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Obama Says No to Keystone Pipeline Again

“The pipeline’s rejection marks a historic victory for farmers, ranchers, tribal nations and the unlikely alliance that formed to fight this uphill, six-year battle that no one believed we’d ever win”, said Bold Nebraska, a group formed specifically to spearhead Keystone XL resistance in that state, in a news release.

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At various times during this seven-year ordeal, it seemed that Obama was delaying approval of the pipeline to placate the activists who opposed it. Even when he announced his opposition last week, Obama acknowledged that the pipeline wouldn’t harm the environment as much as a few critics claimed, and possibly not at all.

Green America, with 200,000 individual members and 3,000 business members, has been a vocal opponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline project. Higgins, a South Buffalo Democrat, says he doesn’t think any one issue led to its rejection.

With Solar City’s factory nearing completion along South Park Avenue, Higgins says Buffalo has a vested interest in Washington spending resources on alternative energy.

The company could immediately submit a new application, likely a futile maneuver, or wait out Obama’s term and try again in 2017 with the hope a Keystone-friendly Republican captures the presidency.

This job-creating project could be called “Drought-Free America”.

Finally, the President asserts that granting Keystone XL’s permit would have undercut his global leadership on climate change, particularly during the lead-up to December’s global climate negotiations in Paris.

Almost every mainstream climate scientist has said that a big portion of the fossil fuels now in the ground must remain there if the world is to avoid the worst consequences of global warming.

The fact that plenty of oil is running through the southern half of the pipeline has many oil analysts agreeing with the president, when he said the Keystone decision was not make or break for the industry.

As Obama himself noted, Keystone “would neither be a silver bullet for the economy … nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others”. As the State Department report predicted, the oil is making its way to market by rail and truck, which the review also points out is more risky and actually increases emissions because trains and trucks burn diesel fuel. Sources such as solar and wind are probably decades away from displacing petroleum.

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According to Wood Mackenzie, oil projects in Canada have taken a hit this year to the tune of about 485,000 barrels a day. For the first time in two decades, Obama said the U.S.is producing more oil than it purchases from other countries. We’re already finding cleaner, safer and more efficient ways to power our economy.

Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline Project