The Obama administration is scheduled to announce a decision to approve or deny the $7 billion Keystone XL project, a oil pipeline that would ship oil from Canada’s tar sands to refineries in Texas. Environmentalists, a key Obama constituency, oppose the pipeline in general because it ships oil and specifically because oil from tar sands which generate more carbon in production and refining than other oil. Labor unions that would build the pipeline, another key Obama constituency, favor that project.
Reuters and the AP report that rather than fish or cut bait, the administration has decided to punt by exploring a new route for the pipeline. The review process would push the pipeline decision past next year’s presidential election. Many view the delay as a win for environmentalists (“Exclusive: U.S. to seek new Keystone route, delaying approval” or “State Department Delays Oil Pipeline From Canada, Orders Developer to Reroute”).
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I see the environmentalists point on the issue and its very valid, but the fact is we need oil and it really does not matter where it comes from but I do know that Canada is a lot closer than the Middle East it take hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel each year to transport on cargo ships. If the Keystone pipeline is built here it could decrease the amount of fuel that is burned in the cargo ships and create tens of thousands of jobs to help the unemployment.
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