A week ago Obama caved into radical environmentalist demands and delayed the Canada pipeline. My title for the post on that topic is: "Cheaper Energy, Billions in Tax Revenue and Thousands of Jobs Tossed Aside in Pipeline Delay to Aid Obama's Re-election!" The same headline would apply here. From the Washington Examiner:
President Obama's United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.
...
The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) recently estimated that drilling in the Utica shale, which is affected by the suspension of the mineral lease auctions, would produce up 204,500 jobs by 2015.
"The President’s plan is to simply say ‘no’ to new energy production," House Natural Resources Committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash, said to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar during a hearing pertaining to hydraulic fracturing. "It’s a plan that is sending American jobs overseas, forfeiting new revenue, and denying access to American energy that would lessen our dependence on hostile Middle Eastern oil."
This is on top of the 19,000 jobs lost along the Gulf Coast after Obama's moratorium on offshore oil drilling.
American workers have lost BILLIONS in wages that would be paid if these and other projects were allowed to proceed. Billions in tax revenue are also lost to the government and Americans are more dependent on foreign sources of energy at a higher cost.
But none of the above is as important to Obama than currying favor with radical environmentalists who might sit on the sidelines during his re-election campaign if he made decisions that were in the best interest of ALL Americans.
