I'll have to agree on this one.
Union Hammers Obama for ‘Gutless’ Keystone XL Delay
The Washington Free Beacon | April 22,2014 | Lachlan Markay
A top labor union blasted the Obama administration on Friday over what it described as a nakedly political decision to once again delay a decision on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers International Union of America (LIUNA), called the move “gutless” and a “low blow to the working men and women of our country.
”LIUNA is also a strong supporter of innovative oil and gas extraction techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that are helping to produce record amounts of oil in blue collar areas of the country that have struggled economically in recent decades.
“The shale became a lifesaver and a lifeline for a lot of working families,” Dennis Martire, LIUNA’s mid-Atlantic regional manager, told the Associated Press.
Pipeline projects in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that carry oil from the Marcellus shale formation are large sources of work for LIUNA members in the area, Martire said. Members of the union worked 5.7 million hours on those projects in 2012, up from 400,000 hours in 2008, the AP reported.
“It has created more work for our business. There’s jobs here for the first time in many, many years. Legitimate, good-paying jobs,” one Pittsburgh-area contractor said of the fracking-induced oil boom, according to the AP.