Perfect Timing, President Obama!

by Jackie Moreau on January 27, 2012

in Blog

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President Obama’s record proves that he understands how to use time effectively, solely to his advantage.  His craft of circumventing issues of critical national interest is an art form, and his State of the Union address is no exception.  “This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy, a strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper and full of new jobs.”  His hypocritical declaration was salt to the fresh wound inflicted by his dismissal of the $7 billion privately funded TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline just prior to the SOTU.

The following day, it became clear at the Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on Rep. Lee Terry’s (R-NE) The North American Energy Access Act (H.R. 3548), that political “timing” was the basis for Obama’s pipeline rejection.  Kerri-Ann Jones, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environment Assistant Secretary of the State Department, was the witness who vouched for the State Dept’s recommendation that Obama kill the pipeline.  She said that the merit of the project did not cause the second rejection; it was the lack of time given to finish the reviewing process of a new route.  According to Jones, it normally takes 18-24 months to vet a project of this size; the KXL Pipeline, however, has now been under review for a total 40 months.

Solyndra, which disposed of $535 million of tax payer money, is the poster child of Obama’s hypocritical devotion to due diligence.  Before rushing Solyndra’s subsidy out the door, Obama’s DOE blatantly ignored countless red flags regarding the viability of their first green energy flagship of government funding.   When Solyndra went belly-up, laying off more than 1,100 workers, the Obama administration wanted to get the timing right.  Emails from the Argonaut Private Equity, an investment firm owned by Solyndra’s largest investor and Obama campaign donor George Kaiser, indicate that the DOE asked Solyndra to postpone the announcement of job layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections.  How convenient.

The KXL Pipeline, a job creation project that has absolutely no cost to the taxpayer, has been delayed now solely based on political timing.  When the KXL Pipeline was first protested because of its prospective environmental effect on the Nebraska portion of the Ogallala Aquifer, TransCanada agreed to reroute the pipeline.  But unfortunately, an environmentalist pow-wow encircling the White House was enough applied pressure for the President to punt the pipeline decision until after the 2013 election.  When the 2 month payroll tax holiday attached a 60-day deadline for a pipeline decision, Obama rejected the pipeline on day 26.  All in the name of “due diligence.”

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