Where Stands Jeanne Shaheen on the Keystone Pipeline? - Granite Grok

Where Stands Jeanne Shaheen on the Keystone Pipeline?

PIPLINEThere are at least ten Democrats, six of them US Senators, who support the Keystone XL pipeline (List on the jump).   Private investment, jobs, commerce, property taxes, and did we say jobs?

How about millions of barrels per day of that black stuff we still have to buy coming from Canada, a chance to get less from countries like Venezuela?

US Refineries will convert that into fuels like Gasoline of which we are a net exporter.  No interest in meeting global demand with US manufacturing?

What about Heating oil prices ?  These are always a big concern in New Hampshire.

Where stands Jeanne Shaheen?  I still don’t know.

Does she know that our entire economy still runs on oil and will for decades?  That we need it to keep jobs we have now.  Does she know that you can’t make plastic without it.

Plastic is in almost everything.   medical, scientific, manufacturing, commercial and retail… Does she have some secret replacement or are we just going to let everything keep pricing itself out of the reach of everyday working families as oil gets more and more expensive?

And even if wood chip ethanol (a Shaheen pet project) becomes the next great liquid fuel-energy invention (takes huge drag off a different kind of pipe), it won’t be viable in any measurable quantity for at least another generation, if ever.  What do we do until then, waste our dwindling paychecks on government mandated energy inflation?

Where stands Jeanne Shaheen on the bi-partisan opportunity to tap Canadian resources,  create American jobs without spending US tax dollars, more American exports, more domestic commerce, and did we say jobs?  I have no idea.

We know she’s excited about securing more taxpayer funded heating aid money from Washington DC.   She has press releases and facebook postings about that.   But shouldn’t she also be interested in securing the next generation of supply to help those tax dollars heat more homes?  Home heating aid helps offset the rising cost of fuel oil.  Is this some kind of scam to get everyone on heating aid by forcing prices out of reach?

Maybe she prefers we buy oil from Hugo Chavez’ Citgo rather than from our neighbors in Canada?

We don’t know.  But I don’t see her objecting to the administrations’ position in blocking development.  I do not see her remarking on how a bipartisan project had been shelved for what appears to be strictly political reasons.

We can only guess but guess we shall.  We suppose that Greene Shaheen can’t speak lest she rub her leftist environmental friends the wrong way.   That US jobs from oil production–being anathema when the oil is under US land, must also be shunned when the oil comes from any friendly supplier.   That ideology and the Democrat Party agenda are more important to Jeanne Shaheen, Senator from New Hampshire, than the immediate (even near future) energy needs of a state and a nation desperate for price pressure relief and in dire need for employment opportunities–and ones that do not first tax other American’s to finance them.

Let’s just go with that for now until we hear different.

 

List courtesy of Dr. Jason Whitman/ BigGovernment.com

  • Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA): “Landrieu says she’d support Keystone in payroll/ui/doc fix bill. Says ‘good deal’of D & R support for it.” (Trish Turner, Twitter, 12/15/11)
  • Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK): “Another sticking point is that Republicans inserted in their bill language that would fast-track the proposed Keystone X-L oil pipeline extension from Canada down to the Lower 48.  …Senator Begich is supportive of moving the project forward and his office says that’s not a problem.” (Alaska Public Radio, 12/14/11)
  • Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND): “I personally think the pipeline is absolutely in the national interest.  It’ll help us reduce our dependence on foreign energy, at least foreign sources that are hostile to our interests… I, for one, on this side would hope that this could be part of a final package…” (Floor remarks, 12/14/11)
  • Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): “Well, let’s hope we can negotiate something like that… if states’ rights are being protected and if this is going to be something maybe that we can try to jumpstart the approval process, make it go more quickly.” (MSNBC, 12/14/11)
  • Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV): “I am for the Keystone pipeline. …  everyone’s for it, it creates thousands of jobs!” (Fox News, 12/12/11)
  • Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT): “I am proud to again offer my support for the Keystone XL pipeline and the jobs it will create. We need a quicker decision, based on the merits of this project.” (Floor Remarks, 12/13/11)
  • Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): “I’m very much for the pipeline. There is no question about that.”  (MSNBC, 12/14/11)
  • Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK): “I commend the Speaker for including the construction of the Keystone XL pipelinethat is supported by business and labor.” (Release, 12/12/11)
  • Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA): “‘I think the president’s wrong on this,’ said Cardoza, who is retiring after this Congress.  ‘He can veto whatever he wants, but those are both policies I support.’” (POLITICO, 12/7/11)
  • Rep. Gene Green (D-TX): “Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) said he’s not swayed by Obama’s veiled veto pledge. … ‘The Keystone is awfully important,’ Green said.” (POLITICO, 12/8/11)
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