After seven years in limbo, TransCanada’s (TRP) Keystone XL pipeline was axed by the Obama administration, a move that quickly drew the ire of the GOP’s presidential candidates. Studies showed it would have produced roughly 42,000 jobs during the two years or so it took to build – nothing to sneeze at, but a tiny fraction of the nation’s 143 million jobs.
Advertisement
“The president’s approach to this process and his ultimate decision reveals a lack of leadership when facing tough issues”, McCarthy said on Twitter.
Environmentalists feared the project would increase greenhouse gas emissions and risked local environmental damage through potential leaks in the pipeline itself.
“In the fight against Keystone XL our efforts as indigenous peoples – whether Lakota, Dakota, Assiniboine, Ponca, Cree, Dene or other – has always been in the defense of Mother Earth and the sacredness of the water”, said Tom Goldtooth, head of the Indigenous Environmental Network, in a statement.
“Customers around the world are increasing their usage of gasoline and diesel fuel and oil-based products, so I think we serve ourselves well and the world more responsibly if we ensure that Canadian values are what’s producing our oil”. Because of falling oil prices, it’s mostly a partisan issue. We travelled to Washington, DC on at least three occasions to join protests against the pipeline, including calling on the Canadian embassy in August 2011 to demand that they stop lobbying for the pipeline, participating in the Surround the White House action in November 2011, and the Forward on Climate protest in February 2013.
“President Obama today demonstrated that he cares more about kowtowing to green-collar elitists than he does about creating desperately needed, family-supporting, blue-collar jobs”, Terry O’Sullivan, president of Laborers’ worldwide Union of North America, said in a statement.
Whatever your feeling about the petro-economy, the safer route for oil is, and has been for a long time, pipelines.
As far as economic concerns go, the pipeline would not make a big enough positive change on specifically the oil industry to justify its construction.
That said, TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling, said that the rejection would be bad for jobs and the Canadian economy.
In addition, TransCanada has already spent over $2 billion on the project’s development, and hasn’t ruled out suing the United States government under NAFTA.
We are grateful to President Obama and to Secretary Kerry for leading us in the creation of a global movement of “Health in all Policies” so as to create a healthier world for all!
In his decision, Obama said the Keystone Pipeline had an overinflated role in the country’s political discourse -becoming a symbol often used as a weapon by parties rather than a serious policy matter. We are also now a global leader in the new energy economy.
Advertisement
“One way or another, this oil will get moved out of the tar sands in Canada, whether it’s to China, whether it’s by rail or truck here in the United States, and we’ll probably end up with a larger carbon footprint”, host Chris Wallace said.
