Obama’s Pipeline Leverage

Curious if Obama realizes he has/will use his leverage re: the Keystone Pipeline decision. Roll Call reports, unsurprisingly, that the President will approve the project — no doubt adding thousands of jobs (proponents say 20k, opponents 5k) in this economy is just too tempting for a president facing re-election.

The facts that the oil companies are salivating over this project and that Obama has veto power mean that he can say “yes, if” rather than a straightforward “yes.”

For instance, Obama could condition his approval on Congress mandating that the companies creating/operating the pipeline hire one safety inspector per X miles of pipeline.

Similarly, Obama could condition approval on Congress passing more investment in clean energy tech that will help us recover from our oil addiction.

Would love to see the oil industry lobbyists descend on Capitol Hill pressuring members to pass these types of pro-environment bills.

Republicans have learned how to play this game (see debt ceiling debate), has our President?

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