Keystone XL Derailed

The controversial Keystone XL pipeline application should be rejected until new environmental studies are completed, the State Department is expected to announce today. Congress had sought to expedite a decision from the administration by including a provision in the payroll tax bill requiring a decision on the project by mid-February. The State Department says that deadline is unrealistic given the complex issues of economics, safety and environmental impact, so it will recommend rejecting the project until the studies are completed. The administration came under intense pressure to stop the project from environmentalists who consider it another huge potential source of greenhouse gas emissions and toxic oil spills. Conservative supporters claim the project will generate thousands of jobs. Two dozen Democratic legislators wrote to the President urging him to disapprove the project as not in the national interest. Activist Bill McKibben who went to jail along with hundreds of others to protest the pipeline said the expected decision was a "brave call" by a conciliatory president in the face of Big Oil's threats to exact political consequences.