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Keystone Killed! (For Now)
Last edited Thu Jan 19, 2012, 09:05 AM - Edit history (2)
Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline: "Earlier today, I received the Secretary of State’s recommendation on the pending application for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree.
"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people. I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil.
"Under my Administration, domestic oil and natural gas production is up, while imports of foreign oil are down. In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security –including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico – even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas. And we will do so in a way that benefits American workers and businesses without risking the health and safety of the American people and the environment."
read: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/18/statement-president-keystone-xl-pipeline
“Um, … this came as a surprise to anybody?” said a person close to Obama. “There was never the slightest bit of doubt we were going to say no.”
. . . for all the pounding he’s taking from Republicans, industry and labor unions, Obama’s decision Wednesday is no-brainer election-year politics.
Democrats outside the West Wing and Chicago-based campaign say the politics were clear: With the exceptions of the grousing unions (who will have no choice but to support him in 2012), the party’s donor base, environmental advocates down to their hybrid SUVs oppose the pipeline.
In fact, a top Democratic fundraiser told POLITICO that the two most frequent questions he heard from wealthy would-be contributors were “about Keystone and gay marriage.”
read: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71636.html
President Obama said the rejection wasn't based on the merits of the project, instead it was rejected because the State Department did not have sufficient time to make a proper decision.
Saying it did not have sufficient time to properly vet the proposal, the State Department said it would recommend rejecting a proposal by TransCanada to build a 1,700 mile pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.
read: http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/145397402/reports-obama-will-reject-keystone-pipeline-proposal
The Canadian firm quickly said it would re-apply for the permit, which it first sought in 2008. But U.S. officials said it would still take more than a year for the State Department to complete a new environmental review -- pushing any final decision on the line well beyond November's elections.
Kevin Book, an energy analyst at Clearview Energy Partners, said that even an approval in 2013 could still have "important implications for North American supply" because it would establish a six- or seven-year process for approval of pipelines that cross national borders.
"Should environmentalists replicate last year's successful delays in future permit decisions, it would turn what used to be a de facto "rubber stamp" into a long, drawn-out fight every time," Book said in a research note.
"The knock on Barack Obama from many quarters has been that he's too conciliatory," said Bill McKibben, who led protests against the pipeline through his organization 350.org. "But here, in the face of a naked political threat from Big Oil to exact 'huge political consequences,' he's stood up strong."
read: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL1E8CI6XY20120119?sp=true
When he called Prime Minister Stephen Harper to break the news, Obama took pains to point out that TransCanada was free to submit an amended plan — one that would reroute the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline around an environmentally sensitive aquifer in Nebraska.
"The president explained that the decision was not a decision on the merits of the project, and that it was without prejudice, meaning that TransCanada is free to re-apply," Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall said.
And though Harper "expressed his profound disappointment" at the decision, MacDougall said, "he indicated to President Obama that he hoped that this project would continue given the significant contribution it would make to jobs and economic growth both in Canada and the United States of America."
Indeed, Keystone XL is more delayed than dead: the move lets the White House reclaim control of the approval process after Republican lawmakers attempted to force Obama into green-lighting the politically charged project in late December.
read: http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article/321117--reports-u-s-state-dept-to-say-no-to-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-pipeline
When the president denied the permit for Keystone XL on Wednesday, he didn’t just turn the usual balance of power upside down, he turned the conventional wisdom more or less on its head—as late as October, a National Journal poll of 300 D.C. “energy insiders” showed 91 percent predicting that the pipeline would be approved.
The victory is of course a tribute to people who set aside their natural cynicism about the possibility of change and instead went to jail in record numbers, wrote public comments in record numbers, surrounded the White House shoulder to shoulder five deep. They managed to bring reality to the forefront for once, and that reality—the leaky pipeline, the oil destined for export, the carbon overload from the tar sands—managed to trump, for now, the bottomless pockets of the fossil fuel industry.
What was interesting yesterday was watching the reaction of the congressional leadership, who’d forced the issue by passing legislation mandating a speedy approval process. They’d set the president an essentially impossible task, since Transcanada Pipeline hadn’t even announced the route they wanted to take through Nebraska. But apparently they thought he’d blink anyway. After all, the head of the American Petroleum Institute had issued the most naked political threat imaginable: block the pipeline, he’d told the president in a speech last week, and there will be “huge political consequences.” And of course he has more than enough money to back up the threat.
John Boehner et al may have thought that would work, because money always works with them. Boehner has taken more than a million dollars in donations from the fossil fuel industry; as the Washington Post reported on Sunday, he has hundreds of thousands of his own money invested in tar sands companies . . .
read: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/18/obama-s-denial-of-keystone-permit-was-a-welcome-win-against-big-oil.html
Robert Redford, actor and outspoken environmentalist, applauded President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday. In a column on the Huffington Post, Redford – who questioned the president's commitment to the environment a few months ago – wrote:
Let's face it: Big Oil is used to getting its way. But not today... and we have President Obama to thank for standing up to them in spite of the political risk.
President Obama has just rejected a permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline — a project that promised riches for the oil giants and an environmental disaster for the rest of us.
His decision represents a victory of historic proportions for people from throughout the pipeline path and all across America who have waged an uphill, years-long fight against one of the most nightmarish fossil fuel projects of our time.
read: http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/01/robert-redford-obama-stood-up-to-big-oil-111361.html
Send a message to President Obama telling him that you support him on this decision and that you reject any attempt to revive this project in the future:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
19 replies
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I think the President just lost '12 considering the state of debt we are in.
Watch for this to be the only right wing talking point for months 
...the licensing process. Stuff already checked off on pushed through. I still think it'll get built, but I do think their stupid political move backfired (so they can say "Obama canceled keystone, "killed jobs"
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