While President Barack Obama has been touting the importance of “in-sourcing” jobs into the United States (as opposed to outsourcing jobs overseas), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reminded America on Thursday that Obama recently rejected one of the most prominent and beneficial in-sourced opportunities: the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sand oil through middle America to refineries on the Gulf Coast and create at least 20,000 jobs.
The 1,700-mile Keystone pipeline, which starts in Canada and would end on the Texas coast, has been under review by the Obama administration’s State Department for several years. While a green light from the State Department for the project was expected last fall, the department, under pressure from environmentalists, decided in November to delay its decision until 2013.
On Thursday, at a press conference following the annual State of American Business 2012, Bruce Josten, vice president of government affairs with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cited Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that he would “reward” businesses that bring jobs to the United States through tax credits. Josten, however, added, “The president missed the biggest in-sourcing opportunity yesterday and it’s called the Keystone Pipeline.”
“The smart thing to do would be to approve it,” Josten said, noting that the pipeline has cleared a three-year environmental review and that now politics are standing in the way of the project moving forward.
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Those job benefits won't look so great when a major spill, or what is more likely to be a series of small spills, contaminates the drinking and irrigation water for a huge swath of the midwest population AND apart of the country's bread basket.
ReplyDeletei didn't realize we had eco extremist, tree huggers on the blog. oh well.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama really wants to make jobs a priority he approve this pipeline, The Unions want it big business wants it. So if Obama doesn't approve it he will lose the union and big business money. Just saying besides our country need this 20,000 plus jobs for the Americsn people that need jobs.
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