“Just previous year, the department announced that it was unlikely that Keystone XL would impact greenhouse gas emissions”, Ricketts said.
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“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change”, Mr Obama said in remarks from the White House. He said the President couldn’t have sent a stronger signal to the global community ahead of next months Paris climate talks.
Hassan added: “Any large-scale energy project must be carefully examined to determine whether it meets the needs of local communities and provides significant energy benefits, allows for the continued development of long-term alternatives, guarantees a transparent public process, and protects natural resources”.
Many Republican lawmakers supported the construction of the pipeline.
The rejection also risked damaging US relations with its neighbor and major trading partner.
Louisiana’s junior U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy says Obama “rejected more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs” he believes the project would have created. “The Canada-U.S. relationship is much bigger than any one project and I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and cooperation”.
“Today’s decision can not be reconciled with the conclusions of the State Department’s comprehensive seven-year review of the project”, he said. “The logic of “don’t build new pipelines because it contributes to climate change” is exactly the same”.
Although the active pipe should keep running, a few East Texans are hoping not building the XL Pipeline will help limit the amount of tar sands in our area.
Yet while the project is dead for now, Obama’s rejection will likely not be the last word for Keystone XL.
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Obama’s announcement didn’t come without reaction from Republicans in both the House and the Senate. Companies are investing more than $1 billion collectively into developing new technologies to improve environmental performance through Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. Earlier in the year, the company left the door open to suing the US government under the North American Free Trade Agreement. “Today, misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science – rhetoric won out over reason”.
