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Breaking News: Obama administration to formally reject permit for Keystone XL pipeline
Not much is being reported right now but I will update.
Think Progress is now reporting:
"The Obama administration will announce it cannot approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline today, after Republicans inserted a rider into the payroll tax cut legislation that forced an executive-branch decision before the pipeline route is finalized. TransCanada, the foreign company that wants to build the 1700-mile pipeline to transport tar sands crude from Canada to Texas refineries, is rerouting the planned pipeline around Nebraska’s sensitive Sand Hills after local outcry. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports that the administration will allow TransCanada “to reapply with an alternate route through Nebraska.”
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Here's a link to the article from the Hill (thanks to citizenx)
“[I]t is a fallacy to suggest that the president should sign into law something when there isn't even an alternate route identified in Nebraska and when ... there was an attempt to short-circuit the review process in a way that does not allow the kind of careful consideration of all the competing criteria here that needs to be done,” Carney said at a press briefing.
Bloomberg has this report as well:
The rejection will probably come from the State Department which has been charged with reviewing the project and a joint statement will come from some of the larger unions and environmental groups in support of the decision, according to the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity before an announcement.
Wendy Abrams, who raised from $50,000 to $100,000 for Obama in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, had said rallying her friends around the president would be hard if he approved the pipeline. She said Obama has since shown that he's not "in the pocket of Big Oil."
She said if Obama rejects the pipeline, "it's going to be tough" on him "either way because the energy folks that have money to be made, will spend a ton of money on ads and it's a one-way street because the environmental groups don't have the billions to spend on ads defending their position."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
From Guardian:
Barack Obama rejected the controversial Keystone tar sands pipeline on Wednesday, making good on a promise not to give in to a Republican ultimatum on the project.
The announcement from the state department – which was expected – was hailed by environmentalists as a victory.
Meanwhile....
Boehner isn't liking this:
House Speaker John Boehner's office immediately criticized the decision.
"President Obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of American jobs and sell American energy security to the Chinese," said Brendand Buck, a Boehner spokesman. "The President won't stand up to his political base even to create American jobs. This is not the end of this fight."
From Politico:
House Republicans have called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify as early as next week on the Obama administration’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
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