Obama Says the Number of Keystone XL Jobs are “Negligible”

President Obama gave further indications that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline may not win his support. On Tuesday July 30, Obama said for the second time in a week that as far as jobs are concerned the Keystone project is not worth much.

As reported in The Hill, the President told attendees at Amazon.com’s Chattanooga, Tenn., distribution facility, “Putting all your eggs in the basket of an oil pipeline that may only create about 50 permanent jobs, and wasting the country’s time by taking something like 40 meaningless votes to repeal ObamaCare isn’t a jobs plan.” 


The comments were part of a speech in which the President reviewed his economic plan. Obama’s remarks clearly targeted Republicans who continue to try to tout the pipeline as an important part of a national jobs plan.

The President’s claim that the Keystone XL will only provide a very limited number of jobs was reiterated earlier this week by the State Department which said the project would have a “negligible” impact on the US employment picture.

Obama continues to advocate for jobs in clean energy and resist calls from the House to cut government support for renewables.

“Now is the time to double down on renewables, and biofuels, and electric vehicles, and the research that will shift our cars and trucks off oil for good,” Obama said.

While environmentalists are lauding the President for his stance on clean energy employment they continue to decry his support for jobs from fracking for natural gas. 

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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