Yesterday, TransCanada, the Canadian company behind the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, executed a desperate political ploy to avoid the imminent rejection of their controversial project. Citing outstanding uncertainty around the route of the project through Nebraska, they asked the State Dept to press “pause” on their review.
Given that the route in Nebraska has long been uncertain, it is obvious that this is a clear attempt to run out the clock in hopes that the next president will not weigh climate science in his or her decision about the dirty Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Moreover, communities along the pipeline route have spent the last six years of their lives with the lingering threat to land, water and climate. It is long past time for President Obama to kill this project rather than put them through any more uncertainty and he should do so immediately.
This all comes just a week after Shell pulled out of a tar sands project citing lack of pipeline capacity and a report came out stating that the ability to export Alberta’s dirty tar sands is reaching it’s limits with pipelines 89% full, and that the oil and gas industry will run out of pipeline capacity as soon as 2017.
TransCanada’s request to suspend this permit is different than a withdrawal of the application. The State Department is not legally required to grant a suspension of this permit and they should deny this request in favor of completing their ongoing review of the project. The State Department should move quickly to finish their review, since they already have all the information they need to determine that this pipeline is not in the national interest. President Obama then needs to reject the pipeline on the grounds that it would unleash reckless expansion of the dirtiest fuel source on the planet and be a disaster for the climate.
President Obama has made it clear that Keystone XL is not in our national interest -- and thus must be rejected -- if it significantly increases carbon pollution and makes climate change worse. And the EPA has already advised the president that KXL would do just that. Since early 2014, it has become increasingly clear that increased development of the tar sands is dependent on oil prices and pipeline capacity, and thus Keystone XL will expand tar sands production, which will have significant climate impacts.
TransCanada’s requested delay, just like the Keystone XL pipeline itself, should not be permitted. It is time for the President to act now and reject this project once and for all.