Keystone XL pipeline proposal rejected — for now - Politics - CBC News

The decision was not a surprise to anyone.  The American Government wants the decision put off. 
Last fall, U.S. officials said they would defer a final decision on the pipeline until the end of 2012
— after the next presidential election.  Just the same everybody goes through the motions claiming a part in halting the pipeline, i.e., Bill McKibben for the environment movement, the opposition Republicans claiming a victory, and Canada saying sour grapes, we are going to find other customers, such as China.
Lot of politicking but no real change with Trans Canada continuing to prepare an application with an alternative route that they were already planning.




"We wanted to share with you the news: this afternoon the Obama Administration announced that they are denying the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. You did good work, against some of the longest possible odds." -350 Updates
http://www.350.org/

http://www.billmckibben.com/
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Keystone XL pipeline proposal rejected — for now - Politics - CBC News:
By Laura Payton, CBC News Posted: Jan 18, 2012

The U.S. government has denied an application by TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline, the State Department announced Wednesday.

A statement released by the department said it doesn't preclude TransCanada from applying again with a different route, and the company said in a press release that it will do just that.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the government hopes a new TransCanada application will be approved but that Canada is going to look to other markets to sell its oil.

In its statement, TransCanada said the company will submit a new application based on "the exhaustive" record compiled over the past three years.

The company says it's working with the state of Nebraska to design a new route around an ecologically sensitive area and expects to have finished that process by September or October of 2012.

Girling said the company expects a new application "would be processed in an expedited manner to allow for an in-service date of late 2014."

Alberta Premier Alison Redford said her government will do everything it can to support the Keystone XL project.

Redford said she expects to travel again to Washington, D.C., to discuss the file.

Obama blames Republicans

A statement released by U.S. President Barack Obama put the blame on Congressional Republicans, who inserted a 60-day deadline for a decision on the pipeline in a December 2011 bill to continue U.S. payroll tax cuts.

"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," Obama said in the statement.

"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."

Even before the State Department made the announcement, Republican congressmen criticized the decision, saying Obama had chosen to "create jobs in China" rather than the U.S., as Canada turns to Asia for energy exports.

Harper, Oliver and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird had all said they supported the Keystone XL pipeline and that they would find alternate markets for Canadian energy if the U.S. isn't interested.

Harper is visiting China next month and is expected to discuss ways to increase trade.

U.S. fears over proposed route

The original proposal would have seen the pipeline run from Alberta through several states to the coast of Texas. It raised concerns in Nebraska because it would pass through an area that supplies drinking water to millions of people. The XL pipeline is an extension of an existing Keystone pipeline.

In November 2011, TransCanada agreed to change the proposed route so that it wouldn't pass through the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area of Nebraska, a move that would add up to 65 kilometres of pipeline and another pumping station to the project.

Last fall, U.S. officials said they would defer a final decision on the pipeline until the end of 2012 — after the next presidential election.

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What's next?

Before TransCanada submits a new pipeline application, it will have to iron out the alternate route the U.S. government had asked for last November for the part of the pipeline that passes through the environmentally sensitive Sandhills region of Nebraska. The area contains the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies eight states with water for drinking and irrigation, and concern about the impact a possible oil spill would have on the aquifer was one of the main reasons behind opposition to the pipeline.

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