As I hoped (and predicted), the effort by Republicans to force President Obama to make a rush decision on issuing a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline has backfired.
The State Department Wednesday will reject the Keystone XL pipeline, multiple sources following the project tell POLITICO.The formal announcement is expected at 3 p.m. from Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. Although the permit would be rejected, TransCanada would still be allowed to continue to work on and pitch an alternative route through Nebraska.
Now, can all of you on the left who keep attacking President Obama for things he has not done and does not ultimately do stop doing that???!
Probably too much to ask…
Adding… Not to toot my own horn here too much or anything but this is what I said on January 12th:
This exchange suggests to me that the administration believes they do not have enough time to make this decision. The Republicans are trying to force a quick decision but President Obama is insistent that this decision must be made after careful review and that, so far, they don’t even know the route. Based on this and the fact that the State Department hasn’t had enough time to complete their review, they cannot make the correct decision.Maybe this is the out they need to “just say no” as someone once said. If they can’t make a decision properly, the safe thing to do will be to deny the pipeline.
And, if that happens, we can, for once, thank the Republicans.
This is what Press Secretary Jay Carney said today:
[I]t is a fallacy to suggest that the president should sign into law something when there isn’t even an alternate route identified in Nebraska and when … there was an attempt to short-circuit the review process in a way that does not allow the kind of careful consideration of all the competing criteria here that needs to be done.”
Not that this call was that hard to make, frankly. And not that the Obama critics on the left have any ability to listen closely enough to hear what’s actually being said or telegraphed. They prove time and again that they don’t. I’ve already gotten pushback on teh Twitterz. “He’ll just approve the alternate route! Oh noes!1!11!!”
Get a grip, people.
