Keystone XL is stuck in the pipeline, and it's costing billions via @NYPost

Why does President Obama continue to dither on the Keystone XL project? 

That question becomes ever more critical by the day, given the growing economic cost of inaction — as a new report makes painfully clear. 

Obama’s nearly seven-year delay has already cost $175 billion in unrealized economic activity, according to the report by the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute. 

And frankly, there’s no reason not to greenlight the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf Coast. After all, it enjoys substantial majority support in both houses of Congress and could produce $15 billion in annual revenue. 

Obama says the key factor is whether the pipeline would “significantly exacerbate the climate problem.” Yet numerous reviews, including one by the State Department, have concluded it won’t — but would instead add 40,000 jobs. 

The pipeline would also lower oil prices and boost US leverage in dealing with oil-rich states, including Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to which we’ve paid over $1 trillion in oil imports since 2009. 

Alas, the hard-left green movement declared war on the project, which is why Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid long refused to let it come up for a vote. And why Hillary Clinton, as recently as Monday, declined to take a position on it. 

The State Department was supposed to be done deciding whether Keystone is in the national interest five months ago. 

Time’s up. 

There’s no good reason for inaction to cost the economy yet more money and jobs