Whether its political expediency or sincere environmental concern, or a little bit of both, the Obama administration has delayed any final decision on the Keystone XL extension past the election. You can score this as a win for environmental groups. The Republicans will howl and complain but it was the Republicans of Nebraska who raised the loudest opposition to the plan. And the industry knows it.
Stephen Brown, vice president of government affairs for the oil refinery Tesoro Companies, said President Obama was lucky [Nebraska Governor Dave] Heineman had come out against the pipeline.
“Terrible decision for the energy future of the country; brilliant decision for the President’s re-election campaign,” Brown wrote in an e-mail. “And the administration owes a debt of thanks to the Republican leaders of Nebraska for providing an escape hatch on this.”
Escape hatch or not, the pipeline isn’t getting built anytime soon.
I wish someone could explain why this is so controversial. the oil isn’t even ours..it’s in CANADA, right?
Canadians have no desire to refine the crude itself, nor are Canadian consumers the endmarket for refined products.
Emissions are a global phenomenon. Environmentalists hope to reduce Canadian enthusiasm for exploiting tar sands by blocking their ability to pipe it here. European governments have openly banned purchasing refined tar sands products on their soil.
So, if they can’t build the pipe line, they won’t access the tar sands oil? They won’t just build their own refineries, perhaps on the Pacific coast?
And ship it to China?
Why not? Saudi Arabia ships oil to the United States. The route from Canada to China is actually shorter.
The Canadian Interior Minister is already saying they’ll sell the tar sands to China.
There’s already a proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry oil sands petroleum to the Canadian west coast, where it would be transported to Asia by tanker.
So why don’t the do it now — it’s a matter of profit. You can export a higher volume of oil and at a lower cost via pipeline than tanker. But if they have no recourse, they just make less profit shipping it to China.
It was always disingenuous of activists to say if you stop the keystone pipeline you’ll stop the burning of dirty oil. The best outcome that can happen is slowing the burn rate. Which is a victory. But how much of a victory? Will the burn rate decline by 50% or by only 10%?
Canada exports a ton of oil overseas. Are you suggesting they don’t?
I would assume voters in British Columbia (which is considerably more environmentally progressive than Alberta) might impose themselves onto that discussion. Refineries are filthy.
We’re Canada’s go-to importers. I think the hippies are of the impression that if they can make life miserable for tar sands producers, they’ll just leave that shit in the ground for now.
I doubt it will work. A new pipeline will be proposed that goes around Nebraska or whatever. And it’ll be quietly passed once Obama has no more elections to win.
Bill McKibben is declaring victory, as are other environmental activists, saying, the pipeline is DOA.
Can anyone with actual knowledge explain why the State Department is in charge of reviewing this project?
I’ve never heard of State reviewing a project like this, rather than FERC or DoT (pipelines are a transportation subject, like rail lines).
It’s technically an international issue. Canada is not, after all, our 51st state.
But so what? Since when does the State Department review environmental impact?
Usually the activists like to pat themselves on the back for “making the administration do it” when they really did no such thing. Yes they were valuable to the process, but it would have happened regardless of their actions.
This is different, I think. And considering this is an important thing for me, I say to the environmentalists who went to DC well done!
Hillary Clinton has some ethical problems supporting Keystone. This gets her off the hook.
It also prevents Obama having to oppose her.
Ah, right. The saintly Barack Obama has once against prevailed against the monster Hillary Clinton and the dastardly fossil fuel industry. With deftness and subtle cunning the likes of us can scarcely comprehend.
Obviously.
Is it always February 2008 in your world?
Lemme tell ya, a skinny black guy with a funny sounding mooslim name, rises to become the first black president of a racist country, at age 47, merely 4 years after hitting the national stage is pretty solid evidence of deftness and subtle cunning the likes of us can scarcely comprehend.
Hell, he not just the first black president of the United States, he’s the first black chief executive in the annals of western civilization.
You know what else, it will probably be 50 to 60 years before there’s even another black president. What makes me say this — well, JFK wasn’t simply the first catholic president, he’s been the only catholic president. In the past 50 years, there’s only been one other catholic nominated for president, John Kerry.
If Hillary opposed it then why didn’t she just say so and the department reject it? Give me a break.
Here’s a thought: because she left the decision to be made by the people actually authorized to make it, based on the law and regulations that apply, as opposed to merely asking whether she, personally, supported or opposed it?
I know, crazy, right? Everyone knows we live in a monarchy, and Hillary Clinton’s wishes are law!
The president is no fool. This decision makes it imperative for the environmentalist to organize and vote their interests come next election. As we say in my country: “it is hand go hand come.” Liberals/progressives/environmentalists etc have got to understand that Pres. Obama has been left holding the bag on many liberal issues for too long and has suffered the wingnut backlash all alone. This way everybody’s gotta have skin in the game. simple.
Yay, a cogent explanation of electoral politics that is realistic within being vilifying or naive and fanboyish. I mean, it still sort of positions the President as the Lone Warrior of Goodness and Virtue Against All Odds, but good enough.
The people in favor of the pipeline aren’t going to vote for and fundraise for the President even if he does what they want. And we all know what whiny snots the environmentalists and leftists can be. So, like all politicians have since the dawn of elections themselves, an unpleasant decision has been miraculously postponed until after the electoral coalition is spent. It’s cynical, but endlessly practical. How about that.
“The people in favor of the pipeline aren’t going to vote for and fundraise for the President”
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You’re forgetting, unions wanted this deal because they estimate it would create 20,000 jobs.
Unions are pretty effective in GOTV and in making independent expenditures.
Some unions.
Others opposed it because of the harm the environmental damage of increased climate change would do the economy and jobs.
The folks who need skin in the game are Democrats in Congress. That is hard for environmentalists to engineer because of the geographical disparities in environmentalist sentiment.
You have the Inspector General at the Department of State investigating how the State Department decision was being made. There have been suspicions that someone was wiring the decision to benefit the oil industry. Postponing a final decision until this is sorted out makes a lot of sense.
And you also have the attempt (by some faction) to try to shift the route of the pipeline to some less politically sensitive land. Look for attempts to route it over as much public land as possible. Planning the rerouting takes time.
But every decision that the President makes is evaluated as solely a political decision. I think this is result of the media diminishing the stature of the presidency as an office by doing all horserace commentary all the time.
And Members of Congress are the most likely folks to be wiring a government decision that benefits an industry. There are more of them and they are likely to outlast the President; so the bureaucrats snap to faster for certain members of Congress than they do for “this is from the White House”. A fact that frustrates the hell out of most administrations.