For U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, President Barack Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal Friday poses detriments to the nation’s energy security and jobs.
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Whether or not the Keystone XL pipeline ever gets approved – it doesn’t matter.
The pipeline does not make a meaningful contribution to the USA economy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has raised concerns for more than a year that Keystone spills could foul groundwater and wilderness areas.
John Hoeven said it was “ironic” that Obama acted so quickly to reject Keystone XL after “postponing the jobs, revenues and other benefits that would result from the project.” Sen.
The updated profile estimates that without the pipeline, Canadian railroads will be taking up the slack by more than doubling shipments of tar sands oil by rail. The Obama Administration has also introduced increased efficiency requirements for vehicles and pollution rules for coal-based electricity in the U.S. The project begins to galvanize the environmental movement to pressure the administration to act on climate change.
State Department analysis estimated that the two-year construction period of the pipeline would generate 42,000 jobs, but those would all be temporary.
In addition to unprecedented verbal criticism of Mr. Obama – including from the Laborers’ global Union or North America, which branded the president “cowardly” and his actions “shameful” – other unions hinted that they may rethink their support for Democrats in 2016.
“TransCanada and its shippers remain absolutely committed to building this important energy infrastructure project”, chief executive Russ Girling said. This provoked an equal and opposite reaction from pipeline proponents, who came to portray the project as the wellspring of all American employment and cheap gas.
Environmentalists say that in addition to negatively impacting wildlife and the environment, the pipeline would have left a large carbon footprint because the process required to extract the oil would produce 17% more global warming greenhouse gases than traditional oil extraction processes.
Added Gordon Nipp, leader of a local chapter of the Sierra Club: “The Keystone decision is a step forward in letting the fossil fuel industry know that (it) will have to adjust to change … to a renewable, sustainable energy future”. The Keystone pipeline story might not be over yet.
The Keystone pipeline is already operational, as is the leg of the Keystone XL from Cushing, Okla., to Texas refiners, called the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project. The crude is still too valuable, even at a time of temporarily declining oil prices.
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These reviews further found that approval or denial of Keystone XL would be unlikely to significantly impact the rate of production in the oil sands, or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States.
