President Obama downplayed the potential for the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline and stressed his administration would seriously weigh the project’s effect on climate change during a Monday appearance on “The Colbert Report.”
Show host Stephen Colbert noted that Obama would likely face a choice of whether to sign or veto legislation approving Keystone XL when Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress beginning in January, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he’d take up the issue “early.”
“You’re going to sign that, right?” Colbert asked during the satirical news show, which was filming in Washington.
Obama laughed and turned to the college-aged crowd at George Washington University, which filled the Lisner Auditorium with boos.
“Obviously, these young people weren’t polled,” the president said.
Colbert responded, “No, they’re chanting, ‘Dooo it.'”
Obama doubled down on comments he’s made regarding the pipeline that would bring oil sands from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf Coast.
“We’ve got to make sure that it’s not adding to the problem of carbon and climate change because these young people are going to have to live in a world where we already know temperatures are going up, and Keystone is a potential contributor of that,” Obama said. “We have to examine that, and we have to weight that against the amount of jobs that it’s actually going to create, which aren’t a lot.”
The State Department said Keystone XL would create 42,100 direct and indirect jobs during its two-year construction phase and 35 permanent jobs once the remaining 1,200 miles of pipeline is built. The department said Keystone XL would not facilitate growth in Canada’s oil sands — the key argument underlying environmental claims that Keystone XL would exacerbate climate change — though it did say building the pipeline would contributive to cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama’s comments on the Colbert Report echoed ones he’s made previously. The president has often thrown shade on Keystone XL as a potential boon for jobs. The president also reiterated remarks he made last month in Myanmar by describing Keystone XL as “Canadian oil passing through the United States to be sold on the world market.”
Environmental groups have made such claims, but many experts say refineries in the upper Midwest and ones in the Gulf Coast that are equipped to process heavier crude like oil sands would be ideal destinations for whatever Keystone XL transports. Those refined products, such as gasoline, might then be exported, but some might also remain within the U.S.
“It’s good for Canada, it could create a couple thousand jobs in the initial construction of the pipeline. But we’ve got to measure that against whether or not it is going to contribute to an overall warming of the planet that could be disastrous,” Obama said.
