AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE – On a day when we celebrate heroism and sacrifice, the Obama administration provides us an example of utter political cowardice and irresponsibility.  From the Washington Post:

The Obama administration will delay action on a controversial cross-country oil pipeline in order to assess a shift in its route, officials announced Thursday, effectively putting off a politically vexing decision until after next year’s election.

The move is the latest twist in a more-than-three-year review process that has evolved from a fairly routine decision within the federal bureaucracy to a very public debate over national energy policy. It pitted environmental activists and an array of citizens along the pipeline’s proposed route against business groups, oil companies and unions whose members would be employed as part of the $7 billion project.

Officials at the State Department, which oversees the permitting process, had once promised a decision on the proposal by Alberta-based TransCanada by year’s end. But they said Thursday that they had to extend their review of the 1,700-mile pipeline to address Nebraskans’ objections to building across the state’s sensitive Sandhills region. That area provides habitat for imperiled wildlife and covers the Ogallala Aquifer, a critical source of drinking and irrigation water for state residents.

COMMENT:  Oh, come on.  We all know what this is about.  The pipeline, known as Keystone XL, and critically needed by the United States, pits two parts of Obama's base against each other – labor unions on one side, radical environmentalists on the other.

We are going to be dependent on petroleum for decades, possibly generations.  Many of the "green energy" projects will not pan out, or will take far longer to develop that advocates tell us.  The pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries will make our energy production more efficient, and less dependent on undependable foreign sources.

There was plenty of time to assess the routing and other factors.  But the administration simply wants to avoid a decision before the election, knowing that one of its key constituent groups will be angered.  I guess this is another example of "change we can believe in."  The delay is shameful, but is in keeping with this administration's practice of running a perpetual political campaign. 

The delay will hurt the nation.  But how could that possibly compare with something that hurts the Obamans.

November 11, 2011