WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected a presidential permit Friday for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, citing concerns about its impact on the climate.
“America’s now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Obama told reporters, standing in the Roosevelt Room beside Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John F. Kerry. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face, not acting.”
He said now was the time to act to “protect the one planet we’ve got while we still can.”
The decision to deny TransCanada Corp. a cross-border permit for a 1,179-mile pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska, puts an end – at least for now – to a seven-year fight over a project that came to symbolize what Obama could do unilaterally to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
What started as a routine permitting application for a large infrastructure project became a litmus test among Democrats for what President Obama was willing to do to tackle global warming in the face of Republican resistance in Congress. Backers of the project said it would ensure a secure supply of oil from a reliable U.S. ally and create jobs; opponents said it would both exacerbate climate change by releasing a massive amount of carbon into the atmosphere and create pollution hazards along the pipeline’s route.
In the roughly seven-minute statement, Obama rejected the idea that the project, which would have brought Canadian oil sands, or tar sands, crude oil to the United States, would either lower oil prices or improve America’s energy security.
“The point is the old rules said we couldn’t promote economic growth and protect our environment at the same time,” he said, “but this is America and we have come up with new ways and new technologies to break down the old rules.”
On Wednesday, the State Department rebuffed TransCanada’s request to suspend its review of the pipeline until the Nebraska Public Service Commission approved a revised route through the state. The completed pipeline would move roughly 830,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which have been refitted to handle low-quality crude of the type produced in Alberta.
TransCanada president and chief executive Russ Girling issued a statement saying his company was “disappointed” with the rejection of its application.
“Today, misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science – rhetoric won out over reason,” Girling said.
The decision to reject the pipeline comes just two days after the new Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, took office. Trudeau has said that he wants to see the project approved, while stressing that he does not intend for this to remain a sticking point in bilateral relations, in contrast to his predecessor Stephen Harper.
The move drew immediate criticism from congressional Republicans and some union leaders, as well as praise from environmentalists.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, condemned Obama’s decision. “This decision isn’t surprising, but it is sickening,” Ryan said. “By rejecting this pipeline, the president is rejecting tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. He is rejecting our largest trading partner and energy supplier. He is rejecting the will of the American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress.”
By contrast 350.org’s Bill McKibben, whose group helped elevate the permit decision to a national issue by staging a huge protest in Washington in 2011, said it set an important global precedent.
“President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate,” McKibben said in a statement. “That gives him new stature as an environmental leader, and it eloquently confirms the five years and millions of hours of work that people of every kind put into this fight. We’re still … aware that the next president could undo all this, but this is a day of celebration.”
The project also drew protest along the proposed route where people worried about possible leaks. Jim Knopik, a farmer in Nebraska who had protested TransCanada’s original plan to build a pipeline across his property, said Friday that it was a relief to hear of Obama’s decision.
“I think it’s long overdue,” he said in an interview.
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