Obama moves to fast-track oil pipeline

President Barack Obama will direct federal agencies to fast-track an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas, backing a segment of the larger Keystone XL project that he rejected earlier this year.

The 485-mile line from Cushing, Okla., to refineries on the Texas Gulf coast would remove a critical bottleneck in the country's oil transportation system, as rising oil production has outgrown pipelines' capacity to deliver oil to refineries.

Obama's directive, to be announced Thursday, also would apply to other pipelines that alleviate choke points. It will be issued along with an executive order requiring agencies to make faster decisions on other infrastructure projects.

For Obama, the announcement provides an answer to Republicans who say his energy policies, including the rejection of the larger Canada-Texas pipeline, have contributed to high gas prices and destroyed jobs.

The issue has become a central focus in the heated political fight over energy development in the 2012 election.

Obama is defending his energy agenda this week, traveling yesterday to a solar panel plant in Nevada and later to oil and gas fields in New Mexico and the site of a future oil pipeline in Oklahoma the White House is promising to accelerate.

GOP opponents from front-runner Mitt Romney on down are vigorously accusing him of stifling domestic production and betting on foolhardy alternative energy methods over traditional oil drilling.

With gasoline reaching $3.86 a gallon and apparently heading higher, the public is impatient for Obama -- or someone in his place -- to do something about it.

In truth, a president has little direct control over gas prices, which have risen more than 50 cents a gallon since January in response to a standoff over Iran's nuclear program that has threatened to disrupt Middle East oil supplies.

Obama has repeatedly argued that drilling for new oil alone will not solve the nation's energy woes or reduce gas prices.

He accuses Republicans of claiming they can "wave a magic wand" to return to the days of cheap gas, and yesterday, he mocked them for having a "lack of imagination" about alternative energy.

"You'd think that everybody would be supportive of solar power," Obama said from the Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility, the largest plant of its kind in the country, with nearly 1 million solar panels.

"And yet if some politicians had their way, there won't be any more public investment in solar energy. There won't be as many new jobs."