With his eyes firmly on the 2012 prize, President Barack Obama is distancing himself from an inevitable presidential decision to approve or deny construction of the planned Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas.
TransCanada Corporation has proposed to build the $7 billion pipeline to transfer crude oil from tar sands fields in Canada to the United States, where it can be refined.
The president is avoiding the decision because it requires him to choose between these two important parts of his political base — the environmentalists who oppose oil energy, and the unionized blue-collar workers who want to build the $7 billion U.S. portion of the pipeline. The Washington Examiner reports that the Canadian Energy Research Institute says the pipeline would create as many as 435,000 U.S. jobs by 2035.
The White House’s public relations shuffle was demonstrated Monday by spokesman Jay Carney, and by the State Department’s inspector general, who announced an investigation of TransCanada’s plan.
The White House’s efforts to delay the decision may prompt the company to cancel the project, and instead build a pipeline to a West Coast port in Canada, where the oil could be exported to China.
Last week, the president casually described himself as the final arbiter in the federal review of the construction approval process. “I’ll be measuring these recommendations when they come to me,” Obama told an Omaha TV interviewer.
But in Monday’s daily press conference, Carney rushed to rewrite the president’s televised remarks.
“The [review] process itself, as established by an executive order signed under the previous administration, as established by long precedent prior to that, is run out of the State Department … [and] involves inputs from a lot of different agencies and departments within the executive branch, and it would be — it will be — driven by the criteria the president has discussed.”
Monday’s announced investigation by the State Department’s inspector general also pulled attention from the president’s role.
The new investigation could let Obama postpone any decision on the pipeline past the election.
The review began after far-left Sen. Bernie Saunders and 13 other Democrats requested the investigation, citing concerns over commercial links between the construction company and a company that reviews planned construction programs for legal compliance with environmental laws.
When asked by the press about the investigation, Carney said “I would refer you to the State Department on that.”
The investigation, he said, “is run out of [the Department of] State [and] is a process that includes input from a variety of agencies and departments within the administration.”
TransCanada did not comment on the investigation.
However, the company’s website highlights an Oct. 19 letter from 22 Democratic House legislators. The letter, which shows the deep split in Democratic ranks, asked Obama to approve the pipeline. “It is in our national interest to have a presidential permit issued for Keystone XL as soon as possible [because] America truly cannot afford to say ‘no’ to this privately-funded, $20 billion, jobs-creating infrastructure project, which would bolster our economic, energy and national security.
Obama has tried to bolster his lagging support among unionized workers, partly by promising more deficit spending on construction projects, but also by funding the auto companies. A decision by him to veto the pipeline, however, could cost him significant support in 2012, especially in Midwest swing states.
The inspector general’s investigation, however, was applauded by environmentalists.
“It’s good to see the administration beginning to listen to responsible lawmakers, and we look forward to the results of this inquiry about the warped environmental review process,” said Bill McKibben, who helped organize a Sunday anti-pipeline rally at the White House.
The protest, he said, is motivated by “the fact that these tar sands are the second largest pool of carbon on earth.”
Because “the State Department didn’t even bother to study that global warming question, the only real answer is to send this back for a whole new review — or, better yet, for the president to simply back up his campaign promises and deny the permit outright.”
McKibben also said the new investigation will spur further protests, including a Nov. 16 protest at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago. “Everyone should know that this will only encourage people across America to step up the tar sands fight … President Obama promised to fight for the climate and now, without Congress in the way, he can actually do it.”