Jobs Vs. Greens? On Keystone Obama Chooses His Base

Energy: 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.

The 1,700-mile TransCanada Keystone crude oil pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf Coast is a no-brainer. Canada's oil sands are the largest source of crude oil outside the Middle East and the 700,000 barrels of black gold per day the pipeline would bring would mean hundreds of thousands of new jobs, lower gasoline prices, less U.S. dependence on Mideast oil and hundreds of millions of dollars in increased revenues for the states.

All those high-salaried jobs are why both Democratic-supporting labor unions and Republican-supporting business interests are pro-Keystone.

Yet, instead of supporting it in a spirit of bipartisanship, the "Great Uniter" had a State Department flunky announce his opposition on Wednesday.

The administration's claim that the congressional Feb. 21 deadline makes "adequate review" impossible is disingenuous; the Keystone application was submitted three years ago and last year, the State Department held nine public meetings in the six states through which the pipeline would pass, as well as in Washington, D.C.

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?

For Obama, what matters is that the green left is making Keystone a litmus test. Obama fundraiser Wendy Abrams, for example, a well-heeled Chicago enviro-activist and Rahm Emanuel buddy whose family owns the country's largest privately held medical equipment maker, recently warned that the Keystone decision would show whether Obama "really wants to begin the transformation to building a renewable energy future."

Keystone is just one way gas prices could be lowered instantly. Environmental Protection Agency rules requiring expensive boutique blends of gasoline for different states during different seasons could be scrapped.

So could the law burdening oil refiners with a requirement to use a nonexistent product: "cellulosic ethanol."

State laws requiring — we're not making this up — that gas stations not charge too little per gallon could also be repealed. And, of course, we should drill, baby, drill into some of America's own vast, untapped oil reserves.

But Obama insists on blaming Big Oil for big government's failures. He had Attorney General Eric Holder establish an as-yet-to-be-heard-from task force last year to investigate, for the umpteenth time, price gouging by oil companies — about as easy as finding cellulosic ethanol in a switch grass haystack.

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.