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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): As the proposed Keystone oil pipeline extension cleared a major hurdle today, it set off alarms in some quarters and lifted hopes in the world of energy and business.
Jeffrey Brown has more on today’s developments.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): The pipeline would stretch from the Alberta, Canada, oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, moving more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day. There are concerns about leaks and spills, but some of the biggest environmental issues are focused on the extraction of the oil.
Juliet Eilperin has been reporting on this story for The Washington Post and joins me now.
So, Juliet, fill in the picture a bit. What exactly was the State Department looking at in this report? And what was its key finding?
JULIET EILPERIN, The Washington Post: They were looking the a whole range of impacts, including whether rejecting the pipeline would make a different in global greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
They also looked at things like what would happen if there was a spill and what about endangered species along the route, things like that. Their overall conclusion was that no one single infrastructure project makes a huge difference, a significant difference in terms of development in the oil sands region in Canada. And so the overall climate change impact they’re saying is not significant from this decision. That’s their broad conclusion.
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