Rep. Johnson: Obama’s Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline could push Canada to work with China
Wednesday, 25 Jan 2012 02:30 PM
By Henry J. Reske and John Bachman
President Barack Obama’s decision to pull the plug on construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline could push Canada into the arms of China, creating factories in direct competition with the United States, Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, tells Newsmax.TV.
The Obama administration initially put off a decision on the construction of the 1,700-mile-long Keystone pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast until after the election. But December’s payroll tax bill required a decision by Feb. 21. Faced with the deadline, Obama, citing environmental and health and safety issues, decided against the plan.
While TransCanada Corp. can reapply, many fear the decision will lead to the pipeline being built to the West Coast, a move that would benefit countries such as China. Johnson, who serves on the Committee on Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, described that scenario as a “very real possibility and said Canada has made it very clear that they will have no choice but to do that.”
“China is the second-largest economy in the world,” he said. “Currently, it is the fastest growing economy in the world because China doesn’t have any regulatory restrictions like we do. They’re not concerned about emission control standards. They’re not concerned about many of the public safety and public health related issues that we are here in America. They’re just concerned about being number one and they’re going to do whatever it takes to be number one.
“I’m not a no-regulation kind of person; when public health, public safety, and national security are involved, we have a responsibility to do things safely, to do things smartly, and our policies should be based on science and fact, not on convenience and political rhetoric. We’ve got an opportunity to see that happen here because of that XL pipeline – 20,000 jobs during the construction phase, many experts estimate upward to another 180,000. … The last thing we want to see happen here is for China to have more access to oil. We’re simply fueling their manufacturing sector, and what are they doing with that? They’re competing with American jobs.”
Johnson said that a number of bills stalled in Congress deal with increasing domestic energy production and, if the president and the Senate would move on them, they could create a situation that occurred when President John F. Kennedy’s called on the country to land a man on the moon.
“We saw millions of jobs created, we saw industries crop up, and we saw young people excited about going into disciplines that would prepare them for careers in space exploration,” he said. “Think about what would happen if this president and this Senate would begin to move forward, passing some of these jobs bills designed to increase domestic energy production, and establish a national energy vision where we could say, ‘Look, over the next 10 years, we’re no longer going to sit on the sidelines. We’re going to establish a goal of becoming energy independent and secure in the United States of America.’
“We would, again, see industries crop up, we would see millions of jobs created because, guess what? We’ve got three trillion barrels of oil that we own already. We don’t have to pay anybody for it; we’ve just got to go harvest it.”
On other issues, Johnson:
– Rejected claims by the president that the House of Representatives “has been obstructionist to progress, nothing could be further from the truth.” The problem, he said, is in the Senate where jobs bills are “stacked up like cord wood. It’s irresponsible and Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate should be ashamed of themselves.”
– Said that as far as the GOP presidential battle goes, “all bets are off” in Florida. He added that any of the Republicans in the race would be “a much, much better alternative to the disastrous policies of President Barack Obama and his administration. He must be a one term president.”
– Said that he is not ready to endorse a candidate before the Ohio primary. “I’m still looking at all of them very, very closely. … It wouldn’t be fair to disenfranchise the people of Ohio’s Sixth Congressional District. Our primary is on March 6th, and I need to give the people that I represent a chance to make their voices heard.”
Watch the video and read more on Newsmax.com:
Rep. Johnson: Obama’s Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline Could Push Canada to Work With China
Johnson blasts Pipeline decision by President Obama
January 23, 2012
LISBON – U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson joined Republicans in criticizing President Barack Obama for temporarily killing the Keystone XL pipeline project, saying the project would create jobs, lower energy prices and bring the nation closer to energy independence.
“The president’s irresponsible decision to reject the Keystone Pipeline clearly indicates that his policies are being driven by his far left liberal idealogy rather than the facts, because the unions and even members of his own party support this crucial project,” Johnson said, in a news release issued last week.
The proposed 1,700-mile pipeline would carry oil from western Canada across six states to refineries in Texas. Obama objected to the pipeline’s original route, which would take it through an area where there is a huge aquifer that supplies water to several states.
The president had to act on the pipeline application by Feb. 21, and Obama said that was insufficient time to review any alternative route that might be submitted to avoid the aquifer. The applicant, TransCanada, is free to submit a new application with an alternate route, which is what the company intends to do.
Johnson’s office also issued a news release saying he voted last week against the president’s request to raise the federal government’s debt limit by $1.2 trillion under a procedure approved last year by Congress that allows Obama to do so unless two-thirds of the House and Senate object.
So, while the Republican-controlled House voted against raising the debt limit, it lacked the two-thirds margin to actually prevent it from occurring.
“We can no longer afford President Obama’s failed economic policies of more spending and more debt. Since President Obama took office the debt has grown by $4.6 trillion – the largest amount incurred under any president,” said Johnson, R-Marietta.
End Over-Regulation Now
January 7, 2012
One “regulation nation” under God?
Is that what’s really happening to our country? In the time it will take you to read this column, out-of-control federal regulations will take nearly $10 million more from our economy. According to the Small Business Administration, federal regulations cost taxpayers $1.75 trillion annually. That’s a lot of jobs. If that money was kept in the economy, 17.5 million jobs could be created with salaries well over $100,000. And, with 14 million Americans out of work, we can no longer afford such costly and oppressive federal regulations.
Now, please understand, I believe that common-sense regulations that keep our food safe, our air clean and our nation secure are critically important. But, there is no question that this bloated federal government is out of control. And, as a result, we’ve become a “regulation nation.” Just this year alone, President Barack Obama proposed more than 200 new regulations costing taxpayers and our economy $100 million each. Last year, the Obama administration listed more than 4,000 regulations “under development.” In Eastern and Southeastern Ohio, tens of thousands of coal industry jobs are at risk from just one of the administration’s proposed regulations. Imagine what will happen if Obama has his way with the other 199 proposed regulations and the 4,000 that he’s “developing.”
So far this year, the Obama administration has added more than 77,000 pages worth of new regulations. These new regulations will cost businesses both large and small 118 million man-hours to follow. This administration is burying job creators in red tape, and then wonders why unemployment is so high. As I travel up and down Eastern Ohio, I hear a recurring theme from businesses: government regulations are making it difficult to hire new employees, expand their businesses, innovate and compete. Job creators need economic certainty. Today, it costs the average business more than $10,000 per employee to comply with federal regulations.
So what’s the solution to this regulation epidemic? The Regulations from the Executive in need of Scrutiny Act takes us one step closer to solving this problem. I voted for this important piece of legislation. It completely overhauls the federal regulatory process, and puts the American people back in charge of the regulatory process. In this bill, Congress must approve any major new regulation proposed by the White House. It is long past time that we take the regulatory process away from unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and return it to the People’s House. Federal bureaucrats must get out of the way of job creation. The Senate must pass this bill, and the president must sign it into law.
I was elected to serve you, the people of Eastern and Southeastern Ohio. I will continue to fight for a more limited, effective, efficient and responsible federal government, lower taxes and real economic growth. We must get America’s economy moving again. We must put people back to work. The skilled, hard-working people of Eastern and Southeastern Ohio are ready and willing to go to work. Our businesses want to grow. Yet, unelected bureaucrats in this administration use the federal regulatory process to keep job creators on the sidelines – faceless federal employees, paid for by you, deciding what’s best for you. You deserve more and better from your federal government.
The solution to getting our economy moving again is clear and simple. We must end federal over-regulation and let our job creators do what they do best, create jobs.
(Johnson, R-Marietta, represents Ohio’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.)
Johnson Talks of Creating Healthy Economy
January 4, 2012
STEUBENVILLE – U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, said Tuesday too many government regulations and a tax code that is too thick have hamstrung the American economy, costing the nation trillions of dollars and discouraging job growth and business expansion.
Johnson, in Steubenville to meet with constituents, said a healthy business community is key to a healthy economy. And he said the key to a healthy business community is regulatory and tax reforms to spur economic growth and encourage job creation.
“Federal regulations cost our economy around $1.5 trillion a year,” he said. “This year alone, the administration will implement $100 billion in additional costs through new regulations. That’s just new regulations there are more than 72,000 pages of new regulations.”
And he said it costs Americans $160 billion a year to comply with the nation’s cumbersome 65,000-page tax code, based on 2009 statistics.
“We need to get America back to work, we need to give America a reason to believe, to want to go back to work,” Johnson said during a meeting with the Herald-Star’s editorial board. “This administration, for three years running, has seen unemployment at or in excess of 9 percent in spite of a $1.2 trillion stimulus, in spite of TARPS and bailouts. Those are the kinds of economic policies that have gotten us into this miserable economic condition we’re in. We’ve got some opportunity now to get us out of it. I believe through regulatory reform, getting regulations off the backs of American business and through tax reform, we can begin to see some certainty come back to the business community and we’ll see the business community grow and expand.”
He also said allowing Washington bureaucrats to shape energy policies could be disastrous, pointing to efforts to rewrite buffer zone rules that could eliminate thousands of coal mining jobs and cut coal production in half.
“We’ve had the technology available for years to use coal in a more environmentally (sound) way,” he said. “But business is not going to invest (that much money) when they have to worry about government shutting them down. How can you justify the cost of investing if you have no sense of future? We have a lot of hard work to do on the regulatory front.”
In terms of oil and gas drilling, he said House members “going to have to roll up our sleeves and fight” to keep so-called “unelected bureaucrats in Washington” from inserting themselves in the regulatory process.
He said, too, that Americans as a whole understand the dangers of a government that spends more than it takes in and overwhelmingly support a balanced federal budget, but a Democrat-controlled Senate stands in the way.
“The Senate refuses to act,” he said. “This is the same Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in about three years It’s unimaginable that the Senate of the United States, the greatest nation on the planet, the world’s No. 1 economy, would think it’s acceptable to live in the uncertain climate of continuing resolutions and stopgap funding, teetering on the brink of government shutdown year after year after year. It makes no sense. It’s not what the American people deserve.”
Johnson said single digit approval ratings for Congress are an indication that the American people are “sick and tired of partisan politics.”
“Dividing lines have been drawn, people are not willing to (make concessions) to move the ball forward,” he said. “I think the American people have reason to expect more from their elected officials than that.”
Johnson Holding Line Against Defense Cuts
America is part of battlefield, says Ohio lawmaker
January 5, 2012
WHEELING – Rep. Bill Johnson – a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel – acknowledges there is waste in the federal defense budget.
But he also believes those dollars should not be cut from current defense allocations, but rather redirected to other defense areas where they are needed.
As an example, Johnson, R-Ohio, pointed out that funding for military “human” intelligence was all but eliminated during the Clinton administration, and he said this funding should be resumed in light of today’s war against terrorism.
Article Photos
Photo by Joselyn King
Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, speaks during a stop in Wheeling on Thursday.
“Is there money that can be saved in the Pentagon? Yes,” Johnson acknowledged. “But should that money be cut out of the Pentagon’s budget, or should that money be put toward something that we need? It’s a big question.
“What a lot of folks might not be willing to accept yet is that America has become part of the battlefield. The continental United States became part of the battlefield in September 2001,” he added. “The bad guys have demonstrated that they can come here, and that they can bring the fight to us.”
America has few choices, “but we can choose the time and place of the fight,” he continued.
“If we are going to provide for the nation’s security, we are going to have to understand that the wars of the future aren’t going to be like the wars of the past where we are fighting standing armies and occupied territory and setting up permanent facilities,” Johnson said. “That’s not what we’re going to be doing.
“The enemy blends in among us – lurks in the shadows, hides in caves and holes. To go after an enemy like that requires a sophistication that only America possesses. And we’re going to have to invest in those kinds of capabilities if we are going to be able to protect America’s freedoms and provide for our national security in the future.”
Johnson said he is concerned when people want to cut defense funding and “bring our troops home.”
“Our young men and women are in Afghanistan – and were in Iraq – and we can debate until the cows come home why they went in initially,” he said. “But I submit to you we are there so the bad guys can’t come here. We chose the time and the place of the fight, and we chose to fight in their backyard rather than our backyard.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t create the world,” he added. “God did. Only he knows why we are in the situation we are in. But the enemy we are fighting – we’re either going to fight him in his backyard or ours.”
Johnson doesn’t believe there is “a start and end point” to the war against terror.
“If you can’t win the hearts and minds of the people you are trying to change – your adversaries … if you can’t break the will, you only have three choices,” he said. “Number one – you can tuck tail and run and pray they don’t come after you. Number two is total annihilation – and that’s not the American way. We’re not going to do that.
“And number three is we choose the time and place of the fight, and go after them in ways to make it impossible for them to come after you. That’s what we’re doing, and what we’re going to have to continue to do,” he said.
