POLITICS - Demand for Decision Results in Rejection, Keystone Pipeline

"Could Keystone Pipeline Plan Be Revived After Obama's Rejection?" PBS Newshour 1/18/2012

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): The president had postponed consideration of a permit last summer, citing environmental concerns. But Republicans demanded a decision, as part of December's deal on extending the payroll tax cut.

In a statement today, Mr. Obama said he would not support the pipeline now because, in his words, "The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact."

But House Speaker John Boehner criticized the decision, saying, "The president has said he will do anything that he can to create jobs. Today, that promise was broken."

Juliet Eilperin has been covering this story for The Washington Post, and she joins me now.

Thanks for being with us.

JULIET EILPERIN, The Washington Post: Thank you.

HARI SREENIVASAN: What was the larger rationale for the administration to oppose this particular application for the pipeline?

JULIET EILPERIN: Their argument is that they had been looking at an alternative route through Nebraska which has an environmentally sensitive habitat in a place called the Sandhills region. And they had asked basically TransCanada to work with Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality and look for a new way to do this, and had predicted that this would delay a final decision on this pipeline permit until early 2013.

When the Republicans forced a decision by a deadline that was actually Feb. 21, the administration said, there's no way we can do it. We're not even going to go through the pretense of analyzing it, and we are rejecting this.

HARI SREENIVASAN: So the administration is not saying no to the pipeline, just the fact that they couldn't possibly do this in 60 days?

JULIET EILPERIN: Exactly. And they have said that TransCanada, the firm that has proposed this project, could reapply, although this would start a new process if they did that.

YOU, Mr. Speaker, are the one that demanded a rushed decision and you got it, so live with it. Of course you did this ONLY for political gain in an election season but NOT for jobs.