Clinton seems poised to approve TransCanada pipeline

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears poised to approve a
 controversial TransCanada pipeline carrying tar-sands-based crude oil
 from Alberta, Canada, to Texas despite pushback from House Democrats 
and environmental groups.



Clinton has indicated that the State Department “is inclined” to grant 
approval for the pipeline, which has come under intense scrutiny over 
its potential impact on water quality and wildlife.



“We haven’t finished all of the analysis,” Clinton told a crowd at the 
Commonwealth Club in San Francisco Friday evening. “But we are 
inclined to do so.”

 She said the U.S. is “either going to be dependent on dirty oil from 
the Gulf or dirty oil from Canada.”

That will continue to be the case “until we can get our act together as a country and figure out that clean, renewable energy is in both our economic interests and the interests of our planet,” she said.

“It's a very hard balancing act,” she said. “But … energy security requires that I look at all of the factors that we have to consider while we try to expedite as much as we can America's move toward clean, renewable energy.”



Clinton’s remarks were in response to a question regarding the
 department’s approval last year of the separate Alberta Clipper
 pipeline, which also supplies tar-sands-based oil from the Canadian 
province into the U.S.



But she clearly referenced the Keystone XL pipeline, which the 
department is still reviewing.



A State Department spokesman said the department is still reviewing "the thousands of comments we have received" about the project and anticipates that review to be finished by the end of the year. The spokesman did not have a timeline for when a decision on the project would be announced.

The department extended the review beyond its initial 
mid-September deadline after the Environmental Protection Agency, 
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and others 
argued that the department’s environmental review was inadequate. EPA 
said the draft environmental impact statement needed to be revised to
 take into account concerns the pipeline could pollute air and water
 and harm migratory birds and other wildlife.



Waxman said the department was not considering the impact additional 
oil use would have on global warming.



Dozens of House Democrats have publicly opposed the pipeline. So has 
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), who said it could harm water quality in 
his state. He said the department must consider alternative routes.



The Keystone XL project would transport 900,000 barrels or more a day
 from Alberta nearly 2,000 miles to Gulf Coast refineries, potentially 
doubling the current imports of tar-sands-based fuel. Canada is the 
largest single exporter of oil to the U.S., and Canadian oil sands are
 the largest single source of oil for the United States.

This story was updated at 3:55 p.m.