Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Obama tells another Presidential commission: "Drop dead"

Here's the Hill yesterday afternoon: "Obama's jobs council report says 'drill'":
President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines.
“[W]e should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
The report does not specifically mention the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but it endorses moving forward quickly with projects that “deliver electricity and fuel,” including pipelines.
And now today from the WashPost: "Obama administration to reject Keystone pipeline."  Well, at least he was decisive this time instead of letting the group's recommendations wither on the vine like the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission.

Extra - Minuteman: "Jobs and energy independence for Americans - the greens will never get behind this."

More - From Q&O.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Dammit, what IS this? They're not supposed to call our bluffs!"

P.S. What Simpson-Bowles recommendations? The ones Paul Ryan & Friends killed because they (incorrectly) thought they could get a better deal through tactical intransigence? Hmm, what would that gamble look like in pipeline form?

Eric said...

Who is that in the first-person monologue? The Jobs Commission was bluffing? Huh!

Ancient history from 3 weeks ago said...

The Republicans foisted a Keystone insta-decision deadline onto last month's payroll tax cut, figuring that they'd cleverly taken control of the timeline, and forced the President's hand. They figured wrong.

Eric said...

Ha-ha! Yeah, voters are going to remember that timeline faceoff.

Now get ready for 10 months of "Keystone vs Solyndra" ads.

Anonymous said...

"insta-decision"

The Keystone application has been pending for more than 3 years. Oh, those intransigent Republicans!

The political calculation in this was Obama's. He wanted to delay this rightfully unpopular decision until after November.

OTOH--that acknowledged energy and fossil fuel expert, Robert Redford, says the President should be lauded for standing up to "Big Oil." I'm confident that Americans of all denominations will appreciate those sentiments as they see ALL their energy costs rise exponentially.

Anonymous said...

The political calculation in this was Obama's. He wanted to delay this rightfully unpopular decision until after November.

Well, thank goodness the GOP made sure it got done before November, then. Problem solved!

Representative Obama never should have attached the expedited Keystone legislation to his payroll bill.

Now get ready for 10 months of "Keystone vs Solyndra" ads.

OH NOES! How will the President cope, now that he's lost the Republican ad makers?

"In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 60 percent say Mr. Obama is attempting to work with Congressional Republicans to try to accomplish something; 27 percent say Republicans in Congress are making the same effort to work things out with the president."

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/g-o-p-in-congress-get-blame-for-gridlock/

"Fifty-four percent of respondents said that Bush was more to blame while 29 percent put the blame on Obama; 9 percent said both men deserved blame while 6 percent said neither did. Among registered voters, the numbers are almost identical; 54 percent blame Bush, while 30 percent blame Obama.

Independents, widely considered the most critical voting bloc this fall, continue to blame Bush far more than Obama for the economic troubles. Fifty-seven percent of unaffiliated voters put the blame on the former Republican president, while 25 percent believe the blame rests more with Obama."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-economy-its-still-bushs-fault/2012/01/17/gIQAE7Dy6P_blog.html?wprss=rss_politics

Anonymous said...

Guess Bush should give it up then. He will never get re-elected....

Oh wait.....

Eric said...

You're right, Bush will never get re-elected with these numbers:

"The swing voters who will play a pivotal role in determining his political fate are up for grabs, the poll found, with just 31 percent expressing a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama. Two-thirds of independent voters say he has not made real progress fixing the economy."

Your blame numbers are nice, though.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/us/politics/poll-shows-obamas-vulnerability-with-swing-voters.html

Old and busted: "We can't wait!"
New and hot: "Shovel-ready high-paying oil company jobs? They can wait."

Anonymous said...

Doofuses giggle over "Miss Me Yet?" billboards while the other two-thirds of Americans use their attention span. But let's get back to Obama losing the election by personally killing the Keystone pipeline.

Montana's Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer supports the pipeline, has approved its route through his state, and disagrees with the delays. He explains Obama's villainy to Neil Cavuto on Fox News:

"There is no route in Nebraska. Neil, you probably didn’t have it exactly right. You can’t permit a pipeline if it’s a pipeline to nowhere. Nebraska called a special session to change their laws so that they won’t allow the pipeline to be permitted for at least six to nine months, and we should get going on building the pipeline, but...

Neil, more important than that, if this didn’t cross the international border, we don’t need Washington, D.C. to give us states -- the states are the ones who give the permits.

We’ve given the permits in all the other states, except for Nebraska. But since it crosses an international border, the State Department has to sign off on it. But the State Department can’t sign off on a pipeline if you don’t even know what the route is.

So, again, Washington, D.C., yammering on, but the fact of the matter is, there’s not going to be a permit even available to examine for another six or nine months, until Nebraska decides a route.

But the State Department is asked to sign off on a pipeline to nowhere... you cannot sign this until Nebraska has a route. Nebraska hasn’t even permitted this pipeline. And they won’t for six or nine months.

Nebraska, they called a special session of the legislature and changed their laws because the people of Nebraska said we don’t want the pipeline. They’ve got 16,000 miles of pipeline in Nebraska, but they didn’t want this one.

As soon as TransCanada can deliver a completed permit application that includes a full route, then -- the Washington, D.C., can act it on. But they’ve got a permit that they cannot act on right now.

I would hold the president responsible for a lot of things, but, in this particular case, those of us would know Montana, South Dakota, TransCanada, we all know that the hang-up is Nebraska."

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/01/19/whos-blame-keystone-pipeline-delay

Eric said...

Interesting that Obama, who had no qualms about foisting Obamacare on the American people with little forethought about how it would work out, is suddenly stopped in his tracks by some Nebraska assemblymen. "Will of the people" is cool again.

Have no fear: the governor of Nebraska has indicated that a new plan through the Cornhusker state will be available in September. Hey, that's just before the election!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/19/nebraska-gov-heineman-expects-to-ask-obama-for-keystone-decision-before/

Anonymous said...

Why do Republicans hate states' rights?

To reiterate: the GOP bluffed with some B.S. legislation, and they lost.

But oh boy, oh boy, September's coming, which will make us retroactively correct. And then Obama will presumably only have 5 minutes to approve or reject the plan, and we're a-gonna beat him!

Eric said...

"They lost"?

Ah, sure, sure. As unemployment stays above 8% and gas prices spike this summer, Americans will be clamoring for more solar panels.

Anonymous said...

Yes, absolutely. When gas prices spike this summer, it will be properly recognized as all Obama/Keystone's fault.

Also, when home heating oil prices spike next winter, that will also be Obama/Keystone's fault.

And when the price of Christmas trees plunges on December 26, that too will be Obama/Keystone's fault.

Eric said...

You're right: as you've (and Obama) have noted, nothing is Obama's fault.

Anonymous said...

Er, no. But even if that last accusation were true -- or relevant -- it would still be a coherent bias, as opposed to the situational zigzagging necessary to keep the original dead premise going here.

Face it, a Republican Governor who approved his state’s section of the pipeline says explicitly that your angry talking point of the week is wrong.

What was the response to that? Obamacare stinks. And that the President is playing politics. (Unlike the GOP who tried and failed to speed up the pipeline’s approval for no special electoral reason. Or Republicans getting all hopey-changey that Nebraska can get its act together by September, because September is the new TV season, or the baseball playoffs, or something.) Gripping stuff to be sure, but I’m still intrigued by the whole “wrong” angle.

Eric at work said...

What "Republican governor?"

Yesterday a U.S. District court told Vermont "tough shit" and that Yankee Nuclear Power plant doesn't have to abide by ANY state laws. Suddenly (post-Obamacare) this kind of federal overreach is anathema to the Obama Administration.

But maybe you're right: maybe Obama's sudden deference to state rights is the real story here and Americans will see through the GOP's "trick."

Or maybe they'll watch Canada build a pipeline to Vancouver to serve the Chinese and gaze longingly at North Dakota's 3.4% unemployment rate and say: "Well, these Solyndra solar panels make good ping-pong tables."

Anonymous said...

My mistake. I did mean the Democratic Governor of Montana. I've been reading pro and con comments emanating from both sides, and my wimpy left brain flipflopped with my intolerant right brain. Gov. Schweitzer is not a "nothing is Obama's fault" guy.

Chronologically: the health care law, the Keystone pipeline, the Yankee Rowe plant. The fact that these things (currently) represent federal, state and federal preferences would appear to indicate that the very different circumstances of each might be worth a look. You'd be happier if they went state, federal, state instead... which would be no more "consistent" as either philosophy or public policy, but would totally rock instead of suck. We've all been there, dude.

Eric said...

Well, I have to prepare for an all-night trivia game so I'm doing to declare this a draw and say "thanks" for being (mostly) civil.

Good chat.