(IBD) Bipartisan Senate Group Pushes For Keystone XL Okay - Time To Lay Some Pipe

[Daniel John Sobieski]

Now that the election is over, nine Republican and nine Democrats have asked  the president to stop making excuses and build a job-creating pipeline that will  close the revenue gap through economic growth.

The truly bipartisan group of senators, led by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat  and powerful chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and John Hoeven, a North  Dakota Republican, wrote President Obama on Friday urging him to quickly issue a  permit for the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring over  830,000 barrels of crude from Canada's oil sands to American refineries every  day.

"Setting politics aside, nothing has changed about the thousands of jobs that  Keystone XL will create," the senators said in the letter, asking to meet with  Obama soon on the project designed to extend 1,661 miles to the Port Arthur,  Texas, area from Hardisty, Alberta.

"Nothing has changed about the security to be gained from using more fuel  produced at home and by a close and stable ally. And nothing has changed about  the need for America to remain a place where businesses can still build  things."

As America heads toward a fiscal cliff and the debate rages over taxes and  spending, increasing revenues through economic growth and expanding the tax base  seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle.

Energy Independence

As America's oil production increases through technology and entrepreneurship  on state and federal lands, the delightful prospect of genuine energy  independence also looms, if the federal government starts being a partner and  stops being an obstacle.

Right now that looks unlikely. The Environmental Protection Agency's war on  coal and other fossil fuels continues. And just two days after winning  re-election, President Obama's Interior Department issued a final plan to close  1.6 million acres of federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming originally  slated for oil shale development.

Known as the Green River Formation, this area has also been dubbed our  "Persia On The Plains," with technically recoverable oil in an amount estimated  at four times the proven resources of Saudi Arabia.

Read More At IBD:  http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/112012-634130-senators-ask...