Is the USA capable of making ANY decisions anymore? Keystone Pipeline

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/u...delay-pipeline-decision-past-12-election.html

Keystone Pipeline decision "delayed."

USA is in desperate need of jobs - the Keystone Pipeline is expected to create thousands.

USA is in desperate need of a stable source of energy - Canada is about as stable as they come.

So why delay the decision until after the election? Easy. This won't piss off the pipeline champions enough to lose their vote, and it won't piss off the environmentalists enough to lose their vote. I good leader is capable of making decisions. Tough decisions. This just looks like another case of kicking the can down the road to the next guy...

Meanwhile, Canada continues to court China as the source for Canadian oilsands exports:

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/07/canada-courts-china-to-buy-canadian

OTTAWA - While the Americans mulled Monday whether to accept a proposal to build an oil pipeline to Texas from Alberta, Canada was giving another eager suitor a peek of the goods that come with a long-term affair.

Joe Oliver paid his first visit to China as natural resources minister to court officials of the world’s second largest economy – a country with big eyes for Canada’s bounty of natural assets.

“China is the biggest consumer of energy in the world,” Oliver said from Beijing. “We have the resources China needs. We are open for business.”

 

Why would US want to build a pipeline extension that carries Canadian oil to the world market? We are doing much better keeping it landlocked and buying at 15% below market value.

 

You can thank Obama, who cares more about politics than jobs.

 

Canada is either going to make a pipeline deal with the US, and lock in the supply, or it is going to have the Chinese pay for a pipeline out to the West Coast, and (relatively permanently) remove that supply from the US.

 

Yep

 

Huh? Landlocked? 15% below market value?

And by the way, it's a joint project involving private companies from both countries. It's not being built by the US.

 

In this case I would absolutely agree. There is no plausible reason to delay the decision except to save face politically with environmentalists.

 

You got it, RC. A pipeline project is already in the works to deliver oil from Alberta to the west coast of BC, which is then loaded onto tankers headed for China.

China has already surpassed the USA in being the #1 customer for Canada's vast timber resources. If the USA keeps making bonheaded decisions (or indecisions in this case), oil resources will go the same way.

But hey, why buy Canadian oil when you can get it from Saudi Arabia, right?

 

No why buy Canadian oil when we can just take it.

 

... Ya that's a reasonable solution...