President Barack Obama’s move to deep-six a Canadian energy giant’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline today drew the immediate ire of Louisiana politicians who argue the president is playing politics and going against scientific studies showing the pipeline would have little environmental impact.
“For a state like Louisiana, a leader in energy production, this news is the latest in a string of decisions out of the White House that seem to target our economy,” U.S. Rep. Garret Graves says in a prepared statement, adding that the Obama administration does not care about energy industry workers.
“This decision will produce two outcomes: a rise in the volume of oil being transported by rail, which is more susceptible to spills than pipelines, and the continued energy dependence on Iran and other nations that do not share U.S. values,” Graves adds.
Fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany says the decision is a giant missed opportunity for the country.
“I’m disappointed the president is putting a radical environmental agenda over our country’s jobs agenda when we need more jobs and energy integration with our allies,” Boustany says in a prepared statement.
Announcing his decision on the pipeline at the White House, Obama says he agrees with Secretary of State John Kerry, whose department recommended rejecting the proposal for a 1,179-mile pipeline crossing the nation’s heartland. Obama downplayed the claimed economic benefits of the pipeline, arguing it wouldn’t have lowered U.S. gas prices, created long-term jobs or reduced U.S. dependency on foreign energy.
“This pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others,” Obama told reporters in the Roosevelt Room.
The Associated Press has the full story.
