Republicans hit Obama on Keystone

Senior Capitol Hill Republicans hope to transform President Obama’s comments that downplay the number of potential Keystone XL pipeline jobs into a political liability as the White House focuses heavily on the economy.

“President Obama has resorted to a curious tactic in the administration's latest pivot back to jobs and the economy — disparage and dismiss jobs,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement Monday.

Upton’s comment is part of wider GOP and industry pushback against Obama, who said that there’s “no evidence” Keystone would be a major jobs engine.

Obama, in a New York Times interview published Saturday, said TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline would create an estimated 2,000 jobs during construction, and noted it’s a “blip” relative to the need.

“Just days after the president’s most recent ‘pivot’ to the economy, we were more than a little stunned by his cavalier attitude about the new and needed jobs that Keystone XL would unquestionably create,” said Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Industry and GOP critics, including Upton and Murkowski, also allege Obama is badly low-balling the jobs potential of the project that would bring oil from Canadian oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.

Here’s more from the Times transcript of Obama’s interview:

“[M]y hope would be that any reporter who is looking at the facts would take the time to confirm that the most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline — which might take a year or two — and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in a economy of 150 million working people,” Obama said.

Dillon, Murkowski’s aide, said that even those estimates were right, the project would be worth it.

“[L]et’s stipulate that the president is somehow correct, and Keystone XL creates 'maybe' 2,000 construction jobs and then an apparently 'chuckle'-worthy 50-100 permanent jobs. We would contend that with unemployment at 7.6%, and millions of Americans in need of a high-paying job, this project is absolutely worth approving on that basis,” Dillon said in an email to reporters.

TransCanada’s permit application remains under federal review, and Obama reiterated in the new interview that he won’t approve the project unless he’s sure it won’t significantly add to carbon pollution.

Via: The Hill

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