Has Obama Already Decided to Kill the Keystone XL Pipeline?

COMMENTARY | Congressional Republicans won a major victory by forcing prompt consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline. President Barack Obama has 60 days to approve of the pipeline rather than about a year as he originally planned, according to the Washington Examiner.

But the Hill is reporting some Senate Democrats are expressing confidence the president will kill the pipeline. Are they whistling in the dark to justify letting the measure pass? Or do they seriously think that Obama will destroy his chances of re-election by catering to the environmental lobby?

It could well be that Obama has signaled the Democrats it would be safe for them to allow the Keystone XL provision pass, at least from the standpoint of their relations with environmentalists. However, if Obama has done this and is in earnest, it signals his mind has already been made up and the spectacle of delaying the decision until after the election is an attempt to fool blue collar workers.

It will turn out to be one of biggest mistakes of many in the president's political career.

Rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline would be bad enough. Besides the jobs it would create, former Obama adviser Jim Jones maintains the pipeline is a matter of national security, according to Foreign Policy magazine. A rejection would not only damage relations with Canada, an American ally, but would also foreclose a source of oil from a friendly, secure country.

Jim Jones was Obama's National Security adviser, so he knows of what he speaks.

To compound the mistake, Obama will be seen as having lied about his true views on the pipeline. If he is certain to kill it, as Senate Democrats maintain, then the notion of delaying the decision past the election was part of a cover up of that intent.

The one thing that angers Americans more than anything about their government is the suspicion that it regularly lies to them. Americans are already outraged at the duplicity surrounding the passage of the health care reform bill. If they come to believe that the president is willing to kill tens of thousands of jobs by cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline and then lie to cover up his intent, their fury will be compounded at the polls next November.

Source: Is the pipeline going to pass? David Freddoso, Washington Examiner, Dec 16, 2011

Democrats: Concession to GOP on Keystone will force Obama to kill pipeline, Alexander Bolton, The Hill, Dec 16, 2011

Jim Jones bucks Obama on Keystone XL pipeline, Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy, Dec 16, 2011