With the Keystone XL pipeline back on President Obama’s to-do list, let’s hope he does the right thing and approves this shovel-ready project – to create thousands of jobs and help make America more energy secure, which most Americans support.

Recent legislation extending the payroll tax cut, which the president signed, also requires him to decide on the Keystone XL within 60 days. He should say yes. Previous objections to the pipeline’s path through Nebraska are being worked out, and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman is onboard. All that’s needed is a green light from the White House to bring good-paying jobs to Americans.

Amazingly, not everyone supports the creation of more U.S. jobs and greater energy security from the Canadian oil sands crude that would come to the U.S. through the Ke... more »

Hope we didn’t sound irked last week because The Atlantic’s best charts of the year didn’t include any of ours or, for that matter, any showing America’s energy abundance. In fact, Carpe Diem’s Mark J. Perry points out that America’s energy richness was missed by a lot of year-end chart lists.

No problem. Here are a couple more of our favorites from 2011, starting with one of Perry’s. It plots the amazing growth in North Dakota oil production, primarily due to development of the state’s Bakken shale play through hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques. 

Here’s another – from the Wood Mackenzie consulting firm’s study of how pro-development energy policies could create new jobs in this country. The job-growth curve here is nothing short of fantastic – nearly 600,000... more »

The Atlantic ran a series of end of year charts yesterday and for some reason we weren’t invited.  We won’t take it personally, and hey, via the magic of the Internet we can publish our own list of charts we love.  First up, a look at “Big Oil” and taxes, it actually completes a chart The Atlantic ran here.  What we see is that though some folks throw out profit numbers as an excuse to raise energy taxes, they often overlook the income taxes the industry already pays.

And while we are here.  Let’s throw in another chart, on the choice between pro-development policies and higher energy taxes as regards  jobs, government revenue, and energy security.

Compare two passages from the Washington Post’s fact checker, Glenn Kessler.

Here’s A:

“… the biggest stretch in all of these figures is the biggest number: the 118,000 ‘spin-off’ jobs that supposedly would be created from building the pipeline.”

Here’s B:

“Some readers might wonder how helping the unemployed manages to create any new jobs. That’s because the unemployed must still pay rent, buy food and so forth. The money they receive from the government thus helps keep other Americans in their jobs.”

OK, so in “A” Kessler sounds dubious, skeptical and dismissive of jobs that could stem from construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. When you say something is a “stretch,” you’re saying it’s distorted, either intentionally or accidentally. You can virtually see Kessler’s... more »

"If we get to the point where we cannot bring ourselves to do what is in our national interest, then we are clearly in a period of decline, in terms of our global leadership and our ability to compete.”

That’s Gen. Jim Jones, former U.S. National Security advisor in the Obama administration, warning Washington policymakers of the harm in continued delay on the Keystone XL pipeline – delay caused by his former boss’ decision to shelve the project’s permit application until early 2013, after the 2012 elections.

In a conference call with reporters, Jones emphasized “national interest” in his support for the Keystone XL – which was supposed to be the basis for the administration’s decision on the project’s fate. The analysis isn’t difficult. We know the questions:

• Is building... more »