PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has angered both Republicans and the environmentalists who supported him with a partial flip-flop on his earlier decision to postpone a 1,700 mile pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Petrol prices have reached an average of almost $4 per gallon across the US, and a recent Gallup opinion poll shows that 57 per cent of Americans want the Keystone XL pipeline to be built.
More than 1,000 people were arrested during a two-week sit-in in front of the White House, protesting at the proposed pipeline, last August. In November 2011, Mr Obama announced that no decision would be taken on the pipeline until 2013.
Republicans then attempted to force his hand by tying a 60-day deadline for the decision to an extension of the pay-roll tax reduction. Mr Obama said he would veto that legislation rather than let the pipeline authorisation go through.
In nearly every campaign appearance, Republican presidential hopefuls accuse Mr Obama of preventing the creation of 20,000 jobs and driving up the cost of petrol by thwarting the pipeline.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr Obama attempted to fudge the issue by dividing the pipeline into two parts: the northern, Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma segment, which requires his approval because it crosses an international border, and the southern segment from Cushing to Texas.
The president executed his flip-flop before a backdrop of stacked pipes in Cushing. “Today, I’m directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles and make the project a priority,” Mr Obama said, referring to the southern portion of the pipeline only.
The TransCanada corporation is expected to begin construction of the southern segment in June.
Seeking to refute Republican charges that he has deliberately stalled oil exploration to drive up the price of petrol, Mr Obama claimed his administration had “added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth”.
“After rejecting and personally lobbying against Keystone XL and thousands of new jobs, the president plans to tout that he’s now interjecting himself on behalf of a routine permit that is normally handled by bureaucrats,” said a blog posted by the office of John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House.
A Boehner spokesman likened the president’s speech in Cushing to “the governor holding a press conference to renew my driver’s licence”.
An earlier statement from Mr Boehner’s office mocked Mr Obama’s two-day energy tour of Oklahoma and the battleground states of Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio as a “tour de farce”.
Mr Obama emphasised solar energy in Nevada, domestic gas production in New Mexico, and research on alternative energy in Ohio.
Mr Obama has asked for further reviews to ensure that the northern segment of the Keystone pipeline does not endanger the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska.
Environmental groups reacted harshly to Thursday’s announcement.
The Energy Action Coalition, comprised of some 50 youth-oriented groups, denounced his “capitulation” to TransCanada and said it was “a slap in the face” to young voters. “In 2008, we mobilised in record numbers for a president who promised to free us from the tyranny of oil, but now he’s committing to ‘drill everywhere he can’, and is giving favours out to foreign oil companies.”
The energy tour was intended to explain Mr Obama’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy. In an oil and gas field in New Mexico, he said his strategy “relies on producing more oil and gas here in America, but also producing more biofuels, more fuel-efficient cars, more wind power, and more solar power.”
In Nevada, Mr Obama criticised politicians who opposed public investment in renewable energy.
“If these people were around when Columbus set sail, they would’ve been founding members of the Flat Earth Society,” he said.
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