On Friday the United States Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve the long delayed Keystone Pipeline. Unfortunately the legislation – which was an amendment to the Senate’s long overdue budget – was non-binding. Seventeen Democrats joined a unanimous Republican conference in endorsing the construction of the pipeline that would create thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into the American economy.
The GOP-controlled House has passed numerous bills or amendments requiring the State Department to allow Keystone construction to commence.
The Senate also voted down Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) amendment that called for more studies to be done on Keystone. It seems the State Department’s comprehensive environmental impact statement that said Keystone presented zero environmental risks, wasn’t good enough for the junior Senator from California.
While President Obama toils, Americans grow impatient. Unemployment is still hovering around eight percent, economic growth remains lethargic, yet the President can’t make a decision. Perhaps if the President stopped listening to unelected bureaucrats at the EPA and Sierra Club protestors he would see that this is a win-win. Unfortunately, it seems that the President will take the advice of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Van Jones over the U.S. State Department, the governors of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, the Washington Post, and even Bill Clinton.
The country is still waiting.