Tag Archives: Keystone Pipeline

Something To Think About As Gas Prices Climb

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Part of the cause of the rise in gasoline prices is increased tension in the Middle East. Part of the rise is caused by the fact that America is not energy independent and we are at the mercy of things we can’t control. One of the ways to solve that problem would be to become energy independent. Alternative energy may be part of that solution, but right now the technology is such that more carbon-based energy is the current answer. The Keystone Pipeline would have helped and more hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has helped. However, there is a movement among the radical environmentalists to shut down fracking. That movement is not based on scientific evidence.

Hot Air posted a story today about a university study on fracking.

The article reports:

The hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to develop natural gas has no direct connection to groundwater contamination, according to a study released Feb. 16 by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

The study reported that many problems blamed on hydraulic fracturing are related to processes common to all oil and gas drilling operations, such as casing failures or poor cement jobs.

University researchers also concluded that many reports of contamination can be traced to above-ground spills or other mishandling of wastewater produced from shale gas drilling, rather than from hydraulic fracturing, Charles “Chip” Groat, an Energy Institute associate director, said in a statement.

“These problems are not unique to hydraulic fracturing,” he said.

The article also points out that fracking takes place hundreds, if not thousands, of feet below the aquifer. Hydrocarbons are naturally found in the water in areas where there is a high presence of shale oil–that’s why they drill there! The development of shale oil resources in America will provide jobs (the current unemployment rate in North Dakota is 3.3%) and move us toward energy independence. If the technology in green energy moves forward, that would be wonderful, but it isn’t there yet.

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It’s Getting Hard To Figure Out Who Is Playing Fair

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Sometimes I get very frustrated when I look at news stories and try to figure out who is telling the truth. During the ‘silly season’ which we are currently in, it is sometimes difficult to sort out truth from fiction.

Today’s Daily Caller reported that Media Matters for America (MMFA), a supposedly non-partisan organization which is tax-exempt, is lobbying Congress for support in opposing the Keystone Pipeline.

The article reports:

In an email distributed to the offices of both Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Sen. James Inhofe on Wednesday — and obtained by The Daily Caller — Media Matters employee Emilee Pierce sought to “flag” a liberal study by the organization released Thursday in an effort to manipulate coverage of the Keystone pipeline.

The email, addressed to Boxer staffer Mary Kerr and Inhofe staffer Matt Dempsey, sought to “flag that MMFA will be putting out a major, quantitative report on media coverage of KXL tomorrow [Thursday] morning.”

“The study will be similar to our [Environmental Protection Agency] counting study (http://mediamatters.org/research/201106070010) — and will drill home the point the media bought right into Big Oil’s desired frame on KXL,” the email reads, “focusing largely on the (inflated) number of jobs that could be created, without paying due attention to the many other important issues at stake. (Ranchers’ land, spills, climate change, etc.)”

“We are hoping for a big media splash,  but — more importantly — we’re hoping that allies will be able to leverage it to gain favorable coverage,” Pierce continued.

Media Matters for America on its website describes itself as:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

This is not correcting conservative misinformation–this is putting out their own misinformation in concert with members of Congress who should know better. Their tax-exempt status should be investigated.

 

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How Many Jobs Have Been Lost During The Obama Administration Because Of Crony Capitalism ?

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The link for this article is The Examiner. The article was originally at Bloomberg.com, linked to by the Drudge Report, but Bloomberg took it down. I’m sure there is a story behind that.

President Obama has said ‘no’ to the Keystone Pipeline. It is very possible that Canada will build a different pipeline across Canada to sell the oil to China. There is also another possibility. A railroad, coincidentally owned by Warren Buffet, can transport the oil for $3 a barrel more. Either way, the American consumer is the loser.

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone Pipeline made no sense–unions supported the pipeline, and it would have created many jobs. Now it seems to make sense.

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Who Are The Extreme Environmentalists ?

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John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday linking to an American Spectator article about the people who claim to be protecting the environment. The article points out that many of the environmental activists are part of a wealthy leisure class whose income and lifestyle will not be impacted by the policies they support.

The best quote from the article:

As the Forest Service used to say, the person who built his mountain cabin last year is an environmentalist. The person who wants to build one this year is a developer.

Further proof of this mentality can be found if you examine the ‘carbon footprint’ of some of those who believe in global warming and support restrictions on other Americans’ use of energy. Remember too that the wealthiest Americans fighting the development of American energy resources are not concerned about the rising cost of energy to the average American.

The American Spectator points out:

It is not that the average person is not concerned about the environment. Everyone weighs the balance of economic gain against a respect for nature. It is only the truly affluent, however, who can be concerned about the environment to the exclusion of everything else. Most people see the benefits of pipelines and power plants and admit they have to be built somewhere. Only in the highest echelons do we hear people say, “We don’t need to build any pipelines. We’ve already got enough energy. We can all sit around awaiting the day we live off wind and sunshine.”

In regard to the recent decision by the Obama Administration not to build the Keystone Pipeline:

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline.

LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project.

“We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement.

I hope some of the other unions wake up and realize the impact the policies of President Obama are having on American jobs. President Obama has blocked economic growth through excessive regulation and extreme environmentalism. Our economy will not recover until the over-regulation is dealt with. Protecting the environment is crucial, but it can be done in a way that allows the production of domestic energy and the creation of new jobs.

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Is Anyone In Congress Reading The Constitution ?

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Yesterday The Hill reported that six House Democrats, including Dennis Kucinich, have proposed a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits. When are they going to propose a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control movie industry profits, sports organization profits, college profits, etc.? Why are they only picking on the oil industry? Because they have an ulterior motive. When you read down the article a bit, you find it.

The article reports:

According to the bill, a windfall tax of 50 percent would be applied when the sale of oil or gas leads to a profit of between 100 percent and 102 percent of a reasonable profit. The windfall tax would jump to 75 percent when the profit is between 102 and 105 percent of a reasonable profit, and above that, the windfall tax would be 100 percent. The bill also specifies that the oil-and-gas companies, as the seller, would have to pay this tax.

Kucinich said these tax revenues would be used to fund alternative transportation programs when oil-and-gas prices spike.

What is going on here? It’s simple. This is using class warfare to channel the anger that will occur when oil and gas prices go up because of America’s energy policies. Why am I blaming America’s energy policies? The Obama Administration just ended the Keystone Pipeline project, which would have helped with America’s energy independence and helped keep gas and oil prices stable. Please note that the federal tax on gasoline is 18 cents per gallon. The government does nothing to earn that tax money–no exploration, no scientific research, etc., yet they collect money every time an American fills up his gas tank.

The government does not have the right to judge whether any corporation’s profits are reasonable or not. Blaming the oil companies for the Administration’s failure to encourage domestic energy production is simply wrong. At some point the American people will wake up and see what is going on if they haven’t already. The people proposing this should be voted out of the House of Representatives this year!

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Part Of Being An Adult Is Taking Responsibility For Your Actions

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All of us remember the days of our youth when we could blame our siblings for things we did. There was also ‘the dog ate my homework.’ But as we grew, we learned to tell the truth and face the consequences of our actions. Well, not all of us learned that lesson.

The National Journal reported today that President Obama has rejected the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. He has also blamed the Republicans for that rejection–it was their fault because ‘ the 60-day deadline imposed by Republicans did not allow adequate time to review an alternate route through an ecologically sensitive area in Nebraska.’ Does anyone actually believe that he would have approved the pipeline if he had been given more time?

A spokesman for Speaker of the House John Boehner made the following statement:

“President Obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of American jobs and sell American energy security to the Chinese,” said Brendan Buck. “The president won’t stand up to his political base even to create American jobs. This is not the end of this fight.”

I hope that is true. Congress needs to override this decision. The future security of America and American energy depends on it.

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The Real Cost Of President Obama’s Not Approving the Keystone Pipeline

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Yesterday Hot Air posted an article about the repercussions of President Obama’s delay in approving the Keystone Pipeline. It looks as if the delay may result in the pipeline not only not being built now–if the delay continues, it may not be built at all.

The article reports:

 Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to China next month to discuss selling Canada’s bounty to the rapidly growing nation.

The preferred initial plan was to build the $7 billion Keystone pipeline to deliver Alberta’s oilsands crude to refineries in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico.

Harper reasoned that the U.S. government would prefer to deal with a friendly neighbor to help meet its energy needs while creating thousands of jobs.

With widespread opposition by U.S. environmentalists, the Obama administration has delayed its decision on whether to approve the project proposed by energy giant TransCanada Pipelines.

The new plan would market to China and Asian countries through the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would transport Alberta’s oil and natural gas to British Columbia for shipment by tankers.

From a strategic point of view, this is a nightmare. We are depriving ourselves of a friendly source of oil and sending that oil to someone who is building a strong military and who is not a friend. Congress needs to make sure that when the ‘Payroll Tax Cut’ comes up for debate again before February (when it is due to expire) that a significant amount of pressure is put on the President to approve this pipeline. One of the ways that pressure could be applied would be to make sure all Americans paying more at the gas pump understood that the pipeline would eventually give us cheaper gasoline. The Republicans (and the unions) need to be more effective in getting the message out that we need this pipeline.

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What Was In That Bill ?

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Yesterday the Daily Caller posted a summary of the payroll tax cut bill that recently caused so much hand wringing in Congress. The bill that was passed was pretty much what was suggested at the beginning of the negotiations (except for the two-month limit).

The Daily Caller reports:

—Retains through Feb. 29 the current 4.2 percent rate for Social Security payroll taxes paid by 160 million workers, instead of letting the rate rise to 6.2 percent on Jan. 1.

—Renews federal benefits averaging $300 a week for the long-term unemployed through Feb. 29.

—Prevents 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors; extends other health care fees through Feb. 29.

—Requires President Barack Obama to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas within 60 days unless he declares the project would not serve the national interest.

—Price tag of $33 billion. Paid for by increasing home loan guarantee fees charged to mortgage lenders by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration by one-tenth of 1 percentage point. The fee is passed on to home buyers and will apply to many new purchases and refinancings starting Jan. 1. For a $200,000 mortgage, the fee increases a borrower’s cost by about $17 a month.

—Requires House and Senate leaders in both parties to name negotiators to work on a bill extending the payroll tax cut for a year, extend federal jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and keep Medicare payments to doctors at their current level.

I guess I am wondering why we need a committee to extend the bill for a year. The gang of twelve didn’t work out too well, so why are we doing this again?

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Congress Is Stuck On Stupid

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English: Prime Minister Stephen Harper speakin...

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For the moment I am going to ignore the fact that the currently debated tax cut is not a tax cut but a raid on Social Security. I am not even going to comment on the impracticality of a so-called tax cut that only lasts for two months. I am going to comment on another part of the bill that is being tossed around Congress as a political football.

Please understand, the current debate over the tax bill is worth more politically to President Obama than the bill would be if it were passed. The debate over this bill is the perfect opportunity for the Washington establishment to trash the Tea Party. There is also the problem that if the bill were passed, President Obama would have to approve the Keystone Pipeline or explain why he wasn’t approving it (as opposed to his current vote of ‘present’).

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article today about the Keystone Pipeline. Prime Minister Harper of Canada is getting rather tired of the dithering of the Obama Administration on the matter.

The article reports:

 Canada could sell its oil to China and other overseas markets with or without approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the United States, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a year-end television interview, Harper indicated he had doubts the $7-billion pipeline would receive political approval from U.S. President Barack Obama, and that Canada should be looking outside the United States for markets.

“I am very serious about selling our oil off this continent, selling our energy products off to Asia. I think we have to do that,” Harper said in the Monday interview with CTV National News.

Harper’s comments were released a day after the White House sent signals it might kill TransCanada’s oil sands pipeline if it is forced to make a decision on the project in 60 days, saying there wasn’t sufficient time to complete a new environmental review.

The Keystone Pipeline is needed–it would create jobs and put more of America’s oil supply in the hands of a country that actually likes us. With the Arab spring turning into the Muslim winter, we really need to think about where our energy comes from.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

Meanwhile, China is growing thirstier, and Canada grows impatient to sell its bountiful oil to someone who really wants it.  Maybe everyone should concentrate on the real economic benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline instead of the illusory differences between a 2- and 12-month extension of a tax holiday that produced no economic stimulus at all over the past year.

The House of Representatives is right to demand a year-long extension of the so-called tax cut, but they are going to be thoroughly slammed in the political debate.

 

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In Washington Things Are Never As They Appear To Be

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English: Aerial photo of Tea Party rally to ou...

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Tampa Bay Online is reporting today that the House of Representatives has voted 229-193 to reject the Senate’s proposal for a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. 

The article reports:

The House vote, 229-193, kicks the measure back to the Senate, where the bipartisan two-month measure passed on Saturday by a sweeping 89-10 vote. The Senate then promptly left Washington for the holidays. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he won’t allow bargaining until the House approves the Senate’s short-term measure.

OK. Let’s take a look at this. The Republicans in the Senate need to be taken to the woodshed on this one. First of all, a two-month extension of a tax policy is totally ridiculous. Companies need time to program their payroll software, they need some certainty in the future to allow them to plan expenses. The Republicans in the Senate fell right into the hands of the Democrat politicians on this one. Harry Reid left town in order to avoid negotiations. He knew that the House would reject this bill–this is the Democrat way of avoiding the Keystone Pipeline and blaming the Republicans for the middle class tax increase that is coming.

There will be no payroll tax cut extension. In itself, that is not horrible. (Don’t panic. I am not for higher taxes, I just don’t like the way this was done). The payroll tax cut comes out of the “Social Security Fund” (which is nonexistent)–not the general fund. The payroll tax cut ensures the demise of Social Security sooner rather than later. Raising taxes on millionaires, increasing the cost of mortgages, etc., has no impact on the money not collected because of the payroll tax cut–those things impace the general fund–not the social security fund.

Unfortunately, this battle is totally about politics and the American people are the losers. The correct answer to the entire situation would have been for Congress to pass a real budget–which it has not done for almost three years and proceed from there.

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We Did Avoid A Government Shutdown

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The Hill posted a fairly good summary of the budget deal reached in Congress that will prevent a government shutdown. The Congress has actually agreed on something. Now the bill goes back to the House of Representatives for final approval and the President has to approve it in order for it to become law.

The payroll tax cut was extended for two months. That means that we will have to sit through all the posturing and name calling again in about six to eight weeks. Yuck. The bill includes a provision to expedite the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. The bill does not extend some of the business tax breaks–this will not be good for the growth of the economy–there is no such thing as a corporate tax–all corporate taxes are paid by the consumer.

The Hill reports:

The bill now awaits approval next week by the House of Representatives. Senate aides expect House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to agree to the proposal but he will not do so formally until he has had a chance to consult with members of the House GOP caucus.

The thing to remember here is that all these last minute theatrics are caused by the fact that the Senate has not approved a budget since President Obama took office (even during the two years he controlled the House and the Senate), so there are no spending guidelines in place. What we need is for Congress to actually pass a budget that they will have to follow. That would help make Washington a saner place.

 

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This Kind Of Logic Makes My Head Hurt

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CNS News reported yesterday that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has stated that extending unemployment benefits would add “600,000 jobs to our economy.”

Now let me get this straight. Extending unemployment beneifts (which have already been extended to almost two years) would add jobs to our economy.

The article further reports:

Although Senate Democrats indicated they would support dropping the millionaire surtax to pay for extending a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits after a White House meeting on Wednesday, they adamantly oppose several provisions of the Republican bill, such as forcing a quick administration response on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and reforms to long-term benefits for the jobless.

It is going to be interesting to see what the payroll tax extension bill looks like by the time it is passed.

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Common Sense Is Not Always Welcome In The Senate

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 Hot Air posted an article today about a comment by Senator Clair McCaskill that is causing a bit of a stir. Senator McCaskill asked, “Why don’t we give Republicans the pipeline?” I’m sure Harry Reid had a heart attack when he heard those words, but they do actually make sense.

The article reports:

Democratic Sen. McCaskill accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of using divisive rhetoric during the payroll tax cut extension debate raging in Congress this week.

“I think if I were going to critique Harry Reid this morning, I really wish we would stop with this ‘dead on arrival, not going to go there’ and begin to have language like, ‘we’re going to take a look at it and see if there’s anything that we can agree on here and over the next couple of days try to come to an agreement,” said McCaskill on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” Wednesday.

“That’s what’s really going to happen, and I don’t know why this place is so set on, you know, looking like we’re combative all the time,” she added.

I understand that one of Senator McCaskill’s reasons for making that comment may be that she is up for re-election next year; however, it is still a valid comment. It would be nice to see the Senate and the House of Representatives work together for the good of the country.

The pipeline in questions would accomplish a number of good things–it would immediately provide jobs and it would begin to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Any money that we can put into the western hemisphere instead of the Arab countries that are not our friends is money well spent.

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Something To Watch In The Next Week

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This article is based on two stories–one from The Hill on Friday and one from Power LIne today. Both stories deal with legislation drafted by House Republicans regarding the F.I.C.A. tax holiday extension requested by the President, the extension of unemployment insurance, and the delay of changes to the Medicare  reimbursement rate for doctors. The House Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing on the legislation for Monday. This is the legislation that President Obama says has to be passed before he will go on Christmas vacation.

The problem with the bill, as President Obama and the Democrats see it, is the inclusion of a provision that directs the executive branch to approve the Keystone pipeline within 60 days, or else report the reasons to Congress. The details of the President’s previous actions regarding the Keystone Pipeline are detailed in a rightwinggranny article of November 10. For the President, the pipeline represents a dilemma–unions support it (it will create a huge number of union jobs) and environmentalist oppose it (it produces carbon-based domestic energy–that is not their stated reason, but that is the reason). To act on the pipeline before the November election is going to alienate one of those two groups.

John Hinderaker at Power LIne comments:

But there are a number of other significant provisions in the House bill. It would strip Obamacare of $34.9 billion in implementation funding; extend unemployment benefits while gradually reducing the time for which they can be claimed; delay implementation of the EPA’s new boiler and incinerator regulations; freeze pay for federal employees; and more. Some of the provisions are a little silly, like barring millionaires from receiving unemployment insurance and food stamps. But on the whole it is a good package.

For people trying to shrink government spending and create jobs, it’s a good bill. Politically for the Democrats, it’s a poison pill. Unfortunately this bill does nothing to create peace and harmony in Washington, so prepare to hear a lot of name calling on the Sunday news shows this weekend and in the mainstream media during the coming week.

The article at Power Line concludes:

But there is something more serious going on as well. If the payroll tax holiday extension passes–and both parties are now on record as favoring it–the dam will have been breached, and Social Security will be massively insolvent, not at some point in the future, but today. Many liberals have argued–I think correctly–that this is a decisive step that will probably doom the program in anything like its present form. Inevitably, with revenues grossly inadequate to pay benefits to all retirees, Social Security will be means tested. In other words, it will become a welfare program that provides a safety net to the indigent elderly. Will today’s young workers be willing to pay for forty years into a program from which they anticipate that they will get no benefit when they retire–unless, of course, they are planning on being indigent? No way. The consensus that has sustained Social Security will be broken, and the program will be just as popular as other welfare programs; which is to say, not very popular at all. It will be the beginning of the end of the welfare state as we now know it. (That trend, by the way, is prefigured in another feature of the House Republican bill, which would begin the means testing of Medicare.)

The Democrat Party likes the issue of extending the F.I.C.A tax holiday because if the Republicans oppose it, it looks as if the Republicans support raising taxes on the middle class while protecting ‘the rich.’ The fact that extending the F.I.C.A. tax holiday puts Social Security at greater risk and really does not significantly stimulate the economy does not really enter into the political discussion of the issue.

The root of the problem in passing this bill is not the bill or the additions to the bill–the root of the problem is that there is an election in November of next year. Unfortunately we have a bunch of career politicians on both sides of the aisle who are willing to put their re-election ahead of the good of the country. We need the Keystone Pipeline project to go forward for national security and economic reasons, and we need a middle class tax cut (although not out of the ‘Social Security Fund’, which in reality does not exist). It would be nice to see both sides work together for a change.

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The Continuing Attack On Domestic Energy Production

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I’m not quite sure why the radical environmentalists (and the Obama administration) are so opposed to domestic energy production, but their actions indicate that they are. The recent postponement (read that as opposition) to the Keystone Pipeline is one example. Now they are attempting to stop hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Fracking is the process being used in the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota. I need to mention at this point that the development of the Bakken oil fields has resulted in an unemployment rate in North Dakota of 3.5 percent in October 2011.

On Thursday the Washington Examiner posted an article on some of the latest attacks on the process of fracking.

The article reports:

Fracking was first used in Oklahoma in the 1940s and in the years since has been employed in more than a million oil and gas wells across the nation. There is not a single independently documented instance of groundwater contamination by fracking anywhere in the country, a fact that was confirmed as recently as May by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson during congressional testimony.

However, the EPA is not deterred by mere facts. On Thursday the EPA announced that they had found chemicals “likely” associated with fracking at a drilling site near Pavilion, Wyoming.

The article further reports:

“EPA also re-tested private and public drinking water wells in the community. The samples were consistent with chemicals identified in earlier EPA results released in 2010 and are generally below established health and safety standards.” By “below,” the EPA means that chemicals in the groundwater do not exceed acceptable health and safety standards.

Please follow the link to read the entire article to discover what the EPA really found and what it means. At some point you have to wonder why the EPA and the Obama administration are working so hard to eliminate a domestic energy program that has the potential to provide jobs for Americans and to turn the economy around.

 

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Putting Elections Ahead Of Creating Jobs

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Truck Hauling 36-Inch Pipe To Build Keystone X...

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The Keystone Pipeline is a $7 billion pipeline, which would run from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.  It would increase energy security in America and directly create more than 20,000 high-wage manufacturing jobs and construction jobs in 2011-2012 across the U.S.

Today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U. S. Government is planning to delay any decision as to whether to allow the pipeline to be constructed until after the 2012 election. They didn’t exactly word it that way, but that is the outcome.

The article states:

State Department officials are expected to say as early as Thursday the U.S. will seek to re-route the pipeline away from an environmentally sensitive portion of Nebraska. Such a move will require an assessment of the new route’s environmental impact, a lengthy process that isn’t expected to be complete until at least the first quarter of 2013.

The problem this pipeline presents for the Obama administration is simple–the environmentalists oppose the pipeline and the unions support it (more jobs). The pipeline would increase the energy independence of America and make us less dependent on oil from countries that hate us.

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