Obama administration shoots down Keystone XL oil pipeline project

President Barack Obama officially rejected the Keystone XL pipeline proposal Friday, putting an end to the seven-year review process that has come to represent executive inaction on major climate change issues.

The proposed pipeline would have funneled 830,000 barrels of crude per day from its extraction point in Canada’s tar sands to refineries in the Gulf states.

The oil from those sands is heavier in carbon and burns dirtier than conventionally extracted crude. It would have been transported over nearly 1,179 miles through the center of the United States, all of which would have been at risk of oil spills.

Obama’s decision to nix Keystone met praise from environmental activists and jeers from many in the industrial sector.

Those in the energy industry took a dim view of the decision with the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) coming out with strong criticism of the Keystone decision. CEA Executive VP and oil industry lobbyist Michael Whatley said his organization is deeply disappointed with the president’s decision.

“He has thumbed his nose at more than two thirds of Americans who support reducing energy imports from unfriendly nations; who support job creation; who support friendly relations with our Canadian neighbors; who support regulatory decisions based on science, not politics; and who support big ideas and big achievements,” Whatley said.

Some, though, consider the decision a big achievement in itself. A statement from climate activist and writer Bill McKibben and his colleagues at the NGO (non-governmetal organization) known as 350.org called Obama’s decision a win for the environment.

“A head of state has never rejected a major fossil fuel project because of its climate impacts before,” McKibben and his colleagues wrote. “The President’s decision sets the standard for what climate action looks like: standing up to the fossil fuel industry, and keeping fossil fuels in the ground.”