So let him veto

No more excuses, Mr. President

WHAT DO you think will be the next reason the president and his people come up with to delay the Keystone XL pipeline? One would think they’d be out of excuses by now.

Thinking back, first it was—what?— that pumping oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast would create even more greenhouse gases. But then the State Department put out an 11-volume review concluding that building the pipeline would not significantly increase global warming. Eleven volumes. That would probably make for helpful reading. For insomniacs.

Not that it would take 11 volumes to say this much: Some of us never thought that pumping the oil from Canada’s tar sands south would have a significant effect on the world’s carbon emissions. Because this oil is going to the market. One way or another. It’s either going to be piped to Nebraska, where it would link up with other pipelines on its way to refineries in this country, or it will be sent to Canada’s western coast and eventually shipped to China.

When global warming couldn’t be trotted out, again, the president said he could not make a decision on the pipeline until a court case in Nebraska was settled concerning the pipeline’s route. Earlier this month, the Nebraska courts cleared the way.

The president has said the pipeline won’t create many jobs. But maybe the president should listen to his own administration, which concluded the project would add thousands of jobs to the American economy during the two years it would take to build the pipeline.

And wouldn’t it make more sense to import oil from a friend like Canada, rather than from sketchy characters in Russia, Venezuela or the Middle East? It would seem to be in the national interest to deal with a pro-American, stable democracy at every opportunity. Let’s hear it for Canadians. We wouldn’t trade Mom for Alex Trebek or apple pie for poutine, but our neighbors to the north aren’t just steady allies, but friends.

Now the Senate has voted for a bill that would push through the pipeline, and the president has again vowed a veto. Why? Because signing the bill, the president says, would interfere with his executive authority to make a decision.

The problem is, he won’t make a decision. The folks trying to build this Keystone pipeline started putting together the paperwork in 2005. For his entire time in office, this president has shuffled his feet on the matter. Even the executive director of the Sierra Club— the Sierra Club!—has said the president needs to make a decision.

So now the Congress is pressing the matter. Good for Congress. Send the president a bill. Let him veto it, if he chooses. Then ask the country who’s leading the Party of No.