President Barack Obama’s decision of whether to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline will be the most important of his White House tenure, says Charlie Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
That’s the case “because it’s going to be the telltale factor of where we’re going in this country vis-a-vis our energy security,” he told Newsmax TV.
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“Let’s hope the president does the right thing here and approves it. Let’s hope that the president lives by his campaign slogan of all of the above energy. And let’s hope that the third time’s the charm, because this will be the third time that the president has the chance to do the right thing.”
Obama’s decision will prove whether he really believes in an all-of-the-above solution, Drevna said. “If he disapproves the Keystone XL pipeline after all the environmental questions have been answered more than once, that will be the harbinger of what his administration is in the second term.”
But Drevna is optimistic. “We’re confident that the president will do the right thing. We have as a nation way too much at stake to continue our reliance on energy from geopolitically and unsavory regions of the world.”
Oil and gas production is crucial for the nation’s economy and security, he says. “If we use the abundance of domestic oil and natural gas we have here in the country, we can create jobs, we add to the economy, we can make ourselves energy independent. That will go a long way to making us even more nationally secure.”
Drevna thinks the United States can attain energy independence by 2020. “We have the capability here right now in our country to make sure that we explore and get these resources to market.”
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