In an article posted on its website today, Rolling Stone is reporting that high-level White House sources report the Keystone Pipeline will soon
be killed by President Obama. In fact The only question now is the timing of the announcement.
At the same time, the president is likely to announce his decision on the northern leg of the Keystone XL, the hugely controversial 1,179-mile-long pipeline that would bring tar-sands oil down from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. Although no final decision has been made, two high-level sources in the Obama administration told me recently that the president has all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline – a dramatic move that would light up Democratic voters and donors while further provoking the wrath of Big Oil.
And later the same story says:
Keystone supporters spent $11 million to target anti-Keystone candidates in 18 races – and none of them lost. In the 2014 election, it doesn't hurt that billionaire Tom Steyer has pledged that his political-action committee, NextGen Climate Action, will spend $100 million targeting climate deniers and Keystone supporters. "President Obama is obviously very committed to this issue," Steyer told me in an e-mail. "My goal is to support him in this in any way I can."
Exactly how the president has weighed the decision on Keystone is a closely guarded secret in the White House, known only to a few senior advisors like Valerie Jarrett and Dan Pfeiffer. But it's no surprise that I was told recently by members of the administration that the pipeline would, in fact, be rejected. "If the president is really serious about his legacy on climate change, he can't have that and approve Keystone," an Obama insider told me. "The only question now is the timing of the announcement."
The reason for the rejection is "its legacy time," and Obama wants to shove the global warming hoax down the throats of Americans, destroying the economy:
Obama's other motivation is the judgment of history. When he took office in 2009, he had four major tasks on his to-do list: pump up the economy, get out of Iraq, fix health care and take action on climate change. He put a lot of political muscle into the first three, but on climate change, it was mostly poetic speeches, under-the-radar regulatory reform and billions of dollars in loan guarantees for clean-energy projects. The president's supporters boast that he's already done more to tackle climate change than any president before him, but that's not saying much. He avoided risky political battles and too often treated the greatest challenge human civilization has ever faced as if it were no more urgent than reforming teachers' unions.
Now Obama has one last shot. "Taking action on climate is one of the most important goals in the president's second term," John Podesta, counselor to the president and his point man on climate policy, told me a few weeks ago. "He feels a profound and urgent obligation to get as much done as he can before he leaves office
In other words, damn the truth, damn the economy, Obama wants to look good to the progressives before he leaves office.
UPDATE: White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said on Twitter Wednesday evening:
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