.
All candidates look for ways to ‘shorthand’ a political message and the Republicans have found such an opportunity in just one word – Keystone.
But is Obama’s decision on the Keystone Pipeline to blame?
To answer the question, I went looking for someone who could really make the case against the President. And who better to do this than Ray Perryman, the very economist hired by
TransCanada (the company seeking to build the pipeline)
to support the economic value in building the pipelinein the first place?
According to Mr. Perryman, who continues to strongly support the construction of the Keystone project, once “fully implemented and flowing reasonably close to capacity”, the pipeline could result in a 3.5 to 4 cent decrease in the price per gallon of gas, based on current conditions. Perryman does allow that his estimate might be on the high side by adding, “I should also point out that a
modest change of this nature will often be swamped by the day-to-day factors that impact market prices.”