Shot to the heart of Canada’s oil sands industry.
US President Barack Obama has rejected Canadian energy giant TransCanada’s(TSX, NYSE:TRP) application to build the Keystone XL pipeline, capping this way a seven-year saga that became one of the biggest environmental flashpoints of his presidency.
The decision, announced in a media brief this morning, comes on the heels of the rejection of TransCanada’s request to pause the review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, a decision expected to lead to the project’s rejection by the Obama administration.
Addressing the media, Obama said the pipeline would not have made a meaningful longterm contribution to the US economy. He also said it would not have made any significant job contribution as their proponents claimed (fast-forward to minute 50):
Obama also noted the pipeline would not lower gas prices for American consumers because gas prices have already been falling.
The president spoke about the benefits of alternative energy sources: “America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. Frankly, approving this project would have undercut that leadership…America has cut our total carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.”
Trudeau ‘disappointed’
In a low-key expression of mild disappointment, Canada’s new prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “disappointed” by the U.S. decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, but that the relationship between the two countries was “much bigger” than any one project.
“I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and co-operation,” he added.
In 2008, TransCanada first applied for a permit application to build the 1,897km (1,179-mile) pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, where it could join an existing pipeline.
The company spent at least $2.5 billion on the project, whose total cost if built would have been at least $10 billion due to delays and increased permitting costs.
But the Calgary-based firm is not giving hopes up. In a statement following Obama’s press conference, it said it will review all of its options, which include filing a new application to receive a Presidential Permit for a cross border crude oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S.
The rejection of Keystone is nothing but bad news for Canada’s economy. Oil sands production has been increasing steadily and is set to rise further as new projects come on stream, in spite of the fall in oil prices. At the same time, existing pipelines to take oil out of Alberta are already close to full capacity.
For environmentalists, including top Democratic donors, the decision represents a victory as they spent heavily in hopes of defeating the project, which they say would have drastically increased emissions blamed for global warming.
7 Comments
Conodo Mose
And the latest evidence for global warming is…….
MELTDOWN MYTH: Antarctic ice growing is just the first
EVIDENCE global warming is NOT REAL
Antarctica is growing not shrinking, the latest satellite records show.
By James Delingpole http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/31/ooops-new-nasa-study-antarctica-isnt-losing-ice-mass-after-all/
This latest research from NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is a bigger blow to their cause. Dr. Jay Zwally, the lead author of this week’s surprising NASA study that confirms that he Antarctic is gaining far more ice than it is losing. And we know it is accurate because it uses altimetry data from satellites to gauge changes in the size of the Antarctic land mass.
What this shows is that between 1992 and 2001 the ice
sheet gained 112billion tons of ice per year. This rate slowed between 2003 and
2008 but still the ice sheet was gaining 82 billion tons a year.
Not only that but according to the same study, it has led
to a reduction in the sea level rise of about 0.23mm a year. Does that sound to
you like a continent shrinking because of global warming? Of course not.
The NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.…this new study jointly announced by the American Geophysical Union and the British Antarctic Survey says that the gains in the 20th century for the West Antarctic are the “highest we have seen in the last 300 years”.
Title: Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses
Zwally, H. Jay1, 2; Li, Jun3; Robbins, John W.4; Saba, Jack L.5; Yi, Donghui3; Brenner, Anita C.6 Source: Journal of Glaciology doi: 10.3189/2015JoG15J071
David Thompson
It is always comforting when you someone you suspect of being a fool comes out and proves you right. How can a pipeline be more polluting than a derailed train carrying crude oil? Has Obama forgotten the lessons of Lac Megantic already? Canada should refine the oil here and sell it to the end user in the USA. That way you make a profit on each of the derivatives instead of a small profit on the whole.
lefty_lemon
No one is surprised here. This president is a national disgrace.
Altaf
Why cant Canada take the pipeline to their west coast and ship the oil to China, Korea and Japan without depending on US? China will buy every mineral, every drop of oil that any country can produce.
Mike Failla
“if you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools:. Plato
As true now as it was in plato’s time
David_R59
TransCanada Pipeline withdraws the application to build the pipeline and the very next day Obama decides to reject the application. This story goes on the news in the US, while neglecting to mention that it was not his decision to make; it already been made, thus making it look like Obama has had the last word in the matter.
Now, we have to figure out why TransCanada withdrew the application. Was it a favour to Trudeau? No matter which way Trudeau went he would have been a loser. If he came out in favour of the pipeline he would have angered environmentalists; if against the pipeline he would anger Western Canada. This way he is relieved of the responsibility of the decision.
Nice little trick. (It almost reminds me of so of the tricks PET used to use)
If it was a favour, which I suspect it is, in what form will the return favour be?
Gaz
I heard in late August by email that Obama vetoed the Keystone Pipeline, it is also alleged that Obama is constructing a secret pipeline???
Does anyone know or has anyone heard of this?