Nebraska environmental officials have announced approval of a new route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would take Canadian oil to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. The new route would direct the pipeline around an environmentally sensitive region in the Cornhusker state’s Sand Hills.
Worries about Sand Hills and the potential impact on underground water resources in the region were cited by President Obama in November when he opted to delay making a decision on whether to approve the pipeline until after the 2012 election.
But with state approval of an alternative route for the pipeline, there is no longer any reason to delay approval, according to the Institute for Energy Research’s Tom Pyle:
“Now that Nebraska has provided a clear map to develop the Keystone XL pipeline in a way that avoids environmentally sensitive areas in the Sandhills region to the satisfaction of state regulators, the Obama administration must act immediately to authorize the pipeline’s construction, which has now run up more than $1 billion in unnecessary costs due to bureaucratic delay,” said Pyle, who is IER’s president.
“Nebraskans know best how to care for their environment, and state officials have given industry a green light to proceed. Thousands of unemployed Americans from Montana to Texas are ready for the much-needed jobs that Keystone XL will create.
“American consumers are unnecessarily sending more than $70 million overseas for oil that we could otherwise be purchasing from a reliable North American trade partner. Further administration delays only serve to imperil an economic recovery in America’s heartland and weaken our national security. The president must stop appeasing his anti-affordable energy lobbyists and authorize Keystone XL. No more excuses, Mr. President.”
Here’s how The Washington Examiner editorial page saw the Keystone pipeline issue in November when Obama decided it was more important that he not damage his re-election chances by making a decision prior to the 2012 election than it was to do something to create thousands of new jobs for unemployed Americans.
For more on the Keystone issue from IER, go here.
