Environment

Keystone is Dead

As predicted, the Keystone XL pipeline has now been officially rejected by the Obama Administration after the Republicans chose to hasten the timeline for approval with a rider inserted into legislation that extended payroll tax-cuts and unemployment benefits for 2 months.

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.

It seemed likely the Obama Administration would reject the pipeline anyway after a series of damaging reports emerged alleging the State Department flubbed it's own assessment of the pipeline, however the pipeline's demise was almost assured after John Boehner used the pipeline as a rider to pass the tax-cut extension.

That won't stop Speaker Boehner from whining about this today though, and when he does you should keep this in mind.

Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner’s financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada’s oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies — BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon — along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada.

SOPA is dead. Keystone is dead. Hopefully we'll soon be able to say PIPA is dead. On to November!