In case anyone has forgotten, the President delayed discussion of the Keystone Pipeline until after the election. Obama’s true believers said the delay was imposed because the President was going to oppose the pipeline, but wanted to wait until after the election. More cynical voices doubted that a candidate would hold back on an issue that was popular with his base. More likely, the scallywags contended, opposition to the pipeline was doomed to go the way of the President’s opposition to Guantanamo. Obviously, not to lose votes from his base, it was important to wait until after the election was over.
In what may be early spadework in administration support of the Keystone Pipeline, the State Department released a new environmental impact statement this week saying that the Keystone pipeline, which will move 800,000 barrels oil a day and cut through thousands of miles of habitat is “unlikely to have a substantial impact” on the environment.
It is hard to believe the State Department is releasing such a report in opposition to the President’s future policies on the issue, but we’ll have to wait and see how the plot unfolds. Still, the announcement reminded me of an old joke on environmental protections from the days of the Bush administration:
Question: “How many Bush Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?”
Answer: “Bush Republicans don’t change the light bulb, they just change the definition of darkness.”
Nice to know, if we just change the names of the political parties, we may be bringing that great joke back, .