On Keystone Obama Proves He is Biggest Clown in the Car

Today President Obama’s White House issued a veto threat against a bill to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which enjoys bipartisan support in Congress and the American public. American Encore Policy Director Patrick Hedger offered the following comments:

“After years of lamenting about a predictable lack of conservative cooperation with his far left agenda, the president is now refusing to cooperate with Congress on an initiative that an overwhelming majority of Americans, from across the political spectrum, agree on. 

There are few words to describe the sheer enormity of the absurdity that surrounds the entire Keystone XL issue, but today President Obama has proven he is the biggest clown in the car. 

Keystone XL would represent a miniscule expansion of a few hundred miles of pipeline to an existing fuel pipeline infrastructure in the US of over 2.3 million miles. Further, multiple studies, including those commissioned by the Obama administration itself, have found the environmental and ecological danger posed by the project to be ‘negligible.’

As American Encore has noted, Keystone XL would not be a silver bullet guarantee of energy security for the United States. That being said, just because the project would not have a profound impact on our vast and populous nation and our gargantuan economy, does not mean that this sort of obstruction from the most powerful person in the world is warranted. This is the equivalent of President Obama stepping in to shut down a local grocery store chain because they don’t sell his favorite cookies.

While this is not a do or die issue for energy security, it is, however, a do or die issue about free enterprise and the freedom of commerce. If the Executive Branch can simply stonewall lawful business investments it does not like, there is little hope for the kind of economic renaissance this country needs in the 21st Century.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stated that President Obama’s veto threat stems from the fact he believes that the proposed legislation would undermine a ‘well-established’ review process by the State Department. Given that Keystone XL’s supporters have waited over six years for a decision, it’s clear that the process is anything but established and that the president’s continued delay of the project is purely ideological and detached from reality.”

***American Encore is an organization dedicated to defending freedom, promoting free markets, working to expand economic opportunity and making the case for the American ideals of liberty and democracy, both at home and abroad. For press, please contact Lisa De Pasquale at [email protected].***