This past Friday at President Obama's last press conference of the year he made his strongest statements yet against approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. This president will enjoy watching the republican heads explode when he rejects the pipeline; and so will I.
Some highlights from the press conference:
"There's been this tendency to really hype this thing as some magic formula to what ails the US economy but it is hard to see on paper where exactly they're getting their information from.” -President Obama on Keystone XL 12/19
"At issue on Keystone is not American oil, it is Canadian oil that is drawn out of tar sands in Canada. That oil currently is being shipped through rail or trucks, and it would save Canadian oil companies and the Canadian oil industry an enormous amount of money if they could simply pipe it all the way through the United State down to the Gulf. Once that oil gets to the Gulf, it is then entering into the world market and it would be sold all around the world. … There is very little impact, nominal impact, on U.S. gas prices, what the average American consumer cares about, by having this pipeline come through.
And sometimes the way this gets sold is, let’s get this oil and it’s going to come here and the implication is that’s gonna lower oil prices here in the U.S. It’s not. There’s a global oil market. 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."