An announcement on Thursday by the U.S. State Department that any decision about the Keystone XL pipeline will be delayed until 2013 in order to "conduct a very thorough and comprehensive and rigorous and transparent process" has a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee crying foul.
"We've taken a decision regarding the Keystone XL pipeline project to seek additional information regarding potential alternative routes. And these potential alternative routes that we would be looking into will be within the state of Nebraska," said Assistant Secretary of the Department of State's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Kerri-Ann Jones, during a teleconference from Washington, DC on Thursday.
Jones spoke of the Department's commitment to a comprehensive process in allowing the pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the Canadian tar sands to the refineries 1,661 miles away in Nederland, Texas. Environmental concerns about a planned route through the Sandhills of Nebraska had some lawmakers in that state looking to pass legislation to require the project to be moved away from that area.
But those concerns weren't enough to convince Indiana Senator Richard Lugar that the State Department had a just reason for delaying the project. "Reviewing pipeline permits is usually a technical process. The Obama Administration has decided to make it political," Lugar, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a press release that came out on the same day at the State Department's announcement. "We have been frustrated at the slow speed of the Keystone XL permit evaluation but impressed by the seriousness with which State Department officials were taking consideration of national security, economic, and environmental issues. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that delay of Keystone XL comes at a time when the White House was under tremendous political pressure."
According to the press release, Lugar has proposed a bill that calls for a reduction in the need for foreign oil by 6.3 million barrels per day by 2030, cutting the trade deficit by more than $215 billion a year.
Stating that the Obama Administration has weakened the energy security future of the U.S., Lugar said, ""Their decision implicitly says that The Obama Administration prefers to send billions of dollars to unfriendly regimes rather expanding trade with Canada. No objective standard of U.S. national security interest could justify such a decision."
TransCanada Corporation, which is proposing the Keystone XL project, attempted to remain hopeful this week in spite of the news of the delay. "We remain confident Keystone XL will ultimately be approved," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer, in a press release. "This project is too important to the U.S. economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed."
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