So the rumblings about a cave-in were apparently true. Can’t find anything on the wires yet, but Guy Benson of Townhall hears from a “senior GOP source” that it’s a done deal and Fox News’s Chad Pergram quotes Lamar Alexander as saying, “We’re very pleased with the decision on the Keystone pipeline.” Benson:
Round one of this fight went to Obama. Round two, to the GOP. Round three? A TKO decision for Republicans. A senior GOP source tells me that Democrats have agreed to a two-month extension of the temporary payroll tax cuts — plus unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” — with some extra Christmas goodies for conservatives. Quote: “Two-month extension, PLUS Keystone. Fully paid for; no tax hikes. Hallelujah.”
Note that it’s not a comprehensive deal on the payroll tax, just a two-month extension, but that means there’ll be another opportunity for more goodies soon. Smells like victory, and yet … that possibility troubles my eeyorish mind. Let me throw you a pessimistic curveball cribbed from the comments in the other Keystone thread: What if Obama’s secretly been hoping for this outcome? His problem with the pipeline was that it forces him to choose between environmentalists and labor. He’d love to have those new jobs so that he has some teeny tiny economic accomplishment to tout next year, but he doesn’t want to tick off the greens by rubber-stamping approval of the pipeline. So instead he pretends to punt his decision until after the election, knowing full well that the GOP will take up the issue somehow in order to burnish their own jobs credentials.
Senate leaders reached an agreement Friday to extend the payroll tax cut for two months, averting a New Year’s tax increase for millions of workers. The agreement also will require the administration to decide quickly whether to allow construction of a controversial transcontinental oil pipeline……or not.
Dithering is more Obama’s style.
He had hoped to never decide.
All that was accomplished with this is that Obama got his hand ”forced,” – which was just what he wanted!
1. If yes, he was Forced to decide yes/no on the Keystone pipeline, so why should the greenies abandon him?
2. If yes, he gets the credit for all the jobs which will be created.
A win/win for Obama.
He won’t decide no.
Build the dang pipeline.
Refine all that poor quality oil and ship it to Europe.
Helps the Canadian government pay for their social programs. Lowers the global cost of oil by maybe $2 a barrel. Short term jobs building the pipeline. A handful of short term jobs maintaining it. More bad air over Houston. One way or the other that oil is going to get dug up and burned and the carbon will end up in the air, whether or not the pipeline is built.
All in all, a dubious deal, but the GOP has got you by the short hairs.
Time for a strategic retreat. Build the dang pipeline.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
A few facts. The oil sand bitumin is a better quality oil than any in California. The dems would never shut down all the oil activity in California.
Warren Buffet bought Burlinton Northern RR for 26 billion. He was expecting oil freight from the Williston Basin.
N Dakota wants to save their roads.
N Dakota is presently over a billion in the black. They have a state law where they have to balance their budget. Their treasury will grow about a billion per year.
N Dakota has less than 4% unemployment.
Keystone XL is going to be used to transport N Dakota oil. Costs for oil transportation are going to plummet.
Hey Oil Guy. Thanks for the info.
California’s oil is a pittance, compared to what will come in from Alberta. To the extent that it replaces present higher grade oil being refined in Texas, it’ll dirty the air of Houston, but I haven’t been there in 15 years, save for airport layovers at IAH.
Buffett and rail? Balances out the Kochs and the pipeline. Project this big, lots of dogs in the hunt.
Anyway, as I wrote above. Time to retreat. Build the dang pipeline.
– Larry W/HB