In Barack Obama’s America, the path to prosperity passes through his campaign coffers.
The conventional wisdom surrounding Obama’s denial of a construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada assumes that he is once again postponing a critical judgment until after the general election, because a decision either way will anger one of his core constituencies, either the elitist, leisure class environmentalists or the labor unions.
Certainly, evading the electoral consequences of a difficult decision was his original goal, when he
cynically announced that he would not decide until after the election. His hand was forced by Republicans who inserted language into the payroll tax relief bill passed just before Christmas that required him to make a decision.
His response was to deny the application, then invite a re-application, once again permitting him to evade the consequences of exercising either courage or leadership.
But the likely truth is that Obama does not want the pipeline – period.
One of the funniest moments of the 2004 presidential campaign involved the Democratic candidate John Kerry explaining how George W. Bush deceived the Senate by being truthful with them. According to the highly-nuanced, French-looking senior senator from Massachusetts, that’s not how business is done in the world of politics. Obama seems to have fooled a great many in Washington using the same ploy, by telling everyone exactly what he intends and permitting the deep thinkers to stroke their beards and ponder what he really meant.
Early in 2008, Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that part of his economic plan was
to bankrupt energy companies that used fossil fuels. The Chronicle did not find this information newsworthy, an opinion shared by most of the mainstream news media. If it were ever broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN, most of the world would hear it for the first time. This is likely the first time you’ve heard of it.
After his election, he explained to ABC News that
higher gasoline prices were another of his economic goals. The few who tuned in to watch the interview probably remember it, but again, Obama’s Praetorian Guard Press managed to limit its dissemination.
So when Barack Obama denied the application for the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would have brought ethical oil from Canada and created tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs, the mainstream news media assumed that Obama was just playing politics and not pursuing his ideology.
No, he meant it. He does not want that oil passing through that pipeline.
First of all, Obama has promised us a magical “green economy.” And even though he has
thrown billions of dollars at alternative energy companies owned by some of his biggest fundraisers, these companies have failed because energy from fossil fuels is far cheaper, sometimes by an order of magnitude.
The only way to make his green cronies competitive is to use the authority of his office to drive the competition from the field.
So far, his Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the shutdown of 25 gigawatts of electrical generating capacity based upon some fanciful projections that failing to do so will cause Americans to fall dead by the thousands.
And now Obama is obstructing the importation of oil from neighbors to the north, who have made it clear that if the United States doesn’t want the oil, then
China’s next on the list. If this were about saving the planet, then burning the oil in the United States with our air pollution controls makes far more environmental sense than sending it up China’s filthy smokestacks.
There’s another angle to consider as well. Denying that construction permit won’t keep the oil out. It will just have to enter the US and travel to the refineries by a less efficient means - the railroads. And if you guessed that another of Obama’s filthy rich political allies will get richer as a result, then you’re absolutely right.
According to a
Bloomberg News Agency story published Tuesday, Warren Buffet will be the prime beneficiary of Obama’s obstructionism. He owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, and is ideally positioned to haul the oil southward.
When asked about the prospect of hauling Canadian oil, Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern happily declared that if the Keystone XL pipeline "doesn't happen, we're here to haul!"
It pays to have friends in high places. And renting Obama’s friendship is beyond the working man’s means.
Update: Another "green" Obama proposal will
fatten the wallet of George Soros.
