In January of this year, Obama was faced with a decision on whether to allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and he denied that construction.  At that time, Conservatives railed at the lunacy of this decision because refusal to build the pipeline would kill thousands of new jobs and force Canada to find other countries to sell that oil to (i.e. China).

Leftists didn’t buy that argument and went to the blogosphere to denounce this highly charged rhetoric and a few examples are shown below.

From a Daily KOS article written by S. J. Gulitti:

A corollary issue that conservatives have tried to raise is that Obama’s vetoing of the first Keystone application will result in Canadian Oil being sold to China and that this rejection will preclude any further chance of that oil being shipped into the American market. As it turns out nothing could be further from the truth.

Thus there is nothing in the Prime Minister’s comments or in TransCanada’s actions that would lead one to conclude that we have forfeited our opportunity to purchase Canadian oil. What I find remarkable in this particular conservative attack is the complete and total willingness to ignore the fact that Prime Minister Harper seems to be engaged in political posturing for the sake of Canadian public consumption on the one hand, and the fact that he in no way rules out a revival of the project after environmental concerns are addressed on the other. Harper’s own words clearly prove he would prefer to ship oil to the United States than to China and you can bet he’s more than aware of the far higher costs involved in the later. As such there is no reasonable indication that the rejection of the first Keystone application signals the end of any chance that Canadian oil will flow into the United States.

From a Washington Post Blog article written by Michael Levi:

The fate of the Keystone XL pipeline will be of limited consequence to either long-term U.S. energy security or climate change (though its rejection will probably be ugly for U.S.-Canada relations). The Keystone decision ultimately became far more about symbolism than substance. It’s a shame that so much attention was diverted from things that matter more.

From a Washington Post Blog article written by Ryan Kellett we see that Environmental whacko Bill McKibben even reassures us that the Canadian oil will stay in the ground.

“However, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, responding to questions from Washington Post readers Thursday, said the oil will stay in the ground.”

Well it appears that all the slings and arrows hurled at Obama were just from Right Wing Nut Jobs who didn’t understand Canadian politics and energy policy.  There is nothing to worry about – Canada will not sell the oil to other countries and our primary trading partner will never do anything to retaliate against this decision. 

Unfortunately, facts are stubborn things.  Today we hear from Sun News that the Liberal analyses above don’t match the thinking of Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Even if President Barack Obama approved the controversial Keystone XL pipeline tomorrow, at least some Canadian oil would still flow to Asia, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a public one-on-one interview here with Jane Harman, head of the Wilson Centre think-tank, Harper said Obama’s rejection of the controversial pipeline — even temporarily — stressed Canada’s need to find other buyers for oilsands crude.

And that wouldn’t change even if the president’s mind did.

“Look, the very fact that a ‘no’ could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets,” Harper told Harman in front of a live audience of businesspeople, scholars, diplomats, and journalists.

“We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position.”

Wow!  It appears that Obama’s decision to reject oil from one of our most trusted trade partners has caused that country to rethink their energy policy and to whom they sell their oil.  That means that a portion of Canada’s oil will not only be diverted to other Asian countries but our price for the rest of Canada’s oil will increase!

It appears our price for that Canadian oil will go up as well.

Harper also told Harman that Canada has been selling its oil to the United States at a discounted price.

So not only will America be able to buy less Canadian oil even if Keystone is eventually approved, the U.S. will also have to pay more for it because the market for oilsands crude will be more competitive.

Well isn’t that just lovely?  Obama’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline not only prevented new jobs in the US but we’ll now see an increase in our oil prices from Canada.  Not to mention that a portion of Canada’s oil will be sent to Asia where it will be burned in a much less environmentally friendly manner than if it were processed in the US.  So not only do working Americans lose out on this decision, the radical leftist Environmental team just guaranteed the oil will be sent to countries that will spew out more carbon to the atmosphere (this doesn’t matter to me but it has to drive the Global Warming cult crazy).

The Conservatives predictions about what would happen after killing the Keystone XL pipeline have happened and Liberal predictions have proven to be false.  Let that be a lesson to all of us.