Obama and the Keystone Pipeline

It was pretty cowardly for Obama to hide behind the State Department's decision that the Keystone Pipeline was not in our national interests. I mean, those guys work for him. No question John Kerry does what he's told. The rest of his speech was even more bizarre. He admonished Congress to pass an infrastructure bill that would create more jobs and long-term benefits for America. Gee, I thought a pipeline was an infrastructure project, that like most infrastructure projects, creates lots of short-term economic activity followed by years of service revenue and added value to infrastructure users, both direct and indirect. Obama also pooh-poohed the effect on energy prices and energy security. Security is enhanced because we have reduced dependence on imports from unstable ares. Without this pipeline we'll need to replace the Canadian oil with foreign oil. And the recent Russian plane crash raises all sorts of questions about the growing risks from ISIS. That Canadian oil may be headed for China now. The oil will still be moved, but it will be moved across territory we don't have real control over. There's really not much effect on the environment either way, and that's the really disturbing thing here. Is Obama such a poor trader he couldn't convince the green lobby to let this one go and save their chits for something that really matters? What does that say for his Iranian nuclear deal?