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U.S. President Barack Obama's comments during a San Francisco fundraiser at the home of billionaire ex-hedge fund operator Tom Steyer – an outspoken opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline –suggest that Mr. Obama feels recession-ravaged Americans may not ready to back aggressive action on climate change if it hurts their pocketbooks. White House watchers interpreted his remarks as a good sign for Keystone.
"I mentioned this to Tom and [his wife] Kat [Taylor] and a few folks right before I came out here. The politics of this are tough," Mr. Obama told a crowd of about 100 at Wednesday's $5,000-a-ticket fundraiser at Mr. Steyer's mansion overlooking the Pacific.
Mr. Obama said Americans who "haven't seen a raise in a decade" and who "certainly can't afford to buy a Prius" might be peripherally concerned about climate change. "But it's probably not rising to [their] No.1 concern."
Mr. Obama did not specifically mention Keystone at the Steyer fundraiser, or at two others held during his jaunt to the West Coast. But anti-Keystone protesters greeted his motorcade at every stop, chanting "No pipeline for the 1 per cent" to voice their opposition to the conduit that would carry thousands of barrels a day of heavy crude from Alberta to oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast.
Mr. Obama will have the final word on whether or not the project goes ahead.
Mr. Steyer introduced Mr. Obama at the fundraiser by saying: "He's doing everything he can on the issues that we care about."
Prior to the fundraiser, Mr. Steyer told the San Francisco Chronicle that he is "super optimistic" that if the anti-Keystone forces explain the downside of the pipeline "people will agree with us and political action will follow."
Though Mr. Obama has made climate change legislation an objective on his second-term agenda, he made clear at the fundraisers that gun control and immigration reform are his biggest near-term priorities.
On climate action, he said: "I'm going to have to try to work to persuade the American people a little more convincingly" that there is no trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth.
With months to go before Mr. Obama makes a final determination on Keystone, the pipeline's fate is uncertain. Intervening events could swing the decision either way.
Opponents have seized on the most recent accident – last weekend's leak in a decades-old Exxon conduit that spewed heavy Canadian crude through an Arkansas subdivision – to mobilize Democrats in view of upcoming primaries for the 2014 congressional elections.
Mr. Steyer is backing anti-Keystone Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey in an upcoming Democratic primary to fill Secretary of State John Kerry's Senate seat. Mr. Markey's opponent in the race backs Keystone, but the Markey forces think the Arkansas spill will turn the race in their favour.
"When we showed footage of tar sands oil rolling down suburban streets in Arkansas, people in the focus groups were practically out of their chairs," a Markey consultant told The Washington Post. "To a person, they were outraged. Two switched their votes on the spot."
Konrad Yakabuski writes about public policy for The Globe and Mail.
Konrad Yakabuski