President Obama announced last Friday that the Keystone XL pipeline would bear little benefit to the American people if approved for construction, reported The Hill.
“That oil currently is being shipped out through rail or trucks and it would save Canadian oil companies, and the Canadian oil industry enormous amounts of money if they could simply pipe it all the way down to the Gulf,” said Obama during a press conference. “It’s very good for Canadian oil companies, and it’s good for the Canadian oil industry but it’s not going to be a huge benefit to U.S. consumers, it’s not even going to be a nominal benefit to U.S. consumers.”
Obama’s announcement is refreshing for environmentalists and those otherwise opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline. The president has railed against conservatives who want to approve the construction of the pipeline. Although a vote last month failed to bring the issue to Obama’s desk, Republicans, which will take over all of Congress next month, plan to revisit the issue.
The soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “has vowed to make it the first piece of business” for the new year. According to McConnell, “I’ll see what they do. We will take that up in the new year.”
Republicans seem to harbor the delusion that the Keystone XL pipeline will be a cure-all solution for all of America’s economic and employment woes, noted the president.
“I think there has been this tendency to really hype this thing as some magic formula to what ails the U.S. economy and it is hard to see on paper where they are getting that information from,” said Obama.
The Keystone XL pipeline isn’t the “magic formula” that the GOP thinks it is. It will only provide 50 permanent jobs after construction is complete. And as the president correctly asserted, the pipeline will bring little benefit to American consumers.
