The New York Times opposes construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, raising two chief concerns here. To trump the benefits of the $7 billion project - tens of thousands of jobs and greater access to safe, secure oil from neighbor and ally Canada - the concerns must be pretty large. Let's explore.

First there's the pipeline itself - about 1,700 miles long, from Alberta to U.S. refiners as far away as the Gulf coast. The Times offers only token resistance, vaguely mentioning the risk of oil spills in the editorial's first and last paragraphs. That's it. With the same energy (sorry), you could dismiss wind power because of the risk it poses to birds and scenic vistas.

That leaves the Times' real villain, which is the source of the oil that would travel the Keystone XL: crude from Canada's o... more »

Picture a small, but comfortable two-story house - on four wheels. Now fill in all the rooms in the house with 400 tons of bitumen-laden sand and rock, and that's what it's like to be in one of the haulers at Suncor's oil sands mine in Alberta, Canada. Here's a video from my recent tour of Suncor's operation that focuses on just one of the well-paying jobs associated with oil sands:

Oil sands is a double-bonus for the United States, a source of secure energy - up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day after the bitumen is melted out of the surrounding material, from a neighbor and ally - and jobs.

Research indicates 80,000 direct or indirect U.S. jobs by 2020 and more than 500,000 by 2035 from fully developing Canadian oil sands. Full development means construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to... more »

This Saturday activists from "across the continent" are scheduled to gather here in D.C. to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Except not really. You see, last week I followed a Twitter chat set up by the protest's organizers, and over the course of 900 or so tweets one thing was mostly absent: any discussion of the pipeline itself. Which is both heartening and discouraging.

The good news is protesters obviously haven't found any problems with the fact that environmental impact studies have shown the 1,700-mile Keystone XL will have no significant environmental impact. And they appear to have accepted the fact that the $7 billion pipeline linking Canada's oil sands region with U.S. refiners will provide a tremendous economic boost, creating hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

The disco... more »

Like the kid at school with his hand in the air, trying to get the teacher's attention, America's energy companies are trying to catch the administration's eye as it casts about for job-creation ideas. The correct answer is right here in the first row: energy.

Last week President Obama said job creation isn't that complicated:

"There are no challenges that we're facing that we don't have the solutions to. We know what to do. ... It's not rocket science. And it doesn't require us to decimate the things that we know are going to help us grow and become competitive."

The president's right. It's not rocket science, though at times the administration makes it seem like something akin to alchemy - proposing indirect measures like tax credits, grants and patent reform - when simpler, faster and m... more »

It's good the administration seems to be refocusing on job creation - what with the current economic malaise yielding another blah employment report, Standard & Poor's downgrading of the country's credit rating and the stock market diving through the 11,000 floor.

The president said Monday creating jobs "is not rocket science" and "we know what to do" - and he is right. The question is, will we do it? Even the usually supportive New York Times thinks that recent economic leadership has fizzled: "Anyone hungering for a robust vision to invigorate the economy and increase employment is still hungry."

So, yeah - amid the churn of disappointing economic news, the administration looks to pivot to jobs. First, though, it might look at the pivot of jobs - as thus defined:

"A person or thing that... more »