The U.S. State
Department issued on Friday a long-awaited draft environmental
assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline project that would link
Canada's oil sands to refineries in Texas.
Read the State Department's Keystone XL report here.
The review looked at greenhouse gas emissions related to
the project and its shipping alternatives, including trucks and
trains. It did not conclude which transport route was cleanest.
Issuing an assessment that ran more than 2,000 pages, the
Obama administration completed a step it had to take before a
period of public comment. A final decision on TransCanada
Corp's project is not expected until July or August.
U.S. environmental groups earlier said the report
downplays the risks of the pipeline.
The report acknowledges that Alberta's oil sands are
carbon-intensive.
But the State Department assessment also makes clear that
all modes of transportation are risky and the pipeline itself
isn't any more of a threat to the environment.
The analysis means that Calgary-based TransCanada has
cleared a significant hurdle in its marathon bid to win
approval for Keystone XL from the Obama administration.
Related
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Other pipelines press on while Keystone XL stalls
Now it's up to the president himself to decide whether to
approve the pipeline, which would transport bitumen from
Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Thursday that
the Canadian government is hopeful the U.S. will do the "right
thing" and approve the pipeline.
Oliver told reporters in Ottawa that approving the
pipeline is in the best interests of the U.S. and that failing
to approve it would cost Canada jobs and revenue.
"The immediate cost would be the employment in Canada that
would be lost and the revenue from the additional sales,"
Oliver said. He reiterated that building additional pipeline capacity to transport crude to ocean ports from Alberta's oil
sands is a "strategic objective" of Canada.
Keystone XL has long been a flashpoint for
environmentalists, who have been cheered by Barack Obama's
public pledges to combat climate change since his re-election
in November.
Environmentalists consider the pipeline a symbol of "dirty
oil."
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