What has Canada done for us lately, eh?
Sure, Canadians invented peanut butter and the egg carton. But hey: peanut allergies . . . and loose eggs in a grocery sack will do.
Canada also gave us the Wonderbra, Trivial Pursuits and Instant Replay. But put those all together and what have you got?
A country where it snows too much. That’s what.
But what about oil?
The U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to build the Keystone XL pipeline to bring that Canadian oil down to our Gulf Coast refineries. The Senate is set to vote on similar legislation tomorrow.
But our President sports a veto pen, and refuses to allow a bunch of peanut-butter-eating, Wonderbra-wearing Canadians to invade America with all their dirty crude.
“I have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone Pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices,” an exasperated Obama complained. “Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else.”
Well, if the 40,000-plus jobs from the pipeline’s construction are discounted . . . well, then, those jobs don’t count.
And to suggest that increasing the supply of petroleum might lower prices because of the law of supply and demand? Surely, an executive order trumps economic law.
The Daily Beast’s Jack Holmes also minimizes Keystone’s benefits, noting it amounts only to “a few billion dollars kicked the U.S. economy’s way.”
Yeah, who needs a “few billion dollars” or some construction jobs or more oil or our northern neighbors . . .
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
12 replies on “Who Needs Canada (or Oil)?”
The Keystone Pipeline makes sense as it supplies raw crude to an area were the infrastructure is already in place to process it, and near the markets where it is anticipated the refined products will be sold.
It is a voluntary free market, unsubsidized private investment. It is market driven as opposed to a centrally planned action.
It may help keep the cost of energy reasonable and supply secure. It therefore encourages production of the crude, the use of refunded products and a better standard of living than the central planners and the radical environmentalists wish to allow the population.
Therefore it is opposed by the group of progressive, elitist totalitarians, of which Mr. Obama is a member.
Additionally it should be noted that some of the Democrats, especially the one still seeking election, are willing to compromise her “principles and beliefs” to gain re-election and maintain her power – revealing fully the real goal of the political class actually is.
The president is giving a “shovel ready” excuse.
We used to worry about the trade balance.
I guess we didn’t learn anything from the railroad explosions.
“In my imagination, it is a voluntary free market, unsubsidized private investment.”
In the real world, various states are stealing numerous parcels of land from owners who don’t want to sell, using “eminent domain” to subsidize TransCanada’s boondoggle.
If you have to steal land to build your pipeline, your pipeline is not voluntary, it’s not free market, it’s not unsubsidized and it’s not private.
It sure seems the logic of adding jobs to billions spent during the supposed stimulus had the president’s approval. I guess the difference is not much was spent on those shovel-ready jobs. Keystone is actually more like bulldozer-ready jobs. He’s such an economic illiterate.
It seems so simple… pump billions into the American economy & give people jobs. I was unaware of land grabs as Mr. Knapp stated. Unfortunately, the government has been using that excuse for years. & this has always made me sick.
Truly we need energy independence. And truly we need economic recovery. If the Keystone Pipeline is a means to that end; I’m all for it.
By the president’s logic, all those jobs ‘repairing infrastructure’ don’t help the economy, either.
Not only is the man economically illiterate (thank you, Mr. Arno), he must also be geographically illiterate. Surely there will be ample secondary support jobs as construction of the pipeline wends its way through several states.
Many jobs are temporary. That doesn’t stop the government from collecting its share of our paychecks from those ‘temporary’ jobs.
Karen,
Keystone XL also has nothing to do with “energy independence.”
Exactly the opposite, in fact: The purpose of Keystone is to pipe oil into the United States from Canada.
T Knapp:
You just stated the purpose for the pipeline! And somehow you reason that it will NOT result in greater energy independence in a world where Islamists are gunning to gain control over the world’s energy supply? A world in which we, despite great gains in energy production, still produce <half our energy needs?
Wow!
Allow me to state this again… I am ALL FOR JOBS & for oil from other sources than the Middle East which grows continually unstable. I would hope Mr. Knapp and others would get that simplicity.
Rick and Karen,
“Energy independence” means being independent of foreign energy.
Last time I checked, Canadian oil was foreign energy.
In actuality, it’s not so much that Keystone won’t constitute “energy independence” as it is that Keystone has NOTHING TO DO with “energy independence.”
The purpose of Keystone XL is to pipe oil from Canada to the US Gulf Coast for export to other countries. It’s a highway through the US, not a highway to the US.
None of which would be a big deal — I’m all in favor of free trade — except that in order to build the pipeline, TransCanada has to steal land from private property owners. If you can’t do what you want to do without stealing, you shouldn’t be able to do what you want to do.
Mr. Knapp, Your last paragraph explained the sad fallacy behind the Keystone Pipeline. I would wish it were a truly voluntary market transaction, but it is not. Your last sentence in fact should be the deciding factors on many issues.