Obama
notes concerns over 'dirty' Keystone oil extraction
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[March 07, 2015]
By Julia Edwards
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) - U.S. President
Barack Obama amplified the concerns of environmentalists about the
Keystone XL oil pipeline on Friday and repeated his own reservations the
project would have few benefits, but said he has not made a decision on
the project.
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Obama, explaining the debate over the pipeline to a group of
students, described concerns about the "extraordinarily dirty"
extraction methods for Canadian oilsands - a description the
Canadian government has long argued is unfair.
"The reason that a lot of environmentalists are concerned about it
is the way that you get the oil out in Canada is an extraordinarily
dirty way of extracting oil, and obviously there are always risks in
piping a lot of oil through Nebraska farmland and other parts of the
country," Obama told students at the town hall event.
Green groups said the comments showed Obama is likely to decide
against TransCanada Corp's project that has been pending for more
than six years.
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Jim Murphy, senior counsel for the National Wildlife Federation,
said Obama's comments "are the strongest indication yet that points
the needle to the president rejecting the pipeline."
Obama has downplayed the jobs the pipeline would create since late
last year, and the relief it would give to U.S. drivers. On Friday,
he reiterated the project will only create "about 300" permanent
jobs and would mainly benefit Canada.
An energy policy analyst said Obama's comments are either a proxy
for the way the president feels about the pipeline or an explanation
of why its such a hard decision for him to make.
"If indeed he is criticizing the extraction process itself, it does
seem a step more negative," said Kevin Book, an energy policy
analyst at ClearView Energy Partners.
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Obama, who has said the project should not be approved if it
significantly impacts climate change, is expected to make a final
decision in coming weeks or months.
"I haven't made a final determination on it, but what I've said is,
'we're not going to authorize a pipeline that benefits largely a
foreign company if it can't be shown that it is safe and if it can't
be shown that overall it would not contribute to climate change,'"
Obama said on Friday.
(Reporting by Julia Edwards and Timothy Gardner; Writing by Roberta
Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler and Andre Grenon)
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