The Obama administration reportedly will reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline, following years of pressure from environmentalists to do away with the plan.
Reuters reports that today (Nov. 6), “The Obama administration will reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline that has divided petroleum interests and environmentalists for more than seven years.”
The pipeline, which was proposed by the TransCanada Corporation in an effort to extract fossil fuels from Canada’s tar sands, would have connected existing oil pipeline systems in the U.S. and Canada “to bring more than 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil and diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast,” Reuters explains.
A wide range of environmentalist groups and activists have maintained that the pipeline would be inclined to leaks and spills, and that the tar sands oil extraction process is especially dirty and unsafe, which they have argued would make the Keystone XL pipeline unsafe for the people, water and wildlife in its path.
Environmentalists have also urged the Obama administration to veto the pipeline as a step toward reducing fossil fuel emissions and slowing climate change. Reuters notes, “Blocking Keystone became a litmus test of the green movement’s ability to hinder fossil fuel extraction in Canada’s oil sands,” which will make this a huge, symbolic win for environmentalist groups.
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