Did Barack Obama signal his Keystone intentions in State of the Union address?
President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday evening was a pretty big deal for Americans.
It came against a backdrop of a dysfunctional congress, of low approval ratings for the President and the politicking that invariably takes place during a midterm election year.
And, more importantly, the President had some heavy topics to cover: gun control, immigration reform and income inequality — to name a few.
On this side of the border, however, Canadians were watching for any mention of the Keystone XL pipeline and any hints on whether or not President would approve the controversial mega-project that could carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
As expected, he didn't say the word 'Keystone' but he did talk — at length — about American energy.
"Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.
One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. Meanwhile, my administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.
It’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job cannot be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do.
And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders, and local communities to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months, I’ll build on that success by setting new standards for our trucks, so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump.
And taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did."
By talking about 'energy independence', was Obama suggesting that he's leaning towards saying yes to Keystone?
Or was all the talk about climate change a hint that he was against it?
It's hard to tell.
[ Related: Canada makes Keystone XL ad blitz in metro stations near White House ]
Pundits, analysts and regular folks on social media had differing opinions:
No mention of Keystone... read into that what you will.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) January 29, 2014
this energy section of the speech sounds like one thing: we'll get on without Keystone. #SOTU — colin horgan (@cfhorgan) January 29, 2014
#Obama did NOT leave #keystone out of the #SOTU It was hidden. He's not moving. — Alise Mills (@graciestyle) January 29, 2014
Maybe "new sources of energy" was Keystone-key in that spiel, or maybe nothing was.
— Paul Wells (@InklessPW) January 29, 2014
Whatever the case, we won't have to read between the lines much longer.
[ Related: Stephen Harper, ex-Premier of China used in State of the Union anti-Keystone ad ]
According to a report from Reuters, Obama could receive the latest State Department report, about the environmental impact of the project, sometime this week.
That would give the President the information to make a decision sometime before the November elections.
Until then, we'll all have to keep guessing.
(Photo courtesy of Reuters)
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