Considering the Nebraska Republican governor is vehemently opposed to this pipeline passing through his state, why aren’t the teabaggers shouting “states rights” in this particular instance in support of the governor, when are they so willing to do so on other issues which have federal ownership?

“pro-pollution”? What a ridiculous thing to say. Name ONE person who is PRO-pollution James. I think you mean reasonable people who put peoples livelihoods above potential minor environmental impact.

I guess Canadians are “pro-pollution.”

http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE7A64O920111109
 

The pipeline will be built through Canada , to the west coast ,subsidised heavily by the Chinese. Where it will  then be transported to China to be refined.

Twenty thousand (20,000) potential jobs lost and now we will have to buy oil refined by the Chinese .
Way to go  ” Team O “.

Answer the question teabagger or don’t reply to me.

Because this is a good example where the Commerce Clause actually applies.

So comes the assertion from someone thousands of miles away from the proposed pipeline. Keep your “Jersey Shore” opinions on the Keystone pipeline to yourself.

The “potential” problem you speak of isn’t only a danger to the environment, it’s a danger to the tens of thousands of americans who live directly above the pipeline. 

Yep, the guy didn’t help the cause. What is that cause by the way? Oh jobs.

See, Obama is fine getting jobs to say Brazillians and creating a little pollution. But HEY, we will be great customers for Brazil and Soros oil.

Funny, Obama sinks BILLIONS into crony companies of his buddies like Soros and other huge bundlers of his, but for the country of the US, NOTHING.

Does everyone know what a watermelon is? It is a greeny that is red on the inside. The whole green movement, the climate change movement, the sustainable movement, the UN movement, etc is really just a control movement. They want control of the resources. They want control of the land. They want control of property. They want control of your property and rights.

The UN has admitted that the climate change carbon credits scam is ALL about the control of resources and redistribution of wealth from first world countries to third world countries. Why do you think Obama said he would be happy to redistribute our money to Brazil?

Come on you useful idiots. It is not about redistributing to the poor in this country, it is redistributing GLOBALLY!

Have you not heard about Clinton’s Global initiative? I swear, the public schooling is working.

I’m wondering if Mike Gallagher would like to drink, bathe or cook with some of that water that is polluted just a little bit??

Mediaite:
One article attacking Keystone pipeline proponents.
Zero articles on Obama’s spineless punt of the Keystone pipeline decision.

Mediaite: “They report, you already know what they’re going to write before they write it.”

Sounds like they are pro-jobs, pro-economic growth and anti-oil dependency. They make us look like fools.

More like a good example of hypocrisy.

“Teabagger ” ,  LOL 

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc ?  LOL , too.

I like it when the cons call Obama “spineless” when he refuses to give them a reason to demagogue him….guffaw!

How is it hypocritical to insist that the federal government abide by the enumerated powers of the constitution? They should respect states rights where they have no authority and use the commerce clause (and related clauses) where they are strictly applicable. Please tell me how that is hypocritical.

Your post is the dumbest quote I have read this week

Stop pretending that this decision isn’t purely political. To say that we don’t have the technology to do this safely is just absurd.

Hypocritical because a teabagger thinks it is their domain to decide whether the commerce clause applies.

I see you’re incapable of having a rational discussion. Thanks anyway.

Yeah, that’s what BP said. What’s absurd is the right-wings’ complete disregard in conveniently forgetting what happened just over 1 year ago. That’s recent enough for your precious conservative brain to remember, isn’t it?

Oh, I see.  These must have been part of the jobs the teabaggers promised in the mid-terms.  

LOL, aren’t you a particularly angry four legged animal. Whats wrong? You run out of little Billy’s to have fun with at OWS?

FO you POS troll.

There was a 36 month impact study on the pipeline.

President MealyMouth made a cojone-free political move to delay a decision.

Say yes. Say no.  Be a man for a change, Obama.

Fat chance.

When exactly did Republicans decide that it was okay to take on the morals and motivations of the villains in just about any story you’ve ever read? At this point they may as well be called the Darth Snidely Wiplash Gruber Party.

Gallagher is a two-bagger teabagger.  In case the first bag falls off.

Let’s get real: Canada cannot build a pipeline thru from where the tar sands is located, which is in the middle of the prairies, right around the border between the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, to the coast in the province of British Columbia. It’s not the distance – even tho it’s over 1000 miles to build – it’s the mountain ranges in between, plus all the critical water sheds in between. Keep in mind the Rocky Mountains is not a mountain range, it’s a BUNCH of mountain ranges, and they go on for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Those mountain ranges eat up highways and roadways and rail routes every winter, routinely. Canada has already decided a long time ago that route is not doable.

The thing about the Keystone route is that it only goes down from the tar sands mining areas straight south thru the eastern part of Alberta, where there is nothing but flat prairie land for hundreds of miles, where there are no watersheds, at least not for Alberta … except one: the one that starts just inside the Montana border, called the Missouri Breaks. 

The Missouri Breaks is where the water thats come there from the Rockies starts to break up thru the underground aquifers, turning the land into big steep rolling hills and gullies, massive things that go on for many many thousands of square miles, as the water trickles up and breaks down the surface ground, and starts to turn into streams and rivers, and eventually becomes the Great Missouri, when as we know flows into the Mississippi River basin.

So keep this in mind: Canada is not taking any chances here with polluting their waters anymore than already with the tar sands mining operations. Instead, the Keystone plan is to export all that risk to the U.S.

China, if you check on this, is not yet particularly interested in western Canadian tar sands. China has bought up some small oil and gas companies in Calgary, where the head offices all are, to keep tabs on when it might need some of that black stuff, but right now China is mostly fueled by coal, and thereafter absolutely gigantic water dams, and thereafter some imported oil from Africa and the Middle East, and then nuclear power, but increasingly China is moving towards solar and wind power.  Right now transport costs for tar sands heavy oil are prohibitive, and even transport itself is difficult. China in fact might never get to using tar sands heavy oil, because it figures, properly, that there has to be tar sands and shale gas deposits in China already. 

So the only place that actually wants or thinks it needs tar sands heavy oil right now is the U.S. I have no doubt that, with a nation of 320 millions in desperate need of energy stocks, some pipeline is going to get built from Alberta into Texas, because Texas has a huge idle stockpile of refineries all ready willing and eager for it. But picking the best and safest route thru the U.S. is critical.

By the way, wingers: 20,000 jobs is 0.006% of the American population, 6 parts per million. You could generate 20,000 extra jobs in necessary teachers for the greater Los Angeles area, or for necessary extra police jobs for the state of California. It’s less than the amount of arsenic that nature safely puts into your drinking water. It. Is. Nothing.

That ship sailed over 80 years ago, at least. This week senior DC appeals court Judge Lawrence Silberman walked thru all that in upholding the Obamacare mandate. Silberman is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and extreme right winger, a political monster who makes Scalia and Thomas and any of the 4 wingers on the Supreme Court look like centrists. Silberman was the guy the Iranians went to in order to set up the Iran-Contra deal, the single most connected wired-in Conservative federal appeals judge in modern history. And he walked his opinion thru the Congressional commerce power and set the whole thing out the way it has been and the way it is and the way it’s going to be.

If the opponents of the mandate get lucky, the most they can hope for a split court with no majority, split between whether the mandate is a proper use of the commerce power or whether it’s a proper use of the federal taxing power, but either way, it’s a proper power. I am leaning towards the possibility that Scalia and Thomas are most likely going with the taxing power angle, because they can duck the big question that way. The real takeaway from the DC Appeals court is this: it is now reasonable to think that the Supreme Court will have not even one dissent against the mandate, and probable that if there is any dissent at all, it will be Thomas and Thomas alone. 8 to 1, wingers; eat it.

So you agree!
See, we can come to the same conclusions once in awhile.

But he’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs!
“PASS THIS BILL NOW!!!!!’ 
“wait until 2012 for the 20,000 pipeline jobs!”

It’s a lot more nuanced than that.

They got hit less than anyone by the September 2008 bank crisis, because they have the most regulated banking system outside of Switzerland, and don’t allow leveraged bets with depositors’ money. Currently they have around 7% unemployment, but they started out a couple of points higher than the US due mostly to weather and because about 10% of their economy is owned by US interests (And Canadian interests own a lower per cent but a much bigger number of the US economy.). They don’t have nearly the problem with income inequality that the US has. They have more than enough energy production; in fact they are one of the biggest energy stocks exporters in the world. They currently have a Conservative government, but it just got a working majority for the first time since it came into office about 4 or 5 years back. The new opposition is left of the Democratic party by several light years, and they will have a big say in the direction of the Canadian government for years to come; the left in Canada now seems to be moving towards a coalition against the Conservatives, who have less than 40% of the national vote. And keep in mind that the policies of the Conservative government would put them left of the Democratic party; a Conservative there is like a centrist liberal here, and a Democrat there is more like a socialist labor coalition here. 

All of that, and they have fully socialized medical care coverage and a very low deficit. 

The Missouri Breaks is a sensative area. Perhaps you should petition the removal of some of the hundreds of miles of pipelines that already exist there. The fact is, pipelines are preferred because they are the safest way to move material. Period. Any time hazardous materials are moved via truck, rail or ship, the danger of leaks and spills is magnified.
 A risk vs. gain assessment is always performed when moving this type of material through sensitive areas and I can assure you that the benefit to America here far outwaighs the risk. These arguements are always made in the energy sector and have parylized the nuclear industry for years.
Here’s the bigger picture; the best way to improve EVERY American’s future is through affordable or inexpensive energy. The flip side is, the best way to ensure misery and poverty for all Americans is to make energy more expensive.

The Republicans are all for this dangerous pipeline and then when it starts to leak and contaminates the environment they will blame Obama.  

It’s not absurd: we have actually PROVEN, time and time again, we do NOT have the technology to do this safely. That is why those ads are always up on msnbc and other cable outlets, the industry wants us to believe the opposite to what is true, because it’s good for the oil industry.

Soros Oil? SOROS Oil?

How about Koch Oil, Koch Industries, the Koch brothers, private owners of the Tea Party movement.

Right, he is a Troll, tea-bag-eater.

They’ve been going through this canard of an environmental catastrophe with Euro-Socialist Environmental OPERATIVES for 1 1/2 years!

ENOUGH!

PUSHBACK TIME against these little dictators.

GOP AD:
How many thousands more jobs did Obama and his environmentalist FRINGE kill today?

‘We’re Just Polluting A Little Bit Of Water!’  kinda sounds like” I’m just going to put it in for a minute”

How many jobs did Obama kill today in order to curry favor with his environmentalist FRINGE?

Remember (lol) that knee-slapper Obama used to tell about ”One America!” – LMAO!

What did he mean, that we’ll ALL be unemployed? – or that we’d all be indentured servants to the Euro-Socilist-Trash FRINGE of the Democratic Party?

…And the governor is one minority voice on this topic.

Hysterical, exaggerated or completely unfounded paranoia; and let’s not overlook one of their principal reason for the hysteria – CONTROL!

We need that pipeline. We cannot sit still. We must have the will to drill, baby, drill.

It can’t be as hard to create jobs without polluting as certain moronic political pundits and politicians are making it out to bed

this is the problem: business needs to be protected. If the pipeline results in ten jobs, it’ll be worth whatever pollution we add. this is what job creators do. they make the tough choices. they know that jobs are paramount in this economy, shareholders must be satisfied, so what’s a little pollution. it’s a big world, folks, a little pollution don’t mean jack in the overall scheme.

“Keep asking “How many jobs did Obama and the Democratic FRINGE kill today? – Was yours one of them?”

Perfect GOP ad!
And there are so many FRINGE choices to pick from!

It’s the same watching msnbc. You know the INDOCTRINATED mindset you’re dealing with there, so we can virtually answer the questions for them!

Obama, they hold up as an intellect – and he’s little more than a politically-correct dilletante.

Smoke another pack of cigarettes!
A little pollution won’t hurt you!

It is not one minority voice.Poll shows majority opposition to tar sands pipeline in Nebraska They want it rerouted.

We need to get off this dependancy of oil.

Just the tip.

Funny how these pigs are always crying about “our children and grandchildren”…Protect the children but not the polluted waters they will be drinking and gettin sick from.  PIGS all of em.

Show as much respect for the state of Nebraska’s right to have the federal government address their environmental concerns, as you would if they were asking the federal government to address their concerns over any impending federal healthcare law.  That is all we ask.

This pipeline is a win-win for everyone.  It’ll create thousands of jobs whether it is safe or not.  Look how many jobs the Deep Water Horizon spill created here in Florida.

it can’t be unsafe and a “win-win” at the same time, got it?

As a Canadian I prefer to wait. We already have 65 sq. miles of tar sands waste water. The technology is improving for separation. It’s not like the tar sands is going anywhere. You need the oil & we need the $$’s.
Right now there is a backlog getting oil out of Oklahoma. Build the pipeline from Oklahoma south and determine the best route from Alberta to there.

Here’s an exercise (probably in futility!) for Progressives:
Google GLOBAL COOLING circa, 1980, and read about all the hysteria going on then.

Note how pliable the progresive mind is; see how easy it was and is to indoctrinate the Democratic mind.

Hey, test it out now.
Switch the hysteria to GLOBAL WARMING – and the liberal mind will react with the same conditioned behavior!

It’s like watching Pavlov’s Dog en masse!

LMAO!

This is amazing, this has to rank in the top ten most idiot moves in our History, 20-50,000 Jobs lost, 6% of our depenency on oil, gas prices would not be at 3.50 and now Canada says the deal may be off and they will sell the oil to China.

Will you Liberals PLEASE wake up?

Koch didn’t invest in the Brazilian oil co. just a week before the Mafia Chief in the WH offered Brazil/via THAT company $1Billion taxpayer dollars!

That’s what Obama & Democrats do – they use our hard-earned tax dollars to BUY OFF their supporters!

TODAY’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY!

WE, WE!?

What, you speaking for the world now or just the watermelons?

Obama has one thing down- if you are going to be a weasel, be the best weasel:

This debacle also illustrates another characteristic of the administration: weakness in the face of pressure. All it took was a couple of demonstrations by environmental extremists to cause Obama to fold on his commitment to increased oil production via cooperation with a reliable ally such as Canada.

Though the political motivations of this decision are inarguable, it may not escape the attention of independent voters next year that this is a president who can be pushed around by both Islamist tyrannies like Iran and the environmentalist lobby. Having determined to kick the can down the road on both energy independence and the threat of a nuclear Iran, it is difficult to make the case that Obama is capable or even interested in the decisive leadership that Americans need.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/11/obama-keystonexl-pipeline-oil-decision/

Michelle Bachmann says she would absolutely consider drilling for oil in the Everglades. Both of the Florida Republicans running to defeat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012 adamantly oppose energy exploration in the national park. So does Florida Rep. Allen West, a member of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, which Bachmann founded.

So here is my question. If conservatives in Florida can say the Everglades are off-limits, why can’t conservatives in Nebraska says the same thing about the Sand Hills area of Nebraska?

Guess you missed the sarcasm.  Not surprised.

Because our state is better than theirs.  Where the heck is Nebraska anyway? 

Good point, but spend the time and money to get it right, no major spills acceptable

If they disagree with Norbit, they are un American so they don’t count!

” Mafia Chief in the WH”
I thought he was Kenyan, not Sicilian

They can do it right, it just will cost more and take more time

Blah blah blah, let me post an excerpt from some blog that says the kind of crap that I wish I could say.

Gallagher is a two-bagger teabagger or another POS with a talk radio show

Whats even more amazing is Obama has been drilling 12% more oil than George Bush did. Did you know that or are you more interested in your conservative bullshit talking points.

Once again David could you please do a little research and see how much more domestic oil and gas has been extracted under the Obama administration? Can you guys actually wake up and see that Obama is drilling more? Instead you come on these boards and spew you dopey talking points without anything to back it up. Heres a funny fact worldwide demand for oil is going through the roof. Domestic wells that have been closed for years are opening up all across Texas, New Mexico and the in the far north west. Do some research. There are huge energy booms all over this country. Pennsylvania is exploring all kinds of new natural gas wells and its a huge help for their economy. The gulf wells are being reopened yet all you know is what these idiots on fox tell you.

 We are drilling more everywhere Carl. Its keeping the price of gas about where it is. We cant drill our way to lower gas prices there is no way we can. Energy demands across the globe are increasing faster than we can drill. Look up domestic oil and gas production under the Obama administration it has increased massively from the Bush years. Im so tired of your sides uniformed bullshit talking points.

U.S. net petroleum imports have fallen to about 47% of the nation’s consumption, down from a record 60.3% in 2005, Energy Information Administration statistics show. It’s been 15 years since the nation’s reliance on foreign oil has been this low.Several factors figure into the import decline, but a big one is a little surprising: U.S. petroleum exploration is experiencing a quiet renaissance with the help of technology and new drilling techniques.The number of oil rigs in production in the U.S. has reached a 24-year high, according to oil field services company Baker Hughes. In 2005, domestic production was 1.89 billion barrels. This year, experts say, production is expected to surpass 2 billion barrels.    Heres a fun fact for all you conservative no nothings now go smoke a pipe

Canada’s finance minister has said that the new delay jeopardizes the viability of the entire $7 billion project. Two other pipeline companies, Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) and Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI), are either proposing a new pipeline to the west coast (Enbridge’s Northern Gateway) or expanding an existing pipeline to carry more crude (Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain). Canada is clearly committed to producing the oil sands, and if the US is not interested in the synthetic crude, then the country will just sell it elsewhere.

Read more: Keystone XL Pipeline: Just Build It (TRP, ENB, KMI) – 24/7 Wall St.

“Your post is the dumbest quote I have read this week “FYI , your post makes zero sense . You know , in English . Just sayin’ . LOL

China gets most of its oil from Iran and the middle east.  Its easier to get too.  Russia gets most of its oil from Alaska.

Not even news sources anymore.

Nice.

Who will be the first ones crying when they are cold? Who will be the first ones bitching when they are hot? Who are the ones bitching now? Who are the ones that think a pipeline that will help keep that from happening all over the world is bad? LIBERALS!

Grow up,fool.

Maybe you’re too dumb to notice the mockery there…..tootles.

I thought you troglodytes say Govt does not create jobs….why are you accusing Obama of killing any? Guffaw. 

Like clockwork…like when they were blaming Obama for not getting the BP oil leak contained quick enough.

It is more disastrous to have an inflexible mind that is impermeable to reason and facts. There’s a reason why the minority in the sciences are conservatives. The rigidity in thought process is the very anti-thesis of a scientific mind. 

You mean like how Bush “punted” on the auto bailout? That strong leader..Bush? Selective amnesia coupled with confirmation bias is a bad thing. Obama is politically smart. He didn’t get where he is by not being so.

Totally agree with you, vladimir,.  What’s absurd is to claim, in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, like the BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, that these kinds of oil mega-projects won’t kill people. and leave a poisoned planet for our children and grandchildren. 

Rex is quite right.  By the way, had commenters noticed that Rex means “the King”? 

David: didn’t your momma teach you that loud-mouthed abuse (in the Joe Walsh Republican style) isn’t persuasive, and never, ever convinced anybody of anything?? 

David Kramer is displaying total ignorance coupled with great reliability in slavishly reproducing propaganda from Fox “News”.  For example:

1. There is no such thing as “Soros oil”: it’s a figment of Kramer’s imagination (or maybe Glenn Beck’s, faithfully parroted by Kramer).

2. Not a cent of taxpayer money has ever gone to Soros, either from the obama Administration or any other.

This is pure fantas by Kramer — positively delusional.  But boy, you gotta admit he has his creative moments in dreaming it all up. Unless of course he’s getting it all from Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and the like (including the barefaced lies, but then, give poor Kramer a break, maybe he doesn’t even know they are lies).

Wow, insideguy !!  Actually reasoning from factual information. That’s a refreshing change from the very different method used in Kramerworld. 

Better to point that pollute and poison. 

Better to punt than pollute and poison.

This is really childish name-calling, Norbit.  Can’t you do any better? 

This is a policy argument?  An intelligent contribution to the debate??

Maybe that’s true — that YOU can’t sit still !!  Attention Deficit Disorder.

Right on — aren’t States’ rights supposed to be a conservative issue? (but only when it suits their insidious and manipulative purposes).  

This is REAL idiocy. Try drinking that water, you fool.  Give it to your kids.  Great !!

Whaddya mean, “we”, carltonwest??  You don’t speak for me. 

Of course it isn’t, Irish189. You’re 100% right.  I’m sure the media pundits know it, and would say it if they hadn’t been corrupted by endless money from the oil and gas money. And guess what, Irish189: the  real journalists who have not sold out and have really investigated the issues (like Tom Friedman) agree with you.

Ah Norbit — you just gave the game away. Not very clever.  It’s obvious from this comment that you’re in the pollution-making “industry” yourself.    

This is informed, rational, and logically compelling.  Rex has got it right.  Game over.    

Can’t you even spell “socialist”, Norbit ??  I don’t expect you to know what the word means, or use it correctly or rationally, but please, at least spell it correctly.   

By the way, to help me TRY to understand your you ravings — what exactly do you mean by “knee-slapper” ????? 

Obama just kicks the can down the road.he is an embarrassment. Thought he was back in the Senate voting present.

How awful.   How do Canadians stand such horrific socialist repression??

Political or not, it doesn’t really matter.  Nebraskans by a considerable majority do not want the pipeline running through the Sandhills, or over the Ogallalla aquifer.  Full stop. 

Funnily enough, the Administration was about ready to *approve* the pipeline location until a few months ago, when folks in Nebraska started raising hell about it.   Then they backed off.  Wonder why?  Maybe the government for once is actually *responding* to the citizenry.

Neither did Obama, you propagandized poltroon.  Here’s a systematic debunking of the “BRAZILIAN OIL COMPANY SOROS SOSHULISM ZOMG” meme from that liberal rag, Forbes Magazine:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/03/17/dispelling-the-petrobras-loan-myth-as-obama-heads-to-rio/

Mike Gallagher, another bitter, aging Boomer rightwinger who’s been wrong on nearly every issue over the course of his D-list talk radio career.

There’s also that tiny little detail of the major fault line, for those actually paying attention. 

It’s not like there wasn’t an earthquake on the path of this pipeline just, oh… last week…

Yeah, just think of all the jobs that would have been created once the pipeline was in and there was another earthquake? 

With oil spewing all over the place, water and more being destroyed, the cleanup crews could have kept busy for years!

Those damn environmentalist babies just don’t want to see people employed. (eye roll)

I am long on Kinder Morgan and Enbridge Energy. Rick Kinder was on Jim Cramer’s CNBC show and he lamented the loss of the pipeline and its jobs, even though delaying the pipeline is possibly better for KMI and KMP/KMR. He just thinks the pipeline is better for America.

It does not much matter where the oil goes as far as price and availability. Wars that shut down production (e.g. Libya) make prices go up, even though we get almost none of Libya’s oil. What matters is total global supply. If the supply goes up, prices go down (assuming constant demand). The advantage of the pipeline is longer term. The pipeline makes it cheaper to get oil to market (pipelines are cheaper than rail). This opens up capital to do more exploration, which results in greater supply. And this holds true whether the oil goes to US or China. The only thing that matters is that the oil gets to market, any market. This is especially true with the very capital intensive tar sands extraction method.

You realize that “teabagger” is a kind of homophobic slur, right? Are you anti-gay? Do you think that calling someone gay who is not gay is a way of saying that person is less manly because maybe gay sex is less manly or less legitimate than straight sex? It’s kind of a hateful term; not just hateful to the target, but hateful to gays or anybody who enjoys teabagging. Have you ever teabagged or been teabagged (if you’re male)? I say try it first and then decide whether to include it in your arsenal of insults.

You realize there is a time lag between when restrictive exploration and production policies are enacted and when they start to affect supply, right? So capacity coming online now is due to Bush policies. Lack of supply from Obama policies (if any) will take place 5-10 years out. Obama counts on the ignorance of most people on this issue, and falsely takes credit for current healthy supply.

But we can supply much of our demand. Already, the US is poised to become the #1 producer in the world. Did you know that? The current high price of oil (~$100/boe) makes a lot of newer extraction methods economical (e.g. horizontal drilling, fracking, CO2 injection).

There is also a glut of natural gas. Exploration for high-priced oil has brought access to so much natural gas that, without a way to get it to market, some wells are just flaring it (burning it) at the wellsite.

High oil prices spur increased exploration (unless gov’t policies discourage and delay it), which ramps up supply, which actually can meet demand when conservation and economic recession depress the demand for oil.

It’s kind of ironic, but not unexpected, that Obama is taking credit for good outcomes of Bush’s policies (e.g. increased oil production and saving GM & Chrysler via massive loans) and then he blames Bush for bad outcomes (e.g. those same GM-saving loans described as “bailouts” or the persistent long-term unemployment that is the worst since the Depression). When Obama lays credit or blame, he is not to be believed anymore.

When people say that the oil is going to China, I think they just mean it is going to go to the global market (of whom China is a major purchaser). Whether tar sands oil goes to China or US or elsewhere really does not matter so much. As far as price goes, the global market for oil and oil products determines the price. As far as pollution goes, the Earth does not care which longitude the oil is burned at.

As for Russia, they are a net exporter of oil. In fact they are #2. Saudi Arabia is #1 (although, Russia is the #1 producer and SA is #2 producer; USA is #3 producer).

JerseyShoreConservative, I would guess that Mo Fokker is capable of a rational discussion, he/she is just choosing to be rude and irrational.

It is premature to announce a decision before the court itself does, don’t you think? Silberman based his decision on 1942 Wickard v. Filburn. It is possible that the court will take this opportunity to overturn that awful decision. It may be that Silberman, by tying his decision directly to Wickard, is setting up Wickard for review and possible overturning.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/11/10/for-health-care-freedom-overturn-wickard-v-filburn/

We should point out that Mediaite has misquoted Gallagher and it significantly alters his meaning.

They quoted him as saying, “All we’ve heard from both parties, Alan, is it’s all about the jobs —
20,000 American jobs are being flushed down the toilet because they’re
going to pollute a little bit of water!”

But what he really said was, “All we’ve heard from both parties, Alan, is it’s all about the jobs —
20,000 American jobs are being flushed down the toilet because they’re worried they’d be polluting a little bit of water!” [Check out time index 4:10].

Gallagher is not dismissing the importance of pollution, he is downplaying the need to worry about it so much that you stop the pipeline and the benefits it brings, not because such pollution would be acceptable, but because the risk is low and the risk (or worry) is acceptable.

As Mediaite has misquoted him, however, it sounds as though Gallagher is pro-pollution, as though he had said, “What’s wrong with dumping oil in the water supply?”. Clear bias and distortion.

It’s a lot easier to fix a pipeline on land than thousands of feet underwater.

You realize there is a 5-10 year lag time between when a company first applies for and receives permission to drill (say, during the Bush administration) and when the oil comes to market (say, during the Obama administration). If Obama’s policies are restrictive, the harm will show up long after he leaves office next year.

Poor Mike Gallagher, too smart for his listeners, too dumb to get his own show on Fox.