In the end, US President Barack Obama's administration made its decision about the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline because it finally ran out of reasons to delay it after 7 years. Obama essentially said it would have looked too embarrassing for US delegates to arrive at the upcoming climate talks in Paris without finally resolving the question.
"America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change," Obama said on Nov. 6. "And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that's the biggest risk we face-not acting."
The replacement of conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper with liberal Justin Trudeau just 2 days earlier also may have made Obama feel there was significantly less risk now of alienating the country's biggest foreign trading partner.
"This morning, I also had the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Trudeau," Obama said. "And while he expressed his disappointment, given Canada's position on this issue, we both agreed that our close friendship on a whole range of issues, including energy and climate change, should provide the basis for even closer coordination between our countries going forward."
There's no question environmental activists can claim a major victory, but it's almost entirely symbolic. Demand and economics, not protests or lawsuits, ultimately will determine the extent to which Alberta's oil sands are developed.
The extent to which Keystone XL's rejection might damage Obama and other Democrats' relations with Organized Labor is not clear. "President Obama today demonstrated that he cares more about kowtowing to green-collar elitists than he does about creating desperately needed, family-supporting, blue-collar jobs," Laborers International Union of North America Pres. Terry O'Sullivan responded on Nov. 6. But the AFL-CIO was silent.
Same old arguments
Obama cited old arguments that Keystone XL would not have created many jobs, would not have improved US energy security, and would not have reduced gasoline prices in the US.
He noted that if Congress seriously wants to enact legislation that creates jobs, it should pass "a bipartisan infrastructure plan that, in the short term, could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year as the pipeline would, and in the long run would benefit our economy and our workers for decades to come."
Finally, however, the administration's Keystone XL rejection showed that it thinks combating climate change matters most of all. It would be logical, then, for the oil and gas industry to note the inconsistency the next time a federal agency kowtows to fuel ethanol or other special interests. It already has moved on to addressing issues surrounding a repeal of the ban on exporting US-produced crude oil.