Obama is in danger of going against the core members of his base if he approves the Keystone XL pipeline, says a Center for Biological Diversity poll.
Jerry Karnas, national field director of the environmental group that commissioned the poll, says, “This thing is a potential mass demoralizer for a large amount of Democrats. Keystone is bad news for America, its wildlife and the future health of our climate – and the people who put President Obama in the house know it.”
This comes as no surprise because the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline is wildly popular amongst Republicans but equally unpopular with Democrats, with almost 69 percent of those who voted for Obama wanting him to reject the proposal.
The White House, on the other hand, has clearly stated that the approval of the Keystone pipeline will only be based on science and facts but still isn’t on the President’s desk just yet.
While it must be said that the President has already won his second term and won’t have to face the electorate ever again, the ability to strike a balance between energy independence and job creation while keeping his promise of dealing with matters related to climate change could indeed affect his legacy as a President.
The poll, already knowing the stance that the Republicans have on the approval of the pipeline, wanted to gauge the views of the people who put Obama into office – and in particular, young voters.
49 percent of young voters felt that they would be disappointed if Obama did approve of the pipeline while 16 percent said that they would feel betrayed. Voters of all ages, however, about fifty-three percent, believed that Congress should not be involved in the approval of this bill.