One of the biggest complaints expressed by congressional backers of the Keystone XL pipeline is that the delays in a presidential decision are unwarranted since the State Department's environmental impact statement gave the $8 billion project a green light. What's been happening, they say, is merely President Obama stalling what should be a slam-dunk approval.
That view, however, misunderstands the review process for authorizing or rejecting the required presidential permit for cross-border pipelines (as well as tunnels, bridges, etc.). The impact statement, put together by a firm with a record of stamping "okay" on oil and gas industry projects, is just part of that process. The review also requires the input of eight federal departments and agencies, including that of the Environmental Protection Agency, which found the first environmental impact statement to be insufficiently critical of various aspects of the pipeline project.
While the majority of Americans support building the pipeline, Aaron Blake at The Washington Post points out that a new survey shows that the majority also wants the review to be completed before a decision is made:
Just 34 percent of Americans say, 'Build it now.' An additional 61 percent are happy to allow the review process to play out.
Even among Republicans, 43 percent want the review to run its course. Just more than half—53 percent—insist it's time to move forward.
That overall 61-34 split is the reverse of most Keystone polls. The most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that Americans supported the project by a margin of 65 percent to 22 percent. A June Pew Research Center poll, meanwhile, showed showed a split of 61 percent to 27 percent in favor of the pipeline, with six of seven ideological groups overwhelmingly in favor—all but "solid liberals."
As Blake writes, it's not exactly a novel concept to want a complete review before going ahead on
any project. He also notes that support for the pipeline is wide but shallow since most people haven't put much time into considering its economic and environmental impacts. Moreover, the plunge in oil and gasoline prices over the past six months may have spurred people to see the pipeline as less urgent.
Many energy analysts and other observers now argue that Keystone XL may no longer be an issue anyway because oil at $50 a barrel or less makes uneconomic the mining of the tar sands bitumen that the pipeline would move from Alberta to Texas. But KXL builder TransCanada has not given the slightest hint that it is thinking of not building the pipeline, and it says no companies signed up to use it for transporting their bitumen have opted out despite the lower prices.