Dot Earth Blog: State Department Again Sees No Environmental Barriers to Keystone Pipeline

The State Department?s revised supplemental environmental impact statement on the proposed 1,700-mile?Keystone XL?pipeline is out, and offers very little that Secretary of State John Kerry or President Obama might use as a reason to reject the plan.

You can best gauge the reaction of various factions on Twitter using the?#noKXL?and #keystoneXL tags.

The voluminous report?includes this blunt conclusion on the inconsequential nature of the pipeline if one?s interest is in reducing extraction and use of oil from the Alberta deposits, or anywhere else for that matter:?

Based on information and analysis about the North American crude transport infrastructure (particularly the proven ability of rail to transport substantial quantities of crude oil profitably under current market conditions, and to add capacity relatively rapidly) and the global crude oil market, the draft Supplemental EIS concludes that approval or denial of the proposed Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands, or on the amount of heavy crude oil refined in the Gulf Coast area.

Here?s the core section from John Broder?s news article in The Times:

The lengthy?document?draws no conclusions on whether the pipeline is in the United States?s economic and energy interests, a determination to be made later this year by President Obama. But it will certainly add a new element to the already robust climate change and energy debate around the $7 billion proposed project.

The study will help guide the president?s decision, but it does not make the politics any easier.

Environmental?advocates?and landowners along the route have mounted noisy protests against the project, including a large demonstration in Washington last month, and view Keystone as a test of Mr. Obama?s seriousness about addressing global warming.

The president faces equally strong?pressure?from industry, the Canadian government, many Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, local officials and union leaders, who say the project will create thousands of jobs and provide a secure source of oil that will replace crude from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and other potentially hostile suppliers.

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/state-department-again-sees-no-environmental-barriers-to-keystone-pipeline/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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