AirTalk parses the pros and cons of Keystone XL.
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President Barack Obama pauses while making a statement on the Keystone pipeline on November 6, 2015. We want ‘made in America.’ And the opportunity for us is to create those jobs through renewable industries, which is very much about our energy independence, about global climate change, and clean air and clean water. “Once the grass-roots movement on the Keystone pipeline mobilized, it changed what it meant to the president”, he said.
Obama’s announcement comes just days after the swearing-in of new center-left Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – and after TransCanada tried to halt the review process.
Republicans overwhelmingly support the pipeline, arguing that its construction would create jobs and boost the economy.
Marco Rubio sent out a series of tweets outlining why Obama’s decision is “a huge mistake”.
“President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate”.
The project “would not serve the national interests of the United States”, Mr. Obama declared from the White House with Vice President Joe Bide and Secretary of State John Kerry by his side.
Obama said the pipeline had begun to play an over-inflated role in American discourse as a symbol used as a political cudgel by both parties and an issue of contention between the US and Canadian governments. Opponents in the environmental lobby expressed concern that it would harm the environment.
Keystone XL would have linked existing pipeline networks in Canada and the United States to bring crude from Alberta and also a few from North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast.
Here’s a bet: If oil prices rise later in this decade, another president will find that constructing the pipeline is a shovel-ready project in the national interest. In the absence of the pipeline, Obama noted gas prices have lowered, down $1 from 2013, and the USA has become more energy independent through producing more oil nationally while at the same time using less of it. Activists also say the pipeline could cause devastating damage to the environment and contribute to climate change.
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“Our global partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal”, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., earlier this year.
