Obama Cronies Big Winners In Blocking Keystone XL Pipeline

January 25, 2012

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Ever since Barack Obama nixed the TransCanada Oil Pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf, many people, unions and Democrats included have been scratching their heads pondering why he would kill off so many potential private sector jobs during these dire economic times.

Yes I know it was all blamed on those evil Republicans, who pushed for a quicker decision after years of dragging it out, but what else is new from the Poseur in Chief? Everything is the fault of the Republicans according to Obama and his fellow Democrat Party leaders.

It seems now, with a new revelation, that some very wealthy people who have supported Obama and spoke on behalf of his policies that continue to bankrupt the country stand to make Billions of dollars off of this decision to kill off the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

A January 22, 2012 Bloomberg article tells us “Buffett’s Burlington Northern Among Winners From Keystone Denial.”

That is multi-Billionaire Warren Buffet who made news last year with his claim in support of Obama’s call for higher taxes on the wealthy by claiming he paid less in tax than did his secretary, subsequently shown to be a spurious claim.

We now hear from Bloomberg,

“Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.”

With the denial of the pipeline, Canadian oil we import will come by trains that are currently operating at capacity carrying oil from the Bakken in North Dakota and Alberta at about 300,000 barrels a day. The Keystone Pipeline was projected to carry 700,000 barrels a day.

To meet the challenge, tank car production will have to rapidly increase to meet the increased output from the Bakken and Alberta. While that would mean jobs in that industry, shipping oil by rail instead of a pipeline will add $3.00 per barrel of oil to its cost.

Environmentalists were delighted to see the Keystone Pipeline denied as they feared it would increase the environmental impact, such as a loss of wetlands and agricultural productivity. Not realized though, is that shipping by rail will increase greenhouse gas emissions they constantly bray about.

What also must be considered is the “environmental impact” of train derailments compared to pipeline leakage. McAleer Law.com lists,

“United States train and railroad accident statistics estimate that almost every 2 weeks a train derailment leads to a chemical spill. Some of these spills are so serious that require the evacuation of local residents. The occurrence and frequency of train accidents has been escalating since 1997.”

The Department of Transportation informs us concerning pipeline safety,

“Pipelines are the safest and most cost-effective means to transport the extraordinary volumes of natural gas and hazardous liquid products that fuel our economy. To move the volume of even a modest pipeline, it would take a constant line of tanker trucks, about 750 per day, loading up and moving out every two minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The railroad-equivalent of this single pipeline would be a train of seventy-five 2,000-barrel tank rail cars every day. These alternatives would require many times the people, clog the air with engine pollutants, be prohibitively expensive and — with many more vehicles on roads and rails carrying hazardous materials — unacceptably dangerous.”

But, Warren Buffett and other cronies of Barack Obama don’t stand to reap Billions of dollars in profit off of a safer means of transportation like a pipeline.

John Hayward at Human Events tells us,

“As it happens, 75 percent of the oil currently shipped by rail out of North Dakota is handled by Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC… which just happens to be a unit of Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. What a coincidence!”

Fox News tells us,

“Killing the Keystone XL pipeline may help one of the world’s richest men get richer. North Dakota’s booming oil fields will now grow more dependent on a railroad the president’s economic guru just bought.”

Dave Boyer at the Washington Times says,

“Warren Buffett, whom President Obama likes to cite as a fair-minded billionaire while arguing for higher taxes on the wealthy, stands to benefit from the president’s decision to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.”

He continues,

“Mr. Obama often cites Mr. Buffett as an example of a civic-minded billionaire because the entrepreneur has said he should pay a higher tax rate than his secretary. Mr. Buffett and the president like to tell the story of how Mr. Buffett pays a 15 percent effective tax rate, while his secretary pays a higher rate even though she earns only a fraction of what he does.

The president has called his push for higher taxes on the wealthy the “Buffett rule.”

The secretary, Debbie Bosanek, will sit with first lady Michelle Obama in her box in the House gallery at Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech.”

Little doubt Obama will make prominent mention of Buffett’s cry to tax the wealthy more using Buffett’s secretary as a prop, all the while not mentioning how it is he who ensures selected liberal Billionaires such as Warren Buffet increase their bottom line in areas of investment so their tax payments remain low.

For all of the talk of how Obama is looking out for the “little guy” and how it is Republicans always favoring the super wealthy, we see this one decision of his benefitting a super wealthy person while keeping us “little guys” unemployed and dependent upon government.

OMG 2012

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