Obama comments on Keystone
spark ire, more concerns about project’s future
Published July 29, 2013
FoxNews.com
President Obama’s latest comments on the
Keystone XL oil pipeline -- including an attempt to downplay the number of jobs
it would create -- are re-igniting concerns that the administration may not
approve the project.
The proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline has
been one of the most divisive political issues of the past four years,
essentially pitting Republicans and other pro-business groups including unions
against environmentalists and their Democratic allies.
The president, in an interview Saturday with the New York Times
,
repeated his position that the administration’s decision will be “based on
whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our
atmosphere.”
,
repeated his position that the administration’s decision will be “based on
whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our
atmosphere.”
However, he also took a swipe at what he
described as the Republicans’ argument that Keystone would be a “big jobs
generator.”
“There is no evidence that that's true,”
Obama said, arguing the best estimate is 2,000 initial construction jobs followed
by no more than an additional 100 jobs. The newspaper's transcript of the
interview showed Obama chuckling as he made the point.
“That is a blip relative to the need,” he
said.
His estimate is significantly lower than
his own State Department’s projection of 42,000 constructions jobs and way
smaller than the 118,935 that project developer TransCanada expects.
Regardless of the accuracy of the numbers, the comments only fueled concern that the administration is viewing the pipeline with increasing skepticism, after sidelining the decision during the presidential election year.
Republicans blasted Obama on Monday for
his comments and for apparently chuckling while discussing the controversial
issue while at his own jobs rally Wednesday.
“A president disparaging private-sector
jobs while backstage at a jobs rally is beyond belief,” Michigan Republican
Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told
FoxNews.com. “In this economy, any source of private job creation should be welcomed
with open arms. After nearly five years … there is no reason to delay these
jobs another day. Republicans, Democrats, leading unions, and job creators all
agree, it’s time to start building.”
The Republican National Committee said in
a statement Monday: “President Obama joked about the potential job creating
power of the Keystone XL pipeline. With our economy lagging, the president
should be jumping at any opportunity to create jobs instead of bending to the
will of special (interests) at the expense of out of work Americans.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce spokesman Matt
Letourneau told FoxNews.com the president’s comments indeed raised concerns but
that the group “was not terribly surprised.”
“The president has had ample opportunity
to approve this, and he has repeatedly found ways not to,” Letourneau said.
The White House did not respond to a
question about where the president got his estimate -- after Obama challenged
reporters in the interview to confirm the jobs projections.
Letourneau pointed to a 2011 Cornell
University study with similar numbers, while adding the president “should
probably stick with his own administration’s numbers.”
He also argued the non-controversial
southern leg of the pipeline has already created 4,000 jobs.
The 1,179-mile-long pipeline is expected
to transport as much as 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Canadian
oil sands (which will result in much of the additional carbon output) and the
Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana to refineries on the U.S.
Gulf Coast.
Supporters say the estimated $5.3 billion
project also will lower the price of gasoline and reduce the country’s
dependency on foreign oil.
However, the president also downplayed
those expectations, beyond the “potential benefit” of bolstering our
energy-relations with a “reliable ally to the north.”
“That oil is going to be sold on the world
oil markets, so it does not bring down gas prices here in the United States,”
Obama told The Times. “In fact, it might actually cause some gas prices in the
Midwest to go up where currently they can't ship some of that oil to world
markets.”
The final decision will be made by
Secretary of State John Kerry and is not expected until the end of the year or
early 2014.
Kerry will base the decision on a second
and final State Department environmental report scheduled for a fall 2013
release and a so-called “national interest” report.
The second one, which is expected to be
complete in late 2013, is being compiled by eight federal agencies and focuses
on such issues as Keystone’s potential impact on transportation and the overall
U.S. economy.
Letourneau said Obama in his major climate
change speech last month also hinted at another possible layer of review.
Upton has repeatedly argued that Keystone
has already been subject to 15,500 pages of environmental study and that the
time is now to approve the project.
“After more than four years of regulatory
delay, the administration has run out of excuses,” he said several weeks ago
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