Reid cartel shoots down Keystone again: Corporatism trumps the people

Sen. John Hoeven (R) introduced an amendment for enabling the Keystone XL Pipeline to proceed. Democrats shot down the amendment enabling a $7 billiion project that would have created good paying jobs. [Graphic based on photo from Hoeven's Senate website]Hand in hand with alt-energy investors and producers, Democrats in the U.S. Senate shot down the Keystone XL Pipeline amendment offered by Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota.

The Amendment,  S.Amdt. 1537 to S. 1813, drew support from 11 Democrats and 45 Republicans. The vote was 56-42. The only reason the amendment didn’t pass is that 60 votes were needed.

In denying this vital project, Dems shot down thousands of good-paying jobs and delayed a project that would ultimately contribute in numerous other ways to the U.S. economy. The Left functioned much like a cartel in this situation, opting for benefits to a select group rather than the general populace.

THE REID CARTEL
The Harry Reid cartel in the U.S. Senate opted for crony corporatism over Main St. The only relationship the denial has with the environment exists in the Left’s fear of environmental groups who want the planet preserved like a shrunken head in a glass case. Those same groups are not, despite what you hear from media, conservation groups interested in the wise use of all resources to benefit the people. For the ‘enviro-thugocracy’, humans are at the bottom of the priority list.

The Left may also have concerns about eco-terrorists. Media take little note of them, but they are active and potentially very dangerous. It is possible the government deliberately shies away from making information widely available although patient searches will reveal surprises like a bombing at a California ranch in January.  This is not new—there’s a story on the FBI website about bombings dating to 2003. The FBI estimated some eco-crimes that year caused $55 million in damages.

Media will never, however, label these as “Leftwing” criminals.

President Barack Obama’s opposition to the bill serves his corporate cronies as well. In December ThomasNet News pointed to Peter Schweizer’s expose, explaining:

“As investigative journalist Peter Schweizer reports in his new book, Throw Them All Out, 80 percent of all $20.5 billion in Department of Energy loans went to President Obama’s top donors, including such megarich one percenter Democrats as Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brinn, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ted Turner, John Doerr, and Al Gore.”

OBAMA’S BIAS DATES TO CHILDHOOD
Obama’s anti-oil obsession dates to his childhood. In his book Dreams from My Father, Obama recounts his mother’s second marriage to an Indonesian named Lolo. Lolo’s surname in the U.S. is ‘Soetero.’ Wikipedia sources a number of other surnames for Obama’s stepfather to foreign publications.

In his memoir Obama explains how his mother would refuse to attend company dinners with her husband when they lived in Indonesia. The couple would argue about her dislike for “American businessmen from Texas and Lousiana.” According to Obama, his mother claimed the businessmen greased palms to “obtain the new offshore drilling rights” in Indonesia while their wives griped about the “quality of Indonesian help.”

Everyone knows greasing palms remains common in many countries when it comes to business deals although U.S. laws now exist to prohibit it. Other countries continue to do business according to each country’s culture. At any rate, Obama said Lolo would ask his wife how it would look for him to attend the dinner alone and he would “remind her that these were her own people…”

Obama said his “mother’s voice would rise to almost a shout” as she responded:

“They are not my people.”

Obama certainly took that one to heart—nothing like a good stereotype to mobilize childhood bias.

BENEFITS TO YOU DENIED
Both Obama and his Energy secretary Steven Chu told Americans their energy prices would rise and hopefully the U.S. would have European-level gas prices under their policies. The two now attempt to distance themselves from the policy they publicly endorsed.

Hoeven detailed how we would benefit if his amendment had been passed:

“After three years of study, it’s time to move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline. This important infrastructure will transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day to U.S. refineries, including 100,000 barrels a day of North Dakota crude. The additional pipeline capacity and gathering systems will take as many as 500 trucks a day off roads in the North Dakota oil patch, which is important for public safety as well as wear and tear on our western highways. This $7 billion, 1,700-mile, high-tech transcontinental pipeline is a big-time private-sector job creator. It’s a shovel-ready project that would reduce our dependence on Middle East oil, and help to lower rising fuel costs.”

(Analysis by Kay B. Day/March 9, 2012)

~~Related at The US Report:  Obama energy firewall: Atlantic, Pacific and parts of Arctic off-limits for US producers

Visit the Books and Sundries page to purchase titles cited in our columns at The US Report.