Christ First Forum

Rep Upton: Obama Pipeline Ploy Costing Jobs
Tuesday, 13 Dec 2011 10:17 PM

By Martin Gould and Ashley Martella

Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats are turning their backs on 20,000 jobs by refusing to permit a much-needed oil pipeline to be built from Canada to Texas, Rep. Fred Upton tells Newsmax.

And if Congress doesn’t hurry up and approve the Keystone XL line, 1 million barrels of oil will go to help China’s economy instead of the United States, the Republican chairman of the House Energy Committee told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

Upton was speaking on the day the House voted to give Obama 60 days to make up his mind on the pipeline. That provision was tied in to a bill that extends the payroll tax holiday while providing for an eventual reduction of unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 59.

Upton said Americans who know about the pipeline favor it by a ratio of 4 to 1. “This is a private pipeline, they’ll comply with all the new standards, and, by the way, we just passed a bill earlier this week with strong bipartisan support for even better standards for pipelines,” he said. “We will be able to offset foreign oil from coming here by using the Canadian oil.

“The Canadians are going to develop this oil resource up in Alberta. They’re either going to send it here or they are going to send it to China. I’d rather have them send it here where we actually can refine it with our jobs."

Even unions are in favor of the plan and the only opposition comes from the green lobby, which wants to promote alternative sources of energy, he said.

“Those who are against fossil fuels are against it, wanting to raise the price of fossil fuels as well. But we need more oil than what we produce here.

“Canada is one of our largest trading partners. They are a major supplier of oil to this country and they have been able to develop oil from oil sands in Alberta and it is an area where they’re going to be producing perhaps as many as 4 million barrels a day before the end of the decade.

“They’d like to send us 1 million barrels that we can actually refine at U.S. refineries here, so for a lot of us, it’s a win-win. It would reduce our reliance on oil outside of North America and provide really a steady flow of oil that our consumers are going to be able to use for a long time.”

Upton, who represents a district in southwestern Michigan, said the 1,700 mile pipeline proposal has been on the desks of both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for three years.

Fears that the pipeline could leak and pollute the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast, shallow water table that yields nearly one-third of the nation’s irrigation, as well as tap water for much of Nebraska and parts of seven other states, have been allayed by having it rerouted.

“Let’s build it,” Upton said. “It’s a $7 billion project that Americans will be doing and as we look at unemployment, my state is 10.5 percent, and when we look across the country, it’s 8.5 to 9 percent and has been for a long time.

“This is 20,000 jobs that we can help create in this country.”

Upton said Tuesday’s news that the Iranians were threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz, the vital oil supply route between it and the Arabian peninsula, for war games, was an even bigger reason why the pipeline is needed.

“If that happens, what happens? The price of oil worldwide dramatically goes up. We have to be prepared for something like that and what this will do with the construction of the Keystone pipeline, we’ll be able to reduce our imports by as much as 1 million barrels a day and have them replenished in essence by our friends the Canadians.”

Upton was emphatic in defending the payroll tax cut as well, saying that without it an American family earning $50,000 a year would see $1,000 less in their paychecks next year.

But he said Republicans are making sure that the tax cuts are fully funded so the Social Security trust fund will not be affected.

“It’s going to be paid for by a pay freeze on all government employees, including members of Congress, and a whole number of different things so that it does not add to the deficit,” he said. “It’s a very important provision that’s part of this bill.

www.newsmax.com

I don't agree with Obama's ploy to delay making a decision about the aquifer. I know it's just another tactic to play both sides (environmentalists and unions) which he panders to.

The Ogallalla aquifer, which is the largest aquifer in the world, is placed in the middle of our country and is a gift from God. Just as all our natural resources are a gift from Him. It is man's greed that has thrown everything out of proportion.

The jobs that will be created by the building of the pipeline are first of all, temporary, and second, union jobs. Nebraska is a "right to work" state which means there are few unions here and we don't think highly of them. For the most part, Nebraskans will not be the ones building the pipeline through Nebraska (I don't know about the other states). Personally, I dread unions coming through our state to build anything and I believe there will eventually be contamination to the aquifer. The pipeline does not miss the aquifer entirely.

I believe we should do our own drilling in this country. Ten years ago, there were those who were urging GW Bush to allow new drilling and he kept saying it would take 10 years for the country to see any benefit from American drilling and his answer was "no". Now, here we are, 10 years later and no father ahead.

(Do you know that 30% of the coal plants in America are being shut down with nothing to replace them? What will happen to all the electricity generated from coal? It certainly won't come from wind turbines. )

I am sick of Obama throwing us crumbs while he laughs all the way to the golf course. I know the pipeline looks really good right now (20,000 or so temporary jobs and 6% of our oil) but I think it's just another "crumb" while Obama continues to strip away our other resources and freedoms. It's as if Obama and his ilk get us to the place that we are like Essau, losing everything while we beg for a "mess of pottage".

I found a great little site out of Lubbock TX (there are 50,000 north Texas wells that tap into the aquifer) about the aquifer. Please read it. It's not political. It's an educational site for kids and it explains how to build and aquifer out of "food" for a class project. The facts about the benefits of the aquifer cause one to realize what a blessing it is.
http://water.ci.lubbock.tx.us/pdf/EDU/e ... iferLP.pdf

Now that Obama has denied permission for the pipeline to proceed, he has blamed the Republicans, saying they didn't give him enough time to decide.
No one seems to mention that he is reneging on his agreement with the Repubs to make a decision on the the pipeline if the Repubs agreed to continue tax cuts (for a measly 2 months.) I think this was his plan all along. I think he never planned to honor his agreement with the Repubs in the first place.

I thought Obama would approve the pipeline because I believed his environmentalist constituents were not as numerous as the rest of his base. The Dem governor of Montana has said that the only reason the Feds need to be involved in the pipeline at all is because it crosses the Canadian/U.S. border. He said if it was just built internally, the Feds would have nothing to say about it at all, but then he goes on to blame Nebraska as the reason for Obama not approving the pipeline. He claims Nebraska is holding up the works because of the plan to move the route to the eastern part of the state. The Nebr governor says that's not true and that the pipeline route in Nebr will be figured out long before construction starts. Besides, if the decision to build within the U.S. is up to the states, why would Obama have anything to say about the route at all? It's nothing but Obama's dirty politics (dirtier than the sand tar from Canada) that's holding the whole thing up.

I thought Obama would approve the pipeline because I believed his environmentalist constituents were not as numerous as the rest of his base.

He is not going to approve anything that will produce jobs, lower gasoline prices or boost the economy! People need to wake up!

Amen Frank...

He wants everything 'green,' even when it doesn't work,and to supply his Arab brotherhood by controlling us through oil...

They have been talking about this pipeline for 3 years now,and of course, he blames everyone else for his own decision...

This pipeline is no different than what already exists underground throughout America...

When you don't have a job, 20,000 jobs sounds good...which would be more than 20,000 jobs counting motels, food, supplies, and etc...

I 'resent' these are only 'union jobs',but I think this was plan this way so that they could push the pipeline through..

Obama now is caught between the unions and the environmentalists....

I always wonder how long could he continue to 'please' his special interest groups,and I can only hope his bad decision 'backfires' on him...

Eventually our country might have to go to war, and how will we defend ourselves, without oil?

All of the oil in World War 11 came from Rusk, Tx...

Can you imagine 'if' Texas had the attitude, that we would do nothing to supply the world with oil...

Hilter would have taken over the world.....

Jeani, I hope this will backfire on Obama too. I want to say I think that is will backfire but these are such strange and evil times, and I'm usually wrong in my predictions. I still can't believe this country elected a man that we know so little about. People are so deluded. Even some of my own family. It's shocking to me.

I had changed my mind about the pipeline a couple weeks ago, btw. I'm not thrilled with it because I think we should be drilling our own oil, but I would much prefer get what we need from Canada instead of the middle east. at least some of it.

I agree with you, Janlyn...

I still can't believe this country elected a man that we 'knew' about before his election, but just didn't care about his 'character.'

Yes, we should be drilling for our own oil....We're letting China drill off our coast,and O went to Brazil to look into drilling of oil, to line his own pockets...

Middle East is planning on 'cutting us off',and Canada isn't a 'grand' deal,but it's better than 'nothing...'

As I post now, O, turned down the pipeline project...

Ted Poe, fromTexas, is still trying to get the pipeline through,and I pray he does...