Keystone controversy continues as Obama visits Cushing

President Barack Obama arrives at the TransCanada Stillwater Pipe Yard in Cushing, Okla., Thursday, March, 22, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

The first leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline is slated for construction, and President Obama on Thursday sought to remind voters he backs at least this portion of the controversial project.

"Producing more oil and gas here at home has been, and will continue to be, a critical part of our all-of-the-above strategy," Mr. Obama said from Cushing, Oklahoma, the site where the Southern portion of the pipeline will begin construction.

That has not stopped Republicans from attacking Mr. Obama for failing to embrace the cultivation of domestic oil resources. And as new evidence shows the public getting behind the project, environmentalists are desperately calling on the administration to slow down and consider what they say will be disastrous environmental and economic risks that come with putting a pipeline directly through the Midwest's agricultural base.

Mr. Obama stopped in Cushing as part of a two-day tour touting his energy policies. The stop gave the president a prime photo opportunity among pipes in TransCanada Pipe Yard -- evidence he's attempting to pursue his "all-of-the-above" energy strategy amid rising gas prices.

TransCanada Corporation first proposed the Keystone project in 2005. The 1,700-mile underground oil pipeline would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to oil refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. The full project needs executive approval since it crosses international boundaries. Republicans tried to pass legislation late last year to expedite the process, but Mr. Obama rejected it to give the State Department more time to review the project's potential impact.

However, Mr. Obama has suggested he could back the full project once all the reviews are in. Today, he's issuing a memo directing federal agencies to fast-track the Southern portion of the pipeline that begins in Cushing -- even though that portion doesn't need his approval, since it crosses no international borders.

A new Gallup poll, conducted March 8-11, suggests the president's memo may be the right political move -- 57 percent of Americans think the full pipeline should be approved while just 29 percent think it shouldn't.

Still, by supporting the pipeline the president risks angering the liberal base and those concerned with its environmental impact. Last year, tens of thousands of people objecting to the pipeline protested in Washington against its approval.

Yesterday in Nevada, Mr. Obama maintained, "As long as I'm president, I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy." He said opponents of clean energy investments amounted to "charting members of the Flat Earth Society."

But today's stop in Cushing has environmentalists concerned the president may be giving in to those very forces he belittled yesterday. Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council this week specifically criticized the president's support for the Southern leg of the pipeline.

"It is downright foolhardy to cut corners on safety reviews for permitting the southern segment of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline - especially when the industry has a history of oil spills," she said in a statement. "We already know from experience that tar sands oil is more likely to spill and harder to clean up once it spills. The people of Oklahoma, Texas and the rest of the country deserve better."

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Environmentalists feverishly point to 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, as an example of what happens without proper oversight of the oil industry. To further make their case, they're pointing to the 2010 million-gallon spill in Michigan's Kalamazoo River, which showed that tar sands oil spills can be especially challenging to recover from -- parts of the river are still closed as clean up continues.

The National Wildlife Federation argues the Keystone project should at least wait until the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration finishes an ongoing study on tar sands pipelines.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

While opposition to the project from environmentalists is fierce, Republicans have just as enthusiastically called for its approval.

The State Department estimates Keystone could create 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, though other analysts give a lower number -- the Cornell University Global Labor Institute that found up to 1,400 temporary construction jobs would be created. Still, conservatives are citing estimates that the project would create 20,000 jobs, coming from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian ambassador to the United States.

In addition to creating much needed jobs, backers of the pipeline say it would boost North American energy production. Lucian Pugliaresi, president of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, told a congressional committee that the pipeline is needed because "chokepoints in domestic crude transportation infrastructure are now so severe that they are threatening North American petroleum production."

And by approving this project, proponents argue, the energy markets would be encouraged to expand domestic production. "We are no longer arguing over a few hundred thousand barrels/day of new production but the opportunity for a transformation of the American economy," Pugliaresi said.

By approving the Keystone pipeline, "we can truly have a policy that gains U.S. North American energy independence," Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Thursday. "If we're able to access resources up in the North -- in Alaska, in the Rockies -- it is in range. But it's not in range if you pick and choose" which energy sources to pursue.

Mr. Obama has said he's for an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy, but Republican Sen. John Thune of Nebraska said today, "Actually, he's only for '29 percent of the above,'" referring to the fact that the Cushing leg of the TransCanada project only represents 29 percent of the Keystone pipeline.

"Ironically, [he supports] the 29 percent that doesn't connect to the energy source," Thune added.

The Republican National Committee has dismissed Mr. Obama's stop in Cushing today as a "stunt," as have his potential Republican presidential opponents.

"He's going to build a pipeline -- the Southern half of the Keystone pipeline," Mitt Romney said this week. "It's kind of like the Bridge to Nowhere -- it doesn't connect to Canada, it's just down South. So if his poll numbers go a little lower, of course we'll be able to get the other half."

[Herne42]

I see 1,700 miles of underground pipelines as 1,700 miles of things that could and eventually WILL go horribly wrong...

That pipe will remain there well beyond the time, when ALL wells run dry.

We are WELL past peak oil production. We used, what took millions of years to create in a span of just over 100 years....

THIS IS VERY VERY SIMPLE MATH.

We need to end prohibition and concentrate on re-new able, green and sustainable bio fuels... (we HAVE to remove big Co operations and Industries AWAY from politicians.)

P.S. Registering Pedophiles and violent criminals and releasing them into society doesn't seem like a very bright idea either, might i add.

[mitty41]

I don't think the President is aware of the tsunami that is now forming across this land that will sweep him and a large number of his followers right out of office. Just name one program that he in stiuted that helped this country.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

Let me see, the DOW closed today above $13K and when Bush left it was what, $8K.

[republicansrdumb]

The Republicans caused this whole problem by repealing the windfall profits tax. This disincentive to gouge the public was very effective in that there was no motive to do so as once your profit margins reached ridicules proportions you were taxed at 90%. Now the consumer is a fish in a barrel and as the Republicans wanted it powerless to do nothing except pay what is demanded with no recourse.

[wfw3536]

Obama killed the Keystone pipeline, now he wants to build the pipeline to nowhere. Does this sound familar, like the bridge to nowhere.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

There is already one Keystone pipeline in the US, it starts at Hardisty, Alberta ends at Cushing OK. The pipeline that he wants to build is from Cushing to OK so that the refineries in TX can get more oil to produce more gas so that they can send that overseas, like they are doing now!

[ProtectAmericanJobs]

Drilling here at home might not be the whole answer, but it's certainly a good place to start. We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.

The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.