For Immediate Release
January 18, 2012
WASHINGTON DC — Upon news today that President Obama would formally reject the Keystone XL pipeline permit, IER President Thomas Pyle released the following statement:
“Tens of thousands of American jobs died today because of the president’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit. For more than two years, the administration has delayed, hoping to get past 2012 without having to reveal the president’s true anti-job, anti-energy agenda. Because of today’s announcement, Americans will continue to send $70 million overseas every day to purchase foreign oil that could be coming from right here in North America.
Today, the president has clearly said that the creation of tens of thousands of American jobs and a stronger relationship with our closest trade partner was not in the national interest. Out-of-work Americans are surely asking themselves what nation’s interest the president is considering? It certainly isn’t America’s — not our energy security and not our economy.
Moreover, it is an insult to the American people that he president has to hide behind Secretary Hillary Clinton to kill Keystone XL. Rather than coming out and saying what we already know — that he has chosen to side with environmental radicals and the EPA against job creators and hardworking, taxpaying men and women — he’s blaming his failure on the inability to finish a State Department review within the statutory timeframe. That timeframe, by the way, was approved by a Democrat-controlled Senate.
The president’s actions today are unconscionable. It is raw political hubris at its very worst. Every time the President has wanted something, he’s been more than willing to fast track it. He fast tracked Obamacare. He fast-tracked his trillion dollar stimulus. He fast tracked cap-and-trade. He’s fast tracked EPA regulations and Solyndra loans. But today, he claims he doesn’t have the time to do a thorough job.
It’s time for this president to stop worrying about his own job, and start worrying about millions of Americans who haven’t had a job since he took office.”
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