t enough to be transparent, thorough, or rigorous enough.

As Forbes’ Christopher Helman noted in November:

In the process of selecting the proposed route, TransCanada plotted and studied 14 different pipeline paths and submitted 10,000 pages of environmental studies. They’ve already studied this thing to death.

In other words, feet have been drug for so long now, that the feet are gone, and the contact point is just below the kneecaps!

This should be a shining accomplishment for Obama.  It has the potential to bring down energy prices, create a ton of jobs, and make his union friends happy.  Considering his record, and that this is an election year, he should be rushing to sign his approval, right?  Wrong!  It would appear that Obama is continuing on his path to make our nation weaker, keep more people out of work, and therefore, dependent on government assistance-even if it jeopardizes his re-election.

In fact, he has gone as far as to earn the scorn of some union bosses.

From the same RedState article…

As a result of the Obama’s job-destroying decision, Laborers’ union president, Terry O’Sullivan issued a blistering statement:

“The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero. We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said. “Once again the President has sided with environmentalists instead of blue collar construction workers – even though environmental concerns were more than adequately addressed.Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this.”

The project would create thousands of good jobs at a time when unemployment in the construction industry is 16 percent with 1.3 million men and women jobless.

Environmental groups have used the Keystone XL as a disingenuous proxy for arguments about global warming. The pipeline would carry up to 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada’s Tar Sands to the U.S., reducing reliance on oil from hostile nations. While environmental groups decry Tar Sands development, the Canadian government and Trans-Canada, the company developing the Tar Sands, have made clear the oil will be developed – and possibly sold to China – regardless of whether Keystone XL is built.

So, will this be a wakeup call to union bosses?  Will they realize that they are being used as useful idiots?  Probably not, but their lack of realization doesn’t make it any less true.  The average worker, union of not, should realize from this that they are disposable, not only to their bosses, but to Obama as well.

Also, that the ChiComs are the potential benefactor from Obama’s decision should raise some eyebrows, but the MSM won’t be investigating that any time soon.