The Keystone XL Pipeline That Republicans Blame President Obama for Blocking is Starting to Be Built

But Don’t Tell Republicans – They Still Want to Blame Mr. Obama for Blocking It Even as it is being Constructed

With the advent of oil drilling and oil from tar sands in Canada and the northern states in Midwest America a proposal was developed for building a pipeline that would take the oil to the Gulf Coast refineries.  Because the pipeline would go across a very sensitive aquifer in states like Nebraska, it became environmentally controversial.  Over Republican objectives President Obama has postponed approval of the pipeline until 2013.

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The issue has given the Republicans the opportunity to label Mr. Obama as anti-energy, which would be correct except for a couple of pesky facts that get in the way of that position.  First of all is the fact that everyone expects the XL Keystone pipeline to be built once environmental safeguards can be developed.

The Obama administration said then that TransCanada was free to resubmit the application, and TransCanada said Monday it intended to do so. . . .TransCanada executives and Canadian officials have said they expect approval for the whole project eventually. But the company has pushed back an estimated completion date until 2015, about a year later than previously planned.

A second major point is that part of the pipeline, the part that goes from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast is going to be built, and that the Obama administration approves that.

TransCanada Corp. said Monday it will move ahead with the U.S. Gulf Coast portion of its contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline, a move expected to help ease a Midwest supply glut even as Washington delays a decision on the bigger project until after the presidential election this year.

The 435-mile leg, envisioned to run from the U.S. storage hub of Cushing, Okla., to refineries in Texas, will cost $2.3 billion to build, TransCanada said. The Calgary-based firm said the segment will transport 700,000 barrels of oil a day and could be completed by the middle of 2013.

Not only that, but another pipeline, one that sends oil from Texas to the Midwest (for some reason) is going to be modified so that the flow will be reversed.

Late last year, rival Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. bought a 50% stake in a different pipeline, the Seaway, which had shipped oil from Texas to Cushing. Enbridge plans to reverse Seaway's flow, sending 150,000 barrels of oil a day southward by the middle of 2012. It plans to expand that flow to as much as 500,000 barrels a day, with 400,000 barrels expected by next year.

So the supposedly anti-energy Presidency of Barack Obama is going to have major pipeline construction and modifications that will increase the availability of oil and lower the cost of energy.  Don’t expect the Republicans to acknowledge this, which is ok, but don’t expect the mainstream media to call them out on their false accusations, which is not ok.