This week President Obama made clear that he would rather please environmentalists than create jobs in America.

With the rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline, President Obama effectively killed 140,000 jobs that Keystone would have created directly and indirectly. That means 140,000 American families who could have benefitted from the certainty of a good paying job will not have the chance now.

Right here in Arkansas jobs will be lost because President Obama rejected the Keystone project. At Welspun Tubular in Little Rock, workers will be off the assembly lines and will instead be in the unemployment line because of President Obama’s action. The pipes that Welspun already built for the Keystone project are collecting rust instead of pumping oil into America to help power our homes and businesses.

To add insult to injury, not only did President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone project kill jobs, it all but guarantees energy resources in Canada will be sold to China. Recent news reports predict that gas prices this summer will be over $4 a gallon. Our country needs good paying jobs. Our economy would be more stable with an additional source of energy in North America. This week President Obama said “no” to Americans who are out of work and looking for a job and he said “no” to a common-sense energy solution.

In his reasoning for rejecting Keystone, President Obama said that his administration did not have enough time to consider the environmental impact of the pipeline. The truth of the matter is that the Keystone project has been in the works for more than three years and was on track to begin immediate construction. However, President Obama stepped in at the last minute to delay his final decision on the project until after this year’s presidential election. Late in 2011 the House of Representatives held President Obama’s feet the fire and set a deadline for Keystone’s approval. This week, over three years after the Keystone Pipeline was first announced, President Obama said that he did not have enough time to study the project’s environmental impact.

During my time in Congress I have listened to ideas from Democrats and Republicans and worked across the aisle when common interests allowed. President Obama’s overly partisan nature that cripples our government’s ability to pass meaningful legislation is inexcusable. The rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline was a partisan political maneuver that killed 140,000 American jobs and makes our country more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.