IBD: Keystone XL’s Crude Politics

“President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline sums up his presidency. When it comes down to well-paying new jobs and cheaper energy vs. his political base, guess which wins.”

Investor’s Business Daily comments:

… Tree-huggers warn of “irreparable harm to highly endangered species.” But with 50,000 miles of crude oil pipeline already operating within the lower 48, how many pallid sturgeons and bluebreast darters will another one or two thousand miles of pipe really disturb?…

And Obama’s “Jobs Council” this week conceded that more oil “pipeline, transmission and distribution projects are necessary” and that until fossil fuels are replaced many years from now, “we need to be all in.”

But when we won’t take a treasure trove of oil from next door — forcing Canada to sell it to China instead — it proves the president is “all in” his green-left political base’s pocket.