Keystone Pipeline Delay Sparks Outrage on Capitol Hill
EmailHouse Speaker John Boehner this morning pressed President Obama to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, as the president is expected to block a permit to proceed on the pipeline — possibly as soon as this afternoon.
The speaker said the project would “create 100,000 new jobs,” and he warned that further delay on a decision about whether to go forward on the project could result in losing out to China.
“The Keystone Pipeline has been through three years and it’s passed every approval process as required by the law. Even the president’s own State Department has indicated that this thing ought to move forward,” Boehner said. “The Canadians are in conversations with the Chinese, and if we don’t build this pipeline to bring that Canadian oil and pick up the North Dakota oil and deliver it to our refineries in the Gulf Coast, that oil is gonna get shipped out to the Pacific Ocean and will be sold to the Chinese.”
“This is not good for our country,” he continued. “The president wants to put this off until it’s convenient for him to make a decision. That means after the next election. The fact is the American people are asking the question right now: Where are the jobs? The president’s got an opportunity to create 100,000 new jobs almost immediately. The president should say yes.”
Returning to Capitol Hill after three weeks of recess, Boehner also sharply attacked Obama’s record on job creation, saying that Republicans would focus their attention this year on creating private sector jobs.
“The policies that have been implemented by the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress they had that preceded us have made the economy worse and have made it more difficult for small businesses to create jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “The issue of job creation in our country is critically important, and we’re going to continue to focus on it every single day that we’re here in Washington representing the interests of the American people.”
Boehner’s second in command, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, echoed the speaker’s comments, telling reporters that House Republicans “are united around a realization that the policies that have been promoted by this administration have not worked,” but he pledged to work in a bipartisan fashion with Democrats “to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make small businesses the centerpiece of this country again.”
“When you look at the spending and you look at the continued expansion of Washington, what hasn’t happened is the expansion of the private sector and job creation,” Cantor, R-Va., said. “Our members are going to be hyperfocused on how we go about creating small business jobs. We all know that the engine of jobs in this country are the small businesses. That will be our focus.”
From January 2009 to December 2011, total private sector jobs have decreased by about 1 million. Excluding the first month of Obama’s presidency, from February 2009 to December 2009, private sector jobs dropped by 332,000. Of the country’s 13.1 million unemployed, 42.5 percent, or 5.6 million people, have been out of work for six months or longer.
However, since employment hit post-recession lows in February 2010, the economy has added more than 3 million private sector jobs, recovering much of the jobs lost. For all of 2011, the economy added 1.6 million total jobs, more than the 940,000 added in 2010.
Boehner welcomed back his rank and file colleagues this morning to the second session of the 112th Congress, after an unpleasant end to 2011 when House Republicans reluctantly accepted a temporary two-month extension to the payroll tax credit and unemployment insurance. A closed-door conference meeting today lasted about 30 minutes longer than usual, with many members wishing to speak out after a lull back in their districts.
“We’ve got a lot of disparate voices in our conference,” Boehner said. “The president wanted the payroll tax credit extended for a year, so did we. We didn’t think the Senate should leave, but it was pretty clear the Senate wasn’t coming back. … We were picking the right fight, but I would argue we probably picked it at the wrong time.”
Boehner refuted criticism that the first session of the 112th Congress was the most unproductive on record and turned his disapproval to the United States Senate for a lack of action on a slate of House-passed legislation that Republicans believe would produce jobs.
“We’ve passed jobs bill after jobs bill after jobs bill. The House has done its work, but it takes two to tango, and that’s why our members are frustrated … that we’ve got 30 bills that will help produce more American jobs sitting in the United States Senate,” Boehner said. “It’s time for Harry Reid and Senate Democrats to quit playing hide the ball and to instead try to help the American people get the economy moving again.”
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
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What Obama job policies is Boehner talking about? He’s let the tea party republicans block and delay every jobs bill the President has submitted. He’ll do the same thing with the budget and tax reduction extension. He’s one of the reasons Congress has an 11% approval rating.
Posted by: tmferretti | January 18, 2012, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
Yes and he is about to reject the oil pipeline reported on other very dependable news agencies. Where are the Unions???? almost 20,000 Union jobs are going to be gone. Canada says they will pipe line to China to get oil to them instaed of the USA. And that the USA is treating every piece of land like a National Park. Come on people why are you libs and lefties not CRYING to Obama to open the pipe line construction. Jobs Jobs Jobs who you gonna blame?? Bush? Yeah you will because you lefties and libs are robots following orders.
Posted by: Jim Rod | January 18, 2012, 12:47 pm 12:47 pm
This sounds really believable coming from the WORST Speaker EVAH!!!! These morons are grasping at straws as they have been since 2008. Want to go back to the GOOD OLE DAYS OF GW!!! Not in a MILLION YEARS!!!
Posted by: demNme5 | January 18, 2012, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm
Boehner couldn’t be more correct.
Posted by: Joyce | January 18, 2012, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
When it comes to the Keystone pipeline, you would have had to be living under a rock to not know why he’s sitting on it.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 18, 2012, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
I hope the president rejects the pipeline with a solid veto . We as Americans have got to start making tough choices about how we want to live . I don’t care as much about a few temporary jobs that will go to a very specific few union workers as much as I care about what kind of planet we are leaving for our descendants and fellow creatures . There has to be a line drawn between legitimate useful and responsible job creation and irresponsible corporate profiteering like this pipeline scheme . This is a distinction that conservatives can never fathom , all they care about is their superficial Simple Simon-ish bottom line . The short term is all conservatives see , but long term worries or concerns they are conveniently ignorant of , like when their plethora of ill-advised chickens came home to roost just recently (e.g. Reaganomics ,financial sector deregulation , Bush tax cuts , Bush “Pill Bill” etc ) bringing a butt load of pain and misery to anyone but the 1% ers , they (Rs) shrug their shoulders in their best Alfred E Neuman pose and start looking for scapegoats for THEIR collective ignorance and naivete. You peon conservative dweebles voted for that idiot Bush , probably twice . You’ve done all the damage . It’s YOUR fault we are in such bad shape we’d even be discussing something like this R/wing pipeline / grift plan . Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
Posted by: davem | January 18, 2012, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
100,000 jobs? Yet another lie…
Posted by: RalphF | January 18, 2012, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm
The pipeline AT MOST MAY make 20,000 jobs over a two year period. Most are temporary, and the Canadian company will not say if they go to US or Canadians – gee, I wonder. If everything were wonderful, there may be a few hundred permanent jobs, but again, do not know if US or Canadian. Boehner is a fool. He has not a clue what he is talking about. Bush lost the US millions of jobs while making his rich friends rich. There has been 22 months of job GROWTH in the private sector. Not as many as some would like, but better than what we had.
Posted by: pksk531 | January 18, 2012, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
So, this pipeline will create jobs for a bit of time. Ok, but what most of us want to know is where does the product go once it gets to the gulf? Is it put on a ship and shipped out? We currently export oil and then turn around and import oil. Why?
Posted by: whatisthecost | January 18, 2012, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
The pipeline will do nothing to lower gas prices. Most of the refined product will be shipped to China. When Jimmy Carter was President cars averaged about 12 miles/gallon. Now the average is approximately 28 miles /gallon. It’s obvious we use less gas put the prices have gone up instead of down. If this doesn’t tell you who controls the price of gasoline nothing does.
Posted by: tmferretti | January 18, 2012, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
Here it is folks, read it and weep: “Keystone XL is an export pipeline. According to presentations to investors, Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export to Europe and Latin America. Proceeds from these exports are earned tax-free. Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.”
Posted by: RalphF | January 18, 2012, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
President Obama doesn’t pick the low hanging job creation fruit. He would rather squander money on “investments” which quickly go bankrupt leaving the taxpayer on the hook for the debt! The United States has gone into the “New Dark Ages” where people have an irrational fear of Global Warming and the enviromental boogieman! The flat-earthers (afraid of their own shadow) curse the darkness rather than light a candle of solutions.
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 18, 2012, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
I hope the president rejects the pipeline with a solid veto . We as Americans have got to start making tough choices about how we want to live . I don’t care as much about a few temporary jobs that will go to a very specific few union workers as much as I care about what kind of planet we are leaving for our descendants and fellow creatures . There has to be a line drawn between legitimate useful and responsible job creation and irresponsible corporate profiteering like this pipeline scheme . This is a distinction that conservatives can never fathom , all they care about is their superficial Simple Simon-ish bottom line . The short term is all conservatives see , but long term worries or concerns they are conveniently ignorant of , like when their plethora of ill-advised chickens came home to roost just recently (e.g. Reaganomics ,financial sector deregulation , Bush tax cuts , Bush “Pill Bill” etc ) bringing a butt load of pain and misery to anyone but the 1% ers , they (Rs) shrug their shoulders in their best Alfred E Neuman pose and start looking for scapegoats for THEIR collective ignorance and naivete. You peon conservative dweebles voted for that idiot Bush , probably twice . You’ve done all the damage . It’s YOUR fault we are in such bad shape we’d even be discussing something like this R/wing pipeline / grift plan . Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
Posted by: davem
___________________
Even Obama’s own researchers said the pipeline was not going to hurt the environment. Obama sold out to Al Gore and the global warming activists. Consequently, China will get the oil and the pipeline will be in use anyway.
However, despite all your ranting against, those horrible “conservatives”, Obama has just handed them a big victory. While rejecting the pipeline will be VERY bad for the American people, it will be great for the Republicans. The fewer jobs there are, the greater the chances the Republicans will take the WH and the senate
Posted by: ivan | January 18, 2012, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
What Obama job policies is Boehner talking about? He’s let the tea party republicans block and delay every jobs bill the President has submitted. He’ll do the same thing with the budget and tax reduction extension. He’s one of the reasons Congress has an 11% approval rating.
Posted by: tmferretti
__________
The “tea party” Republicans wouldn’t be there at all if Obama were the greatest thing that ever happened since sliced bread. He had a super majority in both houses of Congress the first two years of his administration and had more opportunity to create jobs than any President since FDR. Obama showed us he didn’t care about jobs. He cared about socializing medicine.
Obama himself is the reason the “tea party” is in the House and by rejecting this pipeline, he has just now handed the White House to the Republican nominee
Posted by: ivan | January 18, 2012, 2:41 pm 2:41 pm
The Russians will sell us oil at approximately half the price /barrel than the Saudis. We won’t take advantage of it because the Russians want to deal directly, not through Exxon, Mobile, BP, Shell etc.
This shows how much the oil companies control Washington.
If a pipeline is needed it should go from Siberia to Alaska, not Canada to New Orleans.
Posted by: tmferretti | January 18, 2012, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
Oh come on. You KNEW that was going to happen.
The question is……..waht are you going to do about it????
Are you going to allow Obama to continue to dictate…….or are you going to stand up and fight?
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 18, 2012, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
Good for the President. Seriously, people, jobs? Cornell University researchers estimated a final number of PERMANENT jobs to be around 20. Not a typo. Temporary jobs (NOT guaranteed to go to US citizens) 2-3K. The oil does not stay here, it’s for export. There have already been a dozen leaks/spills since the project began in 2010. Any leak from the proposed pipeline jeopardizes the Ogalala aquifer which runs under 8 US States and is the source of water for irrigation for 65% of US agriculture. Really – why doesn’t TransCanada build it trans-Canada? It’s half the distance, with only Alberta and British Columbia between the tar sands and the Pacific, including the harbors in Vancouver. I’m sure they could accommodate tankers, given the alleged value of the oil. But no, rather than sully their own land and water they put ours at risk.
Posted by: Floretta | January 18, 2012, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
Another example of the Global Progressive, New World Order agenda (conspiracy)
Posted by: Wst3 | January 18, 2012, 3:31 pm 3:31 pm
No they didn’t postpone it for further study, they killed it because of the Republicans. How utterly political.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 18, 2012, 3:38 pm 3:38 pm
This pipeline to make Canada and China lives better goes right through farm and ranches thus cutting down on the availability of land to run cattle and raise crops. To all you suburban dwellers that are addicted to oil, suck it. When you eat a meal, better thank the farmers and ranchers that worked to put that food on your table. We don’t own Canada a dam thing my friends. and the big oil executives can kiss my rear end. I am a card carrying Republican, but this young black President just earned my vote and campaign contribution for doing what is right for the majority.
Posted by: TexasRancher | January 18, 2012, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
He’s one of the reasons Congress has an 11% approval rating.
POSTED BY: TMFERRETTI | JANUARY 18, 2012, 12:40 PM =====The other reason is that moron Harry Reid
Posted by: susan | January 18, 2012, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
I am a card carrying Republican, but this young black President just earned my vote and campaign contribution for doing what is right for the majority.POSTED BY: TEXASRANCHER | JANUARY 18, 2012, 3:40 PM—-Nobody is buying that line of BS for sure. Take it on down the road.
Posted by: gary | January 18, 2012, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
Facts are that this project underwent approximately three years of study and was approved by this administration. That is until the environmental lobbying threatened to pull funding from Obama’s re-election campaign only then did this administration announce they needed further studies to analyze the new route even after initially signing off on it. It was widely published that no decision could be made prior to 2013, which would have spared Obama any backlash until after the elections. This saved Obama from supporting the project which angered the environmental lobby or denying the project which in turn would anger the union lobby. The GOP was caught between a rock and a hard place because if they did nothing the project was in jeopardy because Canada made clear they would not wait a year for a decision. So, the GOP gambled on forcing the issue in the 60 day time frame making Obama take a stand one way or the other. The difficulty the GOP faced is precisely what is happening now and that is Obama shuffling the blame for this to the GOP when indeed the project would have gone to China had the Obama administration stuck to their stated timeline of 2013. So, for all those morons who don’t see this for what it is and that is Obama playing to the environmental lobby while deflecting union anger towards the GOP are just plain ignorant or in denial. Facts are that this president only supports job creation when it placates his liberal special interests.
Posted by: SeaElk | January 18, 2012, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
Oh, so NOW the Republicans are going to focus on jobs creation — especially since this is an election year. They’ve done nothing in the previous couple of years but roadblock every piece of legislation that been attempted in this regard. And Boehner is going to spin this pipeline thing every which way he can to try to make everyone who’s not a Republican look bad — again it’s an election year. And those of you who think the pipeline is such a great idea — I’m pretty sure you’ll change your mind if it comes anywhere close to being built on your property. The pipeline is OK if they build it in someone else’s backyard, right??
Posted by: JMPABQ | January 18, 2012, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
Sure…. O is for the working man!
Posted by: Jack Young | January 18, 2012, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
Leave it to the GOP STOOGES to use the mass media to make such a big, giant deal out of 20,000 jobs out of the 14,000,000 required to bring the nation any relief. The NO CONGRESS refuses to discuss any other way to get people back to work.
So, what’s 20,000 construction jobs as a percentage of our overall (stated) unemployment problem?
Simple math: it’s .00142%. Underwhelmed enough?
That’s less than 1% of 1% of our nation’s unemployment problem.
It’s not 140,000 jobs; which would be 1%, wouldn’t it?
It’s not 70,000 jobs; which would be 1/2 of 1%. No such luck.
It’s not even 35,000 jobs, is it? That would be 1/2 of 1/2 of 1% of our joblessness problem.
Nope. It’s 20,000 temporary construction jobs they offer, from the Canadian Tar Sands, the dirtiest form of energy we could harvest from the Americas and unleash into the air. Even if you think climate change is a remotest of risks, the consequences are so grave that you have to be dumb as dirt to just swallow industry propaganda and ignore it in favor of .001% TEMPORARY jobs.
We could hire 100 times as many people people to rebuild and rehab our failing electric grid so it could collect and deliver energy from all over the nation in two directions, which it does not do now.
And yet somehow, because they have the whole system rigged with bribes, kickbacks, payola and graft, right down to the STOOGES on Roger Ailes’ FOX-GOPTV, overpaid, jingoist pill popping shills who wrap themselves in the flag to pitch these kinds of dirty deals for PROFITEERS every night and on the radio all day, I’d be wrong and overstating the case to call these STOOGES treasonous, right? Well I won’t then. You be the judge.
Note: these GOP STOOGES did not turn around to Tom Donohue (who makes $4.2 million per year as CEO) and their PROFITEERING masters at the 300,000 member cmpany Chamber of Commerce to say: “Hey, we need just 70,000 of you to sit down and find a way to hire 1 person each, even to just train them for future growth…”.
Most CEO’s make 3 to 10 million per year. Could they not give back just $50,000 dollar to hire someone for the company and the nation? It’s less than the fuel bill on their jets, or their 5th car.
At just 70,000 jobs of their 300,000 members, it would be 3 times the jobs they are making a big deal out of in the media, but still just 1/2 of 1% of the jobs we need to get straight with the jobs and career casualties who perished when the Bush-Clinton-Baby Bush Express crashed.
Nope– these Boot Licking STOOGES sit back and wait for their marching orders from their PROFITEERING masters who came to propose the filthiest Energy project they could come up with to use against the other party, almost guaranteeing more GRIDLOCK to lock out competition, fair trade and ultimately the sick man of Earth– CAPITALISM! They brought a project that was so well planned, according to these STOOGES, that it runs right through Nevada’s so called Sand Hill, which is a massive aquifer that means clean water for farms for 1000 of miles. Of course they agreed to move it… if only the White House would give them a green light.
Our media is no better. Journalists are either bought out by Fox or Fox type operations, where they are paid to shut up about monopolies, profiteering business practices. Or else, they are out of business, as newspapers and station without Newscorp’s GOP-TV access to corrupted capital markets fold up.
And so our once FREE PRESS is pawned, like our government and economy. The whole nation is GRIDLOCKED, from Rupert’s Playhouse media invasion that’s amusing us to death, to the Congress, right down to the price at your Walmart Chinese roving flea market cartel.
The Chamber of Commerce claims a direct membership of 300,000 businesses, and 3 million through its various affiliates such as state and local chambers. Some of the Chamber’s members and donors are Goldman Sachs, Chevron, Texaco, and Aegon. These companies hire and fire more people in a week than these GOP STOOGES are offering with their 20,000 construction jobs.
Feeding the reactionary zombie support for the PROFITEERS who have lobbied for the dirty pipe project, here is a list of the STOOGES in congress who voiced their dissent as soon as the president rejected the Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline project.
PAID Congressional Keystone- XL Pipe Line STOOGES
Tim Grifffin, R- AR
Tom Reed, R-NY
Steve Palazzo, R,Miss
Eric Canter, R-VA
Fred Upton, R-Mich
Lee Terry, R-N
Shelly Moore Capito, R-WV
Marsha Blacstone, R-TN
Posted by: Jeff Slowbro | January 18, 2012, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
Jeff speaks the truth. You all on here whining about the ESTIMATE of the number of jobs it would’ve created probably wouldn’t even qualify for any of those jobs. Why would the fat-cats building the pipeline hire the inexperienced when they can pull in experienced pipeline workers saving money from not having to train them. I’ll say it again, nobody complaining about the loss of these phantom jobs has any qualifications to fill those positions. How many construction workers have been out of work and have decades of experience compared to yourselves? Now tell me why the fat-cats would hire you over a veteran?
Posted by: Kojak | January 18, 2012, 7:11 pm 7:11 pm
This is a do-nothing administration on jobs, energy and the quality of life for most Americans. Meanwhile, his utopian statist ideology and mythology of corporate dystopia is poisoning the country.
Posted by: apetra | January 18, 2012, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
This is the stupidest project ever. A giant pipeline carrying heavy, dirty oil through our best agricultural land and over one of the biggest aquifers. What could possibly go wrong?? Not only that, it only benefits the oil companies, since MOST OF IT WILL BE EXPORTED, and is expected to RAISE THE COST OF OIL AND GAS IN THE MIDWEST. It further dumps millions of tons of CO2 into the air, and only creates 3,800 low paying, transient McJobs. What the hell is there to like about this???
Posted by: Mark | January 18, 2012, 9:40 pm 9:40 pm
i dont understand why we need the president to approve this pipeline he’s not a king; we need the oil.DAHHHHHHHHHH
Posted by: jim sholtes | January 19, 2012, 8:15 am 8:15 am