Though Gov. Bobby Jindal remains abroad in Europe on a 10-day trade mission that began this past weekend, he’s apparently also keeping an eye on the Keystone XL pipeline debate back home, too.
In an op-ed titled “Keystone Kops: The Obama administration’s job deniers” that’s featured on FoxNews.com this morning, the governor says the president has to be running out of excuses for not approving the controversial pipeline.
“Desperate to appease his leftist base, President Obama has been eagerly looking for a reason—any reason—not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,” Jindal writes.
Jindal says the president’s concerns about the pipeline’s potential environmental impacts should be put to rest by a State Department report that maintains the impact would not be major. Jindal also cites a recent ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court that dismissed a lawsuit challenging the pipeline’s path through that state.
“What’s President Obama’s excuse to hold up Keystone now?,” Jindal asks in the column. “The fact of the matter is, there shouldn’t be any. Six years, or more than 2,000 days, have passed since TransCanada first proposed building the Keystone XL pipeline—and in that time, the project has survived more attempts to bring about its demise than Rasputin. If the president had a legitimate objection—other than raw ideological zealotry—to the pipeline, he surely would have raised it by now. He has not.”
Jindal says that even more important than the direct jobs from the Keystone XL pipeline are the indirect benefits of affordable, abundant American energy.
“Lower energy prices put more money in Americans’ pockets, encouraging consumption that can grow the economy. What’s more, affordable energy supplies for manufacturers and producers have encouraged them to invest billions in new projects on our shores—creating jobs here at home, rather than shipping them overseas,” he writes, later concluding: “We should do everything we can to bolster the American economy, and promote American energy independence.” Read the full column.
