My response to this week’s question on National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts on whether or not President Obama should green-light a controversial pipeline that would send a half-million barrels of Canadian oil to the United States.
There is no question that if Americans want to see relief from high prices at the pump, we need to expand our domestic supply.
Once referring to oil as “yesterday’s energy,” it’s encouraging to see the President now promote things like domestic oil exploration by expanding access to offshore and onshore reserves.
Extension of the Keystone pipeline will also be a useful step to help the administration meet its one-third reduction of imported oil goal and also promote much needed job growth here at home. As API’s Jack Gerard notes, Canada’s oil reserves are second only to Saudia Arabia and could provide the U.S. with a robust 830,000 barrels of oil a day in the future.
Increased supply, reduced dependence on foreign oil and job growth are factors that are difficult to ignore and should be guiding the administration’s evaluation process.
