PRESIDENT OBAMA: KEYSTONE XL’S PROFILE IN COURAGE

Talk about courage: President Obama showed the nation he  has plenty of it when he rejected the application of TransCanada to build a pipeline right through the middle of the United States.

He knew the GOP would howl. He understood the oil companies  like B.P. would cry foul and threaten huge political fall-out (remember it was due to poor regulations that B.P. was allowed to build a slapdash well in the gulf.)

GOP candidate Mitt Romney  said, “It shows a President who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy,” Really? How about instead it showed a President who puts the welfare of the people ahead of politics.

My bet is that the folks in Montana are grateful for President Obama’s courage. Last year, one of the Keystone Exxon/Mobile pipelines broke under the Yellowstone River spilling 40,000 gallons into the water before it could be sealed. (See Discovery Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2012 article) By June of 2011, the first Keystone Pipeline, only a year old, had sprung 12 leaks spilling 2100 gallons of icky crude in my home state of Kansas, and in North Dakota, a Keystone Pipeline fitting broke spewing  a 60 foot geyser of 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the air.

Don’t forget that the proposed pipeline would go right over the Ogallala Aquifer, the shallow underground  water reserve upon which eight states from South Dakota to Texas depend to irrigate their crops.

What convinced President Obama to take this gutsy action? It happened because naturalists have organized, 350.org worked hard and is becoming better known, the Sierra Clubs are doing their job and because thousands of people like you and me stood up said, “Mr. President, You can do this. We’ve got your back.”