President should sign Keystone XL oil pipeline bill

February 5, 2015

IndyStat (Indiana)

The below was written by Vets4Energy Indiana Chairman Michael Wherry...

"So let's set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline." That was President Obama's first-ever reference to the Keystone XL Pipeline in a State of the Union address.

He's delivered six such addresses in the time he's been office – during which time he has persistently refused to grant approval for the construction of the pipeline – and his first and only reference to this long-delayed, job- and revenue-generating, energy and national security-enhancing project is a single, dismissive and misleading sentence.

No proponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline, in Congress or elsewhere, has ever suggested that this one construction project is the sole solution to our economic, energy, and national security needs. In fact, the pipeline enjoys bipartisan support among legislators who recognize it as merely one element of an all-of-the-above strategy of energy development: something to be added to a "basket" that includes domestic development of fossil fuels onshore and off, nuclear, wind and solar, biofuels, etc.

Now that the Keystone XL Pipeline bill has passed the Senate and arrived at the president's desk, it is time for the president to be a uniter and the forward-thinking statesman. Please, Mr. President, do the right thing, sign the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, create jobs and increase our national security with the stroke of the pen.

See original Op-Ed in IndyStar.