The XL Is Only on Hold

President Obama said Tuesday he will approve the Keystone XL pipeline only if it does not substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions — a surprise announcement ambiguous enough to leave both sides in the fight thinking they’d heard good news.

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Keystone’s foes said they were heartened because they do not believe there is any way the pipeline will pass Obama’s test.

  The Hill

Really? He’s not going to block that pipeline. There are other good reasons to block it (leaky pipes over the nation’s water supplies, super toxic crude, final product to go overseas anyway, etc.), and he hasn’t raised any objection to those. He just hasn’t blessed it yet because that would cause him a great deal of grief that he really doesn’t need right now with all the other troubles.

“The net effects of the pipeline's impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project can go forward.” [Obama]

Republicans backing TransCanada Corp.’s pipeline, which would bring oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries, pointed to a draft State Department analysis in March that concluded the project would have little effect on how quickly oil sands production increases.

The consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners, in a note, said Obama “left the door open to a final approval.”

“The State Department could determine on its own that GHG [greenhouse gas] impacts do not ‘significantly’ exacerbate the nation’s GHG emissions levels or are sufficiently modest relative to other reductions,” ClearView wrote.

“Attaining the vague notion of insignificance might require action from project sponsors – voluntary or otherwise – but seems well within the realm of reason given the State Department starting point,” the company said.

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