President Obama went to Oklahoma Thursday to take credit for expediting the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline which will bring oil from the Cushing, Oklahoma depot to the Gulf. He also took credit for the sunrise.
“We’re making this new pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf a priority,” Obama said.
But, as Bloomberg reports, the Cushing phase didn’t need the president and his State Department’s approval because it doesn’t cross an international border. TransCanada had already made its decision to build the Cushing-Gulf leg on Feb. 27. In other words, the president burned thousands of gallons of Air Force One crude for a meaningless photo-op.
But the president’s showboating begs the question: What’s the point of half a pipeline? The president’s approval – which he has refused – is necessary for the northern portion of Keystone which brings Canadian crude across our border to U.S. refineries and eventually the Gulf.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s agenda when Obama flies to San Francisco to take credit for sunset.