President Barack Obama rejected an application to build the Keystone XL pipeline Friday after 7 years of federal review, declaring the proposed project wouldn’t serve USA national interests and would have undercut America’s global leadership on climate change.
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“Major energy infrastructure projects deserve the comprehensive environmental and safety review process that the Keystone XL pipeline has received”.
There is an already existent pipeline but this one would have been an expansion running from the oil sands in Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska joining the existing pipe line.
The proposed pipeline would have run from Canada through six states – Wyoming not among them – to transport about 800,000 barrels of oil per day.
In Louisiana both gubernatorial candidates weighed in. senator David Vitter said the pipeline decision amounted to: “choosing the far left liberal agenda over creating tens of thousands of American jobs”.
On Facebook, Rep. Frank Guinta wrote that “President Obama has made a calculated political decision to leave construction for the next president, whom I hope has more compassion for those out of work and counting on low energy prices”.
But the rejection of the Keystone pipeline could be a sign that Obama is willing to ante up even more.
Just minutes after the Obama administration publicly rejected plans to allow an expansion of the Keystone pipeline through several Midwest states, the decision was met with both criticism and praise by 2016 presidential hopefuls.
“Because ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep a few fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more risky pollution into the sky”, he said.
TransCanada first applied for permission to build the pipeline years ago. Borenstein says Keystone could re-emerge in a future proposal, but only if oil and gas prices climb back up dramatically. “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 co-operation”.
“If Congress is serious about wanting to create jobs, this was not the way to do it”, he said.
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“The Keystone Pipeline was a loser project that only would have taken us backwards at a time when we need to be taking bold action on climate change”, said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado.
