On Saturday the Washington Post published an editorial that lamented the delay of the Keystone XL pipeline project. The Post acknowledged that even under the most optimistic assumptions with regards to “greening the world economy,” every nation will still need to use oil for decades to come.

 The Post went on to say that just because you don’t bring the oil sands oil to the U.S. doesn’t mean Canada won’t produce it and that there won’t be some massive drop-off in demand for our refineries. In the end, the global carbon emissions are going to remain pretty much the same. What does change is where the U.S. gets its oil from and how dependable that source will be.

The Obama Administration managed a lose-lose-lose on this proposition. We lose between 20,000 and 118,000 jobs from the get go; we forego access to between 700,000 – 1.2 million barrels of oils a day, and we manage to offend our closest and longest ally in the world. I would say that is quite the Hat Trick! 

In the end the oil will get extracted, it will get refined and it may likely go to another country that is not so picky about where its oil comes from. This Administration keeps talking about the need to create jobs but they managed to kill at least 20,000 jobs without breaking a sweat. The only ones we really managed to hurt is ourselves. So if you are keeping score at home the bottom line looks like this: Jobs-0, Energy Independence-0, and U.S. Economy-0.

Chip Yost is vice president for energy and resources policy, National Association of Manufacturers.