Obama to fast-track portion of Keystone pipeline

The marker that welcomes commuters to Cushing, Okla. / AP Photo/The Oklahoman, File, Matt Strasen

BOULDER CITY, Nev. - President Barack Obama plans to direct federal agencies to fast-track an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas, backing a segment of the larger Keystone XL project that he rejected earlier this year.

The 485-mile line from Cushing, Okla., to refineries on Texas' Gulf coast would remove a critical bottleneck in the country's oil transportation system.

The directive, to be announced Thursday, would also apply to other pipelines that alleviate choke points.

For Obama, the announcement provides an answer to Republicans who say his energy policies, including the rejection of the larger Canada-Texas pipeline, have led to high gas prices, and destroyed jobs.

Obama lobbied Democrats earlier this month to block a GOP bid to force approval of the Keystone project, which environmentalists have rallied against.

[b4uigo]

What an opportunistic fool Obama is. The fed govt does not need to approve this section of pipeline. This is and was a done deal without any input from the Bummer. Now he's trying to jump on the bandwagon for something he has nothing to do with. Sleaze at its most pronounced.

[slatep]

The Republicans are famous for encouraging projects that could potentially destroy our eco-system.

The couldn't care less how many environmental catastrophies take place as long as it doesn't affect their wallets.

GB2 wanted to reduce restrictions on the amount of pollution industries create; claiming that meeting the current standards for emissions and any new ones created would simply cost too much.

Does this sound like GB2 and the Republicans care about pollution and the health of Americans.?????

Obama is not responsible for the price of gasoline going up.

It is the fault of out of control speculators on Wall Street.

Obama bailed out these people when their fraudlent dealings almost caused the collapse of Wall Street.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, their life savings, their retirement accounts and their homes thanks to Wall Street, big banks, big business, mortgage lenders and the oil companies.

Based on what I hear, Wall Street is regaining a lot of the losses they sustained in what is supposed to be an economic recovery.

Actual translation: We got away with it once;why not try it again.??

DON'T LET OUR BROKEN AND CORRUPT GOVERNMENT, WALL STREET ETC. STICK IT TO US AGAIN.!!!

[nearl451]

As I have been telling you all along, whether it makes economic or environmnetal sense or not.....Obama has been for this pipeline all along. It was a done deal DAY ONE. Only cancelled when Congress attempted to usurp the function of the executive and force the questionable routing routing across the Oglala, over the top. Even as the application was rejected, the Administration asked that a resubmission be made ASAP for consideration.

This entire issue will be defused as a political argument by the time of election.

The remainder is political football.

The one item of note is that if gas really falls to $2.50/gallon long term (BTW it won't) as is promised by some, tar sand extraction is not economically sustainable anyway, in which case the pipeline would go belly up.

[nearl451]

....belly up like Solyndra.

[mrsdualcitz]

Right,its Romneys idea,lol

[RichZubaty]

ha ha ha ha. The man has no morals whatsoever. He's a sausage maker. Should be running a Deli on the South Side.

[skeezix06]

One more reason not to vote for Obama.

[notyrants]

wfw3536 March 21, 2012 8:11 PM EDT
Obama is desperate to cover up his mistake of two times in the last couple of months to successfully kill the Keystone Pipeline. Doing only this segment of the pipeline is like the bridge to nowhere. I guess Obama believes like his Energy Sec Chu who graded his handling of gas prices/etc as an "A", which shows you that these folks could care less about regular folks having to pay 4 or 5 dollars for gas.
------------------
Apparently you have failed to religiously follow the church teachings of your clerics at Fox who were informed awhile back that it is even REPUBLICAN ranchers in Nebraska that have played the role in blocking this carcinogenic invasion of crude on their lands that is under siege by global non-transparent, non-democratic corporate government feudal oil lords.

You dumb republican party orifice leaching partisan ghouls are alienating people who have been loyal to the republiCON party for most of their lives.

[mrsdualcitz]

WOW,due respect, you obviously hate the President,but do not know much about oil.
Im a dual citizen of both Canada and the USA,and from MN,I read my Montreal news every morning.The Keystone Pipeline has been REMODELED,since the President has rejected it.NEITHER CANADA (wanted to polute 5 Provinces)nor the USA wanted to polute several States.Canadians have spent over 5 billion dollars over this:to make it right.Republicans will say anything,because THEY ARENT I POWER.2.50 a gallon.If you believe that....
You are probably like most of my students,who thinks that most of our Foreign Oil comes from Saudi Arabia.(wrong 86 percent has always come from Canada,I know a very scary Country!)
So he is NOT DESPERATE to cover his mistakes.He took the heat from the dumbell teabaggers,and waited for both Canada and the US,to get the Pipeline right.
I know,its kind of bad news for the teabagger party.You will have yo go back to the birth certificate ,I guess!

[notyrants]

The XL Pipeline can route around Nebraska, cut through Ohio, snake its way through parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's farm before cutting across parts of Oklahoma and Texas. When it begins fouling the water, leaking into the soil, let the redneck fools pick themselves up from their bootstraps and may Sam Brownback not turn any more than he already has to big nanny government to lend him a dime x100,000 in subsidy and bailout.

[daffy64]

Whew. For a while there it looked like dummy Obama was going to cut off the cash pipeline to Canada. Mr. "use American energy" was going to ruin our booming economy by pushing those stupid electric cars that use American power.

Don't worry, yanks. We have enough sludge (crude bitumen) to provide us with your cashier I mean, supply you with oil for a hundred years.

By that time, we should be able to buy your country and pay off those nasty debts you have to the Chinese.

[retm-w]

He might yet, since this is only part of it.

[skeezix06]

Reasons to oppose the pipeline other than the potential for damage to the landowners the pipeline goes through. The source is wikipedia.

"Making liquid fuels from oil sands requires energy for steam injection and refining. This process generates two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel of final product as the "production" of conventional oil."

"Because bitumen flow very slowly, if at all, toward producing wells under normal reservoir conditions, the sands must be extracted by strip mining or the oil made to flow into wells by in-situ techniques, which reduce the viscosity by injecting steam, solvents, and/or hot air into the sands. These processes can use more water and require larger amounts of energy than conventional oil extraction, although many conventional oil fields also require large amounts of water and energy to achieve good rates of production."

I guess we don't need no stinkin' clean water to drink?

"Oil sands extraction is generally held to be more environmentally damaging than conventional crude oil. It can affect the land when the bitumen is initially mined and with large deposits of toxic chemicals; the water during the separation process and through the drainage of rivers; and the air due to the release of carbon dioxide and other emissions. Heavy metals such as vanadium, nickel, lead, cobalt, mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, copper, manganese, iron and zinc are present in oil sands."

Heavy metals on top of everything else? This doesn't sound like a bargain to me.

[ju78iklo9]

Get re-elected. Sheeesh.