This afternoon, officials at the White House and the State Department announced that they would “examine in depth alternative routes” for the Keystone XL pipeline and that this process “could be completed as early as the first quarter of 2013”.

This amounts to an effective rejection of the pipeline.  During TransCanada’s third quarter results call in early November, CEO Russ Girling told analysts that “(s)hipping contracts have sunset clauses that could be triggered by a long delay… if the administration delays the project long enough that it becomes a low probability that they will ever get it through in a time frame that meets their needs, they are not going to support us anymore.”

Analysis by Oil Change International indicates that the contracts signed between TransCanada and its customers – producers, traders and refiners – are potentially invalidated if oil is not flowing by the end of 2013. With two years needed for construction, work would need to start in early 2012 to stand a chance of meeting these contractual agreements.  Thus, this decision is likely an “effective rejection” of the Keystone XL pipeline.

In response to the news Oil Change International Executive Director Stephen Kretzmann said:

We congratulate President Obama for listening to the many not the money.  This decision shows the Administration is heeding the concerns of the 12,000 people who surrounded the White House last weekend, as well as millions of Americans and two thirds of Nebraskans by deciding to reconsider the route of the Keystone XL pipeline.  The President’s decision amounts to an effective rejection of the pipeline.

This is a great first step, but there is still much work to do to end our nation’s addiction to oil.   America needs a coherent energy policy that firmly rejects tar sands oil and definitively charts a roadmap to a climate friendly clean energy future that safeguards our health, economy and security.

America’s problem is not foreign oil – it is all oil.  As retired General Steven Anderson said today, “the greatest threat to our security is our over-reliance on oil and Americans must immediately take steps to cut our petro-addiction before it’s too late.“

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Note to editors: Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson, U.S. Army (RET), served for 15 months as the senior U.S. and coalition logistician during Operation Iraqi Freedom and later as the Army’s director of operations and logistics readiness at the Pentagon.

 

4 Comments

  • Perhaps now, with the Keystone XL pipeline effectively delayed if not rejected, citizen activists can turn their energies and support toward halting Alberta tar sands construction projects. Through five court cases, two dozen direct actions, and numerous demonstrations, Idahoans and Montanans have stalled transportation of tar sands upgrader refinery parts over our fragile rural roads and through our wildlands. Since October 2010, Imperial Oil, a Canadian subsidiary of ExxonMobil, has shipped, barged, and trucked one hundred pieces of gargantuan, Korean-made, industrial equipment from the Ports of Vancouver and Pasco, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho. During the next six months, Northwest interstates could be overrun by another 300 transports of these two-lane wide, 500,000-pound behemoths escorted by aggressive, industry-sponsored state police. ExxonMobil is brashly endangering travelers’ safety and convenience, challenging our highway access and civil liberties, and degrading our infrastructure and public resources. In Idaho, the reddest of the red states, we would appreciate your assistance halting this tar sands development invasion, to which Keystone XL pipeline construction is only secondary.

  • THE NEED, MEANS AND TECHNOLOGY ARE EASILY AVAILABLE TO STOP OUR RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUELS–ESPECIALLY THESE FILTHY BASTARD OIL SANDS VERSIONS… THE DEDICATION OF PEOPLE WORLDWIDE IS THESE TO USE ALTERNATIVES NOW– GOVERNMENTS NEED THE GUTS TO LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND AND MOVE ENERGY NEEDS INTO THE REALITIES OF THE NOW!!!

  • This pipeline would have employed over 200,000 folks before completed, we import 6 gallons out of 10 when one fills there car….think about that……1 million dollars a minute (24-7)goes to foreign countries for the fuel we use now….we need a energy plan….all I know is we pay foreign oil– billions each year needlessly, we need pipelines to get oil to the refineries or build more refineries which take 10-20 years just to get all the permits to even build one– and get transportation vehicles on natural gas. Obama is totally against coal/oil/natural gas – batteries-solar and wind cannot do it alone, it helps a little- but USA should be self sufficient in oil and gas and if the administration would get out of the way, the USA would be, along with 100’s of thousands of great paying jobs. I might add all those folks who do not want the pipeline- it would be mandatory that they all NOT drive a gasoline powered vehicle ever….that way they could free up some oil for others….

  • I am doing research for a speech in a Public Speaking class at my school and I would like to know how many of the viewers on this page can answer a small question…

    If you were in the position of the TransCanada Company asking to construct the extension of the pipe on your land what would you say and Why?

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