Keystone XL Pipeline Delay a Political Move That Hurts Jobs, Economy, Energy Supply

May 7, 2014

Sunshine State News

This op-ed was written by Vets4Energy volunteer Maj. Gen. Bill Hodgkins (ret.).

While most out-of-work people simply want the opportunity for a job, Washington seems to have turned a deaf ear to those pleas.

The Obama administration’s recent decision to indefinitely delay approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline reeks of politics, a lack of common sense, and misses a tremendous opportunity to provide thousands of jobs and help boost a sagging economy.

I was encouraged by the Florida Legislature’s resolution that encourages those in power in Washington to approve construction of the pipeline. Also encouraging is the bipartisan support this project seems to have, despite the president’s political games that delay a sorely needed project. At least some in Florida recognize that a more stable energy supply not only boosts the nation’s economy, but provides national security benefits.

As we have seen time and again, instability in other countries around the world – most recently between Russia and Ukraine – causes instability at home regarding energy supply and cost.

Russia’s willingness to use its supply of gas and oil to Ukraine and Western Europe as a political weapon, along with recent increasing tensions, have had the predictable effect of negatively impacting the global energy market and contributing to a growing hit on Americans’ wallets and pocketbooks at the pump.

The Keystone XL Pipeline, however, would be a major boost to the United States’ economy, not only from the estimated 1 million barrels of oil delivered daily from Canada to the United States, but also because of the tens of thousands of new jobs it would create.

With Florida’s hurricane season quickly approaching, the threat of gasoline shortages due to the interruption of imported oil supply lines remains a very real possibility, as history has taught us. Whether it is from bad weather or the instability of many oil exporting nations, interruption of our oil and gas supply is just bad business.

Read entiire op-ed at Sunshine State News.

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