President Obama said Friday that he supports the State Department’s rejection of TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline because it “would not serve the national interests of the United States,” and turning it down helps solidify the United States’ role as the global leader on climate change.
“America’s now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change, and frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership,” Obama said Friday from the Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry standing behind him.
“As long as I’m president of the United States, America’s going to hold ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold the rest of the world,” he declared.
Obama said the proposal to run oil from Canada’s tar fields to the Gulf of Mexico held an “over-inflated role” in politics.
“For years, the Keystone Pipeline has occupied what I frankly consider an over-inflated role in our political discourse,” Obama said. “It became a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than serious policy matter. And all of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster, as proclaimed by others.”
In rejecting TransCanada’s application, the State Department determined that the pipeline would not make a meaningful contribution to the economy, would not lower gas prices and would not increase the nation’s energy security, Obama said. He also said he supported State’s decision.
If Congress was looking to Keystone to create jobs, lawmakers should instead adopt the administration’s proposed highway and transportation package, Obama said. It would create 30 times more jobs than Keystone, he said.
“Today, home-grown American energy is booming, energy prices are falling … and America has cut its total carbon pollution more than any country on Earth,” Obama said.
Looking ahead to major climate talks in Paris in three weeks, Obama said the United States enters those negotiations as a leader both on taking action and on inducing other polluters, such as China, to commit to significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
“The time to act is now,” Obama said about combating climate change. “Not later; not some day; right here, right now.”
