Keystone Kapers

The repubs managed to cut the environmental review process on the Keystone XL pipeline down to two months as a quid pro quo for signing off on the payroll tax cut.

I have two thoughts, a bit cynical perhaps and I will make it quick. And I could be entirely wrong and all wet. We will see down the road.

I think that Obama loves this move. His State Department was the mover and shaker for this pipeline and has acted more like an enabling advocate than an unbiased regulatory body  throughout the whole regulatory process.

Obama was even money to approve it anyway until people raised such a stink over the comments of the U.S. Ambassador a few months ago. Now he can say that his hand was forced and lay all the blame on his political opponents. He gets the decision he wanted all along but still manages to blame the GOP for their obstructionism and callous disregard for the environment. He receives a lot of political capital and Hillary gets what she wants at State.

I think most fair observers would have to admit that the President has paid little more than lip service to the environment during his tenure. Gutting the clean air requirements, loosening the restrictions on mountaintop coal removal. Still the thought of what a Perry or Bachmann might do in his position sends shivers.

*

The idea that you can stick a major pipeline right down the wheelhouse of the Ogallala Aquifer with less regulatory review than Joe Sixpack would need to build a new addition to the laundry room shows the disregard that the GOP in this country has for the environment. Of course, several of the presidential candidates want to abolish the EPA anyway. To the likes of Mitch McConnell, every environmentalist is a radical environmentalist. After all, companies will police themselves. Ayn Rand called it enlightened self interest. That is why pollution does not exist today in this country. Because companies know that the free market won't allow it. With me?

*

I am amazed at the immediate need to bisect the country with a large pipe so that Canadian businesses can ship their oil cheaper to China from the gulf. What are we getting out of this again?