“As someone who has led the opposition to the Keystone pipeline from Day 1, I strongly applaud the president’s decision to kill this project once and for all”.
Advertisement
That said, the president did himself and a key USA ally, Canada, a major disservice by dawdling for so long. He owns most of those railcars.
“Rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline won’t prevent the Canadian crude oil from being produced, decrease environmental harm, or increase public safety; it simply means that the United States will miss out on its benefits”.
Approving the Keystone XL pipeline, even though it would have had little environmental impact, would have been bad optics.
As for Obama’s views on Keystone XL, the president didn’t waver in his remarks, “The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy”.
A State Department environmental impact statement released January 2014 states the pipeline project would only create 35 permanent jobs and 15 temporary contract jobs after the pipeline’s construction was completed. “It’s not really a big hit for Louisiana”. The massive network would have connected oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast, adding to existing pipelines.
Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts said the president’s decision was “politically-motivated”, and “puts jobs and this tax revenue at risk”. He is rejecting the application by a Canadian company to build the pipeline from Canada to Texas. Because the pipeline crosses the border, the State Department must determine whether it is in the national interest. With countries from around the world headed to Paris for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change at the end of the month, administration officials want to make sure American diplomats are credible when pushing other countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Iowa said, “It is unfortunate that the President has once again turned his back on a historically vetted energy project that would have created good jobs for the middle class and moved us one step closer to energy independence”.
Advertisement
“Anybody who’s ever tried to earn a check in a blue-collar business – I ran a machine shop – understands the importance of affordable energy here in America”, Pompeo said. “We won’t notice any effect from building or not building the Keystone XL”.
