The Canadian government has got the answer it demanded, but not the one it wanted.
The Obama administration has indicated its final verdict on Keystone XL will be stalled until after the mid-term elections in November and could carry over to 2015.
Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the pipeline’s most ardent supporters, ranked the latest delay as a “stunning act of political cowardice.”
A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government is “disappointed that politics continue to delay a decision on Keystone XL.”
“This project will create tens of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border, will enhance the energy security of North America, has strong public support and the U.S. State Department has, on multiple occasions, acknowledged it will be environmentally sound,” he said.
Alberta Premier Dave Hancock said the project has been exposed to a “thorough, predictable and independent regulatory process” and has been demonstrated to be in North America’s “best interest as it provides energy security, jobs and a dependable energy source from an environmentally responsible and democratic friend and ally.”
The ‘inexplicable’ delay
Russ Girling, chief executive officer of TransCanada, said in a release his company is “extremely disappointed and frustrated with yet another delay” that he described as “inexplicable.”
He said Americans will “miss out on another construction season where they could have worked to build Keystone XL and provide for their families. We feel for them.”
Girling said the U.S. is now left even more dependent on “suspect and aggressive foreign leaders” for imported oil.
He noted that the original Keystone pipeline has been shipping crude to refineries near St. Louis since 2010.
“It is about the same length of pipe as Keystone XL, carries the same oil and also crossed (the Canada-U.S. border). It took just 21 months to study and approve. After more than 2,000 days, five exhaustive environmental reviews and over 17,000 pages of scientific data, Keystone XL continues to languish,” Girling said.
He blamed interest groups and paid activists for stalling a project and creating higher greenhouse gas emissions and greater public risk by forcing shippers to use rail to ship crude while they wait for a new pipeline.
David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in a statement that the announcement was disappointing and provided no legitimate reason for further delay.
However, he conceded that the delay “is perhaps not surprising given the way this has played out so far.”
Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada, said in an email that shippers who have agreements to use XL are still 100 percent behind the project and there is a waiting list of companies interested in moving crude through the pipeline if the system is expanded.
Howard said the customers “want a direct connection between the U.S. and Canadian oilfields and American refineries” that will improve security of supply for oil that will be needed well into the 2040s while lowering U.S. imports that are currently up to 9 million barrels per day.
On the environmental issue, Howard said “it’s time for people to recognize the facts.”
In addition to the superior safety record of pipelines over other modes of transportation, he noted that the U.S. State Department has indicated that without XL greenhouse gas emissions would be 28 percent to 42 percent higher.
“That hardly seems like the responsible environmental path to follow,” Howard said.
State Department blames courts
The State Department said April 18 it had notified eight federal agencies they would have more time to contribute to a decision on whether the pipeline should proceed.
It partly linked the delay to a recent Nebraska court ruling that the state government illegally tried to mandate the pipeline route. That decision is under appeal at the state supreme court.
State Department officials said in a conference call that the legal action gave them no option but to extend the deadline for government agencies to comment on the anticipated impact of XL until the final route was settled as the impact on local ecosystems was understood.
Rachel Wolf, a spokeswoman for All Risk, No Reward Coalition, said the State Department’s extended comment period is a “huge victory for climate champions and communities from Alberta down to Nebraska and the Gulf. Every day without Keystone XL is a day we keep high-carbon tar sands in the ground.”
She said the postponement “confirms, yet again, that this project is not permit-able. This export pipeline fails the climate test, fails the jobs test, and doesn’t even have a legal route.”
