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Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline
Why Keystone XL Is Dead

President Obama announced Friday morning
that he has denied TransCanada’s permit application
to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the U.S.
“The State Department has decided that the
5 Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national
interest of the United States,” Obama said. “I agree
with that decision.”
Obama said America is a global leader on taking
action on climate change, and approving Keystone XL
10 would have undercut that leadership. Some crude oil
needs to be left in the ground to keep the climate from
warming further, and rejecting Keystone XL will help
meet that goal, he said.
Among the reas ons for rejecting Keystone XL,
15 Obama said the pipeline would not make a meaningful
long-term contribution to the U.S. economy, nor would
it increase U.S. energy security or help to lower gas
prices, which have already declined dramatically over
the last year.
20 TransCanada said in a statement that it “would
review all of its options in light of a permit denial for
Keystone XL,” including the possibility of filing a new
permit application for a pipeline.
“TransCanada and its shippers remain absolutely
25 committed to building this important energy
infrastructure project,” TransCanada CEO Russ
Girling said in a statement.
State Department officials said at a news
conference Friday that TransCanada is free to apply
30 for a new permit to build a cross-border pipeline and it
is up to the company to do so.
The $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline was slated to
stretch 1,179 miles from east-central Alberta, Canada,
to the Texas Gulf Coast. It would transport 830,000
35 barrels of crude oil per day from the Canadian tar
sands to refineries near Houston. Proposed in 2008,
the 875-mile section between the Canadian border
and Steele City, Neb., needed State Department
approval because it crossed an international border.
40 Other parts of TransCanada’s Keystone Project
between central Nebraska and Texas have already
been built and are carrying tar sands oil to refineries
along the Gulf Coast today. Environmental advocates
have rallied against the unbuilt portion and urged the
45 Obama administration to reject it, saying emissions
from the production and burning of tar sands oil it
would carry could worsen climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
calculated that the tar sands oil the pipeline would
50 carry is highly damaging to the climate, emitting about
1.3 billion more tons of greenhouse emissions over
the pipeline’s 50-year lifespan than if it were carrying
conventional crude oil. The production of tar sands oil
releases 17 percent more CO2 into the atmosphere
55 than the average barrel of crude oil produced
elsewhere, according to the State Department.
“Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would
be inconsistent with stabilizing global warming below
dangerous levels,” Penn State University climate
60 scientist Michael Mann said. “I am pleased that the
administration has made good on their promise to take
seriously the task of acting on climate by rejecting the
construction of the pipeline.”

Available at: . Retrieved on: Nov. 10th, 2015. Adapted