I realize I just wrote about the Keystone Pipeline in my blog last week. But this is such a big deal that I hope you don’t mind if I focus on it again this week – but from a different angle.
I’m guessing that since you’re a faithful, or at least an occasional, reader of my weekly blog, that you probably agree with me, that approving the Keystone Pipeline is way overdue. And in last week’s blog, I criticized Barack Obama for announcing that once again, he just couldn’t bring himself to okaying this critical energy project.
Recent polling indicates that support for the Keystone has been increasing in this country, with nearly 70% of Americans now supporting its approval. So why won’t Obama approve it? Well, he’s surrendering to an extremist, left-wing environmental minority, who really oppose all forms of fossil fuels. It’s a radical Green agenda, most notably demonstrated by the Obama Administration’s “war on coal.”
This fringe element, which has Obama’s ear, and is driving America’s current energy policy, was on full display in Washington, D.C. last week. The anti-Keystone groups descended on Washington for a rally, and were joined by such notables as actress Daryl Hannah and rocker Neil Young.
With such star power draws, you’d expect a pretty respectable-sized crowd. Considering that the annual March-for-Life draws hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans each year to Washington, and the Million Man March brought, well, approximately a million African-American men to Washington, the measly 1,000 who bothered to show up to demonstrate their opposition to the Keystone Pipeline was frankly, rather embarrassing.
Their timing was a bit off too. Congress was not in session, and therefore not in Washington last week. And President Obama was in Asia. But the press was there, and that was, after all, really what they wanted anyway. To show that, allegedly, the American people are opposed to this pipeline, because it is such a threat to the environment.
Well, the facts are that every environmental study that’s been done so far, and there have been many, have shown that the Keystone Pipeline presents no significant threat to the environment. But the attitude of these environmental zealots is, don’t confuse me with the facts, just stop this pipeline from ever happening. And President Obama, thus far, has gone along with them.
Okay, I’m done. I’ll talk about something else next week. But it bugs the heck out of me that something as important to our country as this pipeline, is being blocked by politics, and stupidity. We need the oil, and we need the jobs. But Barack Obama’s stubborn devotion to the radical environmental community, is winning the day. And it’s a shame.