Keystone pipeline on track for rejection?

The State Department on Friday released its final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The report release begins a critical final stage where Secretary Kerry will provide a final recommendation to President Obama based on this report, the public comments received and input from other agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior that have previously expressed deep climate change and environmental concerns over the pipeline, to determine if this pipeline is in America’s “national interest.”

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

“In this report, for the very first time, the State Department acknowledges a scenario in which the Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline dramatically increases carbon pollution. That’s a welcome and long overdue change, and it gives President Obama all the evidence he needs to reject Keystone XL.

“The Canadian oil industry is sitting on top of a tar sands carbon pollution bomb and Keystone XL is the fuse needed to light it. The oil industry, the Canadian government, and a Goldman Sachs report had all agreed on that, and now even the final holdout, the State Department, is acknowledging that reality.

“The Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline is a bad deal for America and our wildlife and it’s clearly not in our national interest. It will result in more carbon pollution, more oil spills, and massive destruction of wildlife habitat in the heart of North America’s bird nursery. We urge President Obama to put the interests of Americans and our wildlife over that of polluting oil companies and reject Keystone XL.”