Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots

Keeping the Grass Roots Growing!

Post Card Project

What is one of the easiest things for the average person do to make a difference??

One way it to help us with our monthly Post Card Project. Each month we pick a topic that is in the news, and currently being looked at by our State or Federal officals and send them post cards with our views and or suggestions as citizens on a particular topic. Post cards work because they pass easily through the security screenings. This way they are sure to get to our elected representatives and get our message out without being tossed as a security risk.

By many folks sending the same officials postcards on the same topics suggesting the same response, we have been told that it really does make a difference. The more we work together, the stronger we will be and the more effective we are.

Obama’s Rejection of the
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline
       Recently President Obama rejected the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Upon completion this 4 phase - 3200 mile long pipeline would pump crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada where it is processed from oil shale to the Gulf of Mexico
(see map).

A number of obvious benefits would be derived from the construction of the pipeline the first of which is jobs. We’ve heard a lot over the last 3+ years about stimulating the economy to create jobs. We were told that if we invested $787 billion (Stimulus I) we should not expect to see unemployment exceed 8%, today 3 years later it’s at 8.3%. A part of Stimulus I was an infrastructure program that would supposedly create “shovel ready jobs”, and you know how that turned out. The President himself said at a Jobs Conference in July, 2011 referring to the “shovel ready” jobs program -“shovel ready was not as …uh…shovel ready as we expected”. The Keystone XL Pipeline infrastructure project truly is “shovel ready.” Estimates indicate it would provide 20,000 new jobs - 13,000 in construction & 7,000 in manufacturing, with even a better long term job outlook. Some forecast as high as 100,000 jobs in spin-off from increased business for local goods and services. In today’s economy with over 12.8 million people unemployed, any job growth is important for our country and for our citizens.

          Another benefit that can’t be overlooked is the need to reduce dependence on unstable sources of crude oil. The United States consumes about 15 million barrels of oil/day and of that we produce 5 million barrels/day here in the U.S.. 50% of our oil imports are from friendly suppliers in the Western Hemisphere; Canada & Mexico, but other countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela & Iraq have authoritarian regimes who may not particularly like us, or who may be politically unstable. Good reason to look at “friendly” sources or to develop our own energy sources here in the U.S which has been nearly impossible with the current administration. The Keystone XL Pipeline would help to reduce dependence from these unfriendly/unstable suppliers, and allow an additional 900,000 barrels of oil/day to be imported from Canada providing additional energy security.

          The pipeline improves the job picture, and reduces our dependence on unstable sources of crude, so why did President Obama state in his final decision that it “was not in the national interest now but I’ll take another look in 2013”. Is there some political motivation involved in his decision? His union supporters favor the construction of the pipeline, his environmental supporters do not, by delaying the pipeline decision till after the election he does not offend either group and insures their support leading up to the election. The unfortunate down side is that the U.S. suffers for Obama’s political expediency. In addition Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Obama that Canada will seek to diversify it’s energy exports by exploring an alternate route west to export the oil to Asia, and again we lose.

Legislators Contact INFORMATION:

President Barack Obama

Current Elected Office Contact Information

Contact President Barack Obama via Web

Website: www.whitehouse.gov

Washington Office:

The White House,
District of Columbia 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1414
Fax: (202) 456-2461

Senator Debbie Stabenow

Senator Carl Levin

Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich 10th)