One of President Obama’s top economic advisors said that the Keystone XL pipeline “almost certainly” will not be approved, despite its potential as a job-creating measure, because the environmental studies will not be finished within the 60 days in which Congress required Obama to make a decision.
“If [State Department officials] were only given 60 days to look at alternative routes in Nebraska and do the serious environmental and health reviews,” explained Sperling, director of Obama’s National Economic Council, during a CNN interview, “[it] would make it almost certainly impossible to extend that permit.”
Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., claims that approval of the Keystone oil pipeline — which would stretch from Canada to Texas — would “create 20,000 direct jobs in building the pipeline and manufacturing,” while a former advisor to Obama has called the pipeline a national security issue.
Environmental concerns might block the pipeline, however. The Nebraska legislature voted unanimously to reroute the pipeline away from certain ecologically sensitive areas, and the governor signed the bill, but now he supports expediting approval of the pipeline. “I certainly support expediting everything we’re doing with the Keystone XL project,” Gov. Dave Heineman, R-Neb., told reporters last week. He’d like the State Department to approve quickly whatever plan the state develops after completing its environmental review of alternative routes.
The environmental reviews that the State Department would conduct will not be completed before the 2012 election.
