The Buck Stops Here

By the end of the year we will have a clearer picture on exactly how committed Obama is to a clean energy future, a green economy, and environmental protection.  For some time now his failure to produce meaningful progress on these issues has been mediated in part by the existence of the Republicans and, more recently, the Tea Party.  To a limited degree, even his own party has presented obstacles to making progress on these issues.  Waxman-Markey died as much due to opposition from West Virginian Democrats as it did from Republican opposition. 

That is set to change by the end of the year.  The administration is now faced with a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline that is entirely up to the executive branch.  Because the pipeline would cross the U.S. border with Canada, approval of the project must come from the State Department.  Congress and the Republicans have no ground from which to effect the outcome (despite their attempts).  Granted, Obama is not in charge of the State Department.  However, it seems absurd to believe that if the Whitehouse opposed the project, the State Department would allow it to continue or vice versa. 

Certainly there are jobs to be created by approving the pipeline, and the U.S. economy desperately needs jobs.  It will also reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East (although, perhaps it’s only semantics, it will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil).  It will also help out the battered economy of the Gulf Coast.  But let it be clear.  Approving this project cannot be justified by the jobs it will create or by the reduction in oil imports from the Middle East. 

Not when these benefits are stacked against the costs of allowing the project to go forward.  These costs start with the environmental impacts.  The oil in the tar sands is exceptionally polluting.  Some estimates suggest that burning the oil in the Canadian tar sands would set the global irrevocably on the path to over 500 ppm CO₂.  Further, as the spill in Michigan last year demonstrated, when these pipelines go wrong, there are severe consequences.  And they tend to go wrong more often than anticipated.  Perhaps more important than the environmental concerns however,  for all the jobs that this pipeline would create, there are far more to be had if the U.S. gets serious about clean, renewable energy.  While stopping this project won’t move that agenda forward on it’s own, allowing it to go forward sends a clear message that the U.S. is not serious about clean energy - we are, in fact, committed to oil for the next half-century or more. 

So, Obama is called upon to answer for comments that the U.S. build a new country and new economy based on clean energy and green jobs.  The project will either be approved, and continue the country along a path of oil dependence and under-investment in renewable energy.  Or Obama will show that he does stand for what he says and the project will be stopped.  Either way, he can no longer hide behind the excuse that it was someone else’s fault.