Obama says he rejected the Keystone pipeline because mandated deadlines would not allow?proper?a?fair review, but Republicans are accusing him of putting?politics ahead of sound policy.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected plans for a massive oil?pipeline through the heart of the United States, ruling there was not enough time for a fair review before a looming deadline forced on him by Republicans.
Skip to next paragraphHis move did not kill the project but could again delay a tough choice for him until after the November elections.
Right away, the implications rippled across the political spectrum, stirred up the presidential campaign and even hardened feelings with Canada, a trusted U.S. ally and neighbor. For a U.S. electorate eager for work, the?pipeline?has become the very symbol of job creation for Republicans, but Obama says the environment and public safety must still be weighed too.
The plan by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. would carry tar sands oil from western Canada across a 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer)?pipeline?across six U.S. states to Texas refineries.
Obama was already on record as saying no, for now, until his government could review an alternative route that avoided environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska ? a route that still has not been proposed, as the White House emphasizes. But Obama had to take a stand again by Feb. 21 at the latest as part of an unrelated tax deal he cut with Republicans.
This time, the project would go forward unless Obama himself declared it was not in the national interest. The president did just that, reviving intense reaction.
"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the?pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," Obama said in a written statement. "I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision."
Republicans responded unsparingly.
"President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese. There's really just no other way to put it. The president is selling out American jobs for politics," House Speaker John Boehner said. Insisting that the?pipeline?would help the economy, he declared: "This is not the end of the fight," signaling that Republicans might try again to force a decision.
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