Sierra Club: Saudi Arabia ‘Our Best Ally’ in Keystone Fight

William Yeatman talks to the Free Beacon about the Sierra Club's latest blog on how falling oil prices affect OPEC and Keystone XL: 

Despite indicators of a slow-down in U.S. oil extraction, supporters of domestic energy production called Rauber’s position unreasonable and counterproductive.

“This would seem to be a perfect example of cutting off the nose to spite the face,” said William Yeatman, a senior fellow and energy policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“If you’re a global warming alarmist, like the blogger at hand, then the prospect of cheap oil prices is a far bigger threat than any one infrastructure project such as the Keystone Pipeline,” Yeatman said in an email.

Rauber acknowledged the potential environmental pitfalls, but said increased carbon emissions resulting from the higher fuel demand brought on by low prices could be offset by automobile efficiency measures in the United States.

Yeatman called that idea “ridiculous.”

“Congress’s jurisdiction doesn’t extend outside the U.S., where the preponderance of motorists and other oil consumers reside,” he wrote. “Any way you look at it, [Rauber] is being myopic.”