UPDATED: The U.S. rejected the final phase of the Keystone pipeline, President Barack Obama announced at his Friday morning press conference. “The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States,” said Obama in a statement, adding “I agree.”
TransCanada Corp.’s application for the Keystone XL pipeline, shipping oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in the southern U.S., hit a wall earlier this week when Obama rejected the company’s 11th hour request to suspend a review of the pipeline’s final construction phase.
The pipeline is partly symbolic at this point; as the tortured application process wound its way through America’s Byzantine politics, much of the oil that Keystone would carry has already found alternate ways south, through existing pipelines and via rail. But Obama’s decision is a key signal on how serious America is about climate change, leading up to the Paris summit in a few weeks.
Links below. Drag the counter to the 51 second mark to replay the live announcement from the White House here:
Excerpts, via @WhiteHouse Twitter feed :
- “The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy.”
- “A bipartisan infrastructure plan…could create more than 30 times as many jobs/year as the pipeline”
- Our businesses created 268,000 new jobs last month…the unemployment rate fell to 5%.
- “The pipeline would not lower gas prices for American consumers. In fact, gas prices have already been falling steadily”
- “Shipping dirtier crude oil into our country would not increase America’s energy security.”
- “We’ve doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas by 2025.”
- “We’ve…multiplied the power we generate from the sun 20 times over.”
- “America has cut our total carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.”
- “America is leading on climate change with new rules on power plants”
- “We’ve got to come together…to protect the one planet we’ve got while we still can.”
- “If we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change before it’s too late, the time to act is now.”
Statement from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, emailed:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today issued the following statement on the Keystone XL pipeline decision by the United States:
“The application for a cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project was turned down by the United States Government today. We are disappointed by the decision but respect the right of the United States to make the decision.
“The Canada-U.S. relationship is much bigger than any one project and I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and co-operation.
“We know that Canadians want a government that they can trust to protect the environment and grow the economy. The Government of Canada will work hand-in-hand with provinces, territories and like-minded countries to combat climate change, adapt to its impacts, and create the clean jobs of tomorrow.”
Links:
- TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline site: http://keystone-xl.com
- Wikipedia page for the Keystone pipeline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline
