Is Keystone XL Rejection a Giant Example of Crony Capitalism?

This is a little tin foil hatish but the conventional wisdom is that the Lightworker's lefty base is the driving force behind his delay and dissembling over the Keystone XL pipeline.  Numerous commentators have wondered why Obama needed to heed these segment of his base, were they really going to vote for Romney?  Turnout maybe could've been a factor.  Maybe.  But now that he's pocketed the re-election victory, Obama isn't changing his tune about Keystone XL.  If you ask me, it's because he is an anti-hydrocarbon zealot like most on the far left.  But there are some "Hmmmmm"-worthy relationships here.  First, if not by pipeline, how does oil get transported over great distances when there is not a viable water-borne route?  By train, and increasingly so.

While America has gone through an energy transformation, so have railways, thanks to shale production growing faster than available pipeline space. Although rail is typically more costly than pipelines, railcars are able to reach markets that pipelines don't, particularly North Dakota's Bakken formation, yielding higher prices for producers.

This trend is not temporary. Small amounts of crude have long been transported by rail, but since 2009, the increased movements have been significant. U.S. railways have seen a boost in transportation of crude oil and petroleum products in the first half of 2012 by about 38 percent, compared to the same period in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In particular, which trains?

Rail crude oil originations have risen for 11 straight quarters through the third quarter of 2012, according to AAR. And much of this crude is being shipped by Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC (BNSF), transporting one-third of Bakken oil production alone with unit trains carrying up to 85,000 barrels of oil. BNSF witnessed a 60-percent increase in car loadings of crude oil and petroleum products during the first six months of 2012.

 Who owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe?  Um, yeah.

So, the Keystone XL pipeline represents something that Obama hates, there is no real political upside to approving it, and approving it would be against the economic interests of his good friend and supporter Warren Buffett....

Think that pipeline is getting built?  Not in the next four years it's not.