Obama will reject Keystone XL, senator says
A leading congressional supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline predicted President Barack Obama will reject the US$8-billion project when Congress is out of town in August.
Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, cited “sources” Tuesday as he discussed the pipeline in a Senate floor speech without identifying where he got his information.
“What I’m hearing from multiple sources is that he is going to turn down Keystone when we’re out in August,” Hoeven told Bloomberg BNA’s Ari Natter after the speech. “I got a couple sources, and that’s what they’re saying. But I can’t tell you who.”
The Keystone XL project proposed by TransCanada Corp. has become one of the most contentious energy issues of Obama’s presidency. Obama has repeatedly challenged its benefits to the U.S. and vetoed a Republican-backed bill that would have bypassed the State Department review of the cross-border project and cleared the way for construction.
The Obama administration hasn’t said when a decision will be made about the pipeline. Frank Benenati, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on Hoeven’s prediction, referring questions to the State Department. The department didn’t immediately comment.
“If indeed these rumours are true with what Senator Hoeven has said today, it’s a victory for our opponents,” James Millar, director of external relations at TransCanada, said Tuesday by phone. “We would simply be making a choice of saying ‘Yes’ to oil from Iran and Venezuela and ‘ No’ to oil from Canada and the U.S. Bakken.”
The company hasn’t had any indication from U.S. regulators or the administration that a decision is forthcoming, he said.
TransCanada applied for the permit to build the pipeline in September 2008. It’s since spawned a massive lobbying fight in Washington. Environmentalists oppose the pipeline because it would promote development of the Alberta oilsands, which releases more greenhouse gases than conventional drilling.
Backers say the project would create thousands of jobs and boost ties to a close ally.
In the case of a U.S. rejection, TransCanada would need to understand the reasons before deciding whether to continue trying to win approval, regardless of commercial support for the project, Millar said.
The pipeline would have the capacity to carry about 830,000 barrels of oil a day across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, where it would connect to an existing pipeline network that extends to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.
Most of the crude would come from Alberta, but some space would be reserved for oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota and could help producers there. Hoeven has been among Keystone XL’s biggest backers in the Senate.
Obama vetoed a bill Congress passed this year forcing approval of the Keystone XL because it would circumvent the administration’s ongoing review.
He hasn’t said how he’ll decide but has been critical of the project, calling it an “export pipeline” that wouldn’t benefit U.S. drivers.
He called the process of extracting Alberta’s oilsands “extraordinarily dirty,” at a March event in South Carolina.
Comments like those have led environmentalists to believe that Obama would block the project.
“We’re confident President Obama will reject the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline based on his own criteria that it not increase climate-disrupting carbon pollution — the only question is when that decision will come,” Josh Saks, legislative director for the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.
Hoeven said on the Senate floor that Obama would wait until the August recess because the timing would mean less “pushback” from Congress. The House is scheduled to begin its recess this week, with the Senate following next week.