Tea Leaves: President Obama Getting Ready To Kill Keystone XL 3.0 (Or Whatever Iteration We Are On)

Updates

August 5, 2013: Michael Fitzsimmons at SeekingAlpha is asking: Keystone-XL Pipeline: delayed so long it no longer matters? Tactically, the pipeline does not; strategically, it matters. It matters a whole lot.

July 30, 2013: In light of my comments below, a reader was nice enough to send a great article on the same subject from the Financial Post. Interestingly, some of the same observations were made.

President Obama’s latest smug comments on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline suggest the Canadian project’s odds of being approved under his watch are waning.

Thankfully, Canada hasn’t stood still while the U.S. President dithered.

So many new pipeline options have emerged that Keystone XL’s relevance is diminishing as each one gains momentum.

I replied to the reader, in light of that article, his comments, and my comments made last night (part of the original post):

My most recent comments regarding the Keystone XL reflect my frustration, sarcasm, -- short term, we can do without the Keystone but long term there are so many reasons for the Keystone -- exactly as you pointed out. The good news: we will see the Keystone (or a newer version)  some day, but it may happen after President Obama leaves office.

I think his decision (actually he will probably listen to John Kerry) will reflect how much he values the US-Canadian relationship.

Sometimes statesmen do things for bigger reasons than the stated reason.

Original Post

On a day that the market was down, and almost all energy stocks were "red" (with some notable exceptions like KOG and OAS), TransCanada was up over 1% even with this New York Times story. It certainly seems TransCanada investors don't want the company to build this pipeline.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Don't make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Rigzone is reporting.

U.S. President Barack Obama has called into question the number of jobs that would be provided from the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in a New York Times interview over the weekend.

Republicans have frequently stated that there would be a large number of jobs created if the pipeline is approved for construction, Obama said, adding that he disputes their premise.

“Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator,” Obama said in the interview. “There is no evidence that that’s true. The most realistic estimates are this might maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline, which might take a year or two, and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs in an economy of 150 million working people.”

The president noted that even the temporary increase of 2,000 jobs that might be created during the construction of the pipeline, which would cost about $5.3 billion to build, was “a blip relative to the need.”

It's obvious the US no longer needs this pipeline.

I don't think anyone cares any more.

I don't think anyone is even following this story any more except a few bloggers.

TransCanada will be better off without this albatross for the next ten years of legal fights, bad PR, sabotage.

Canada can move on with a new plan. More freight trains.