|
 |
 |
|
White House denies pipeline delay was political decision
The White House is pushing back against fresh GOP claims that the administration had politics in mind when it delayed a decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline until after the 2012 elections.
Senate GOP leaders revived the allegation Wednesday when rolling out new legislation that would force a decision about permitting the proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline within 60 days.
“I recognize that there are people in Washington, D.C., who want to apply a political label to every single thing that the President or other members of this administration do, but at the end of the day this is a decision that falls cleanly in line with the priorities that the President laid out for the need to balance some competing priorities, in terms of the impact that this could have on job creation. And that’s how that decision will ultimately be made,” Earnest said Wednesday.
The State Department, which is leading the federal review of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline, said it would analyze new routes that move the project away from the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska, a process slated to last into 2013.
Republicans on Wednesday called the decision a political move to appease environmentalists, who in recent months have ratcheted up pressure on Obama to reject the pipeline outright.
“If I was speculating about the political calculation, I think I would conclude that [Obama] looked along the pipeline and concluded he is not likely to carry any of those states, so by delaying it he obviously is making an effort to curry favor with environmental activists,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at a press conference Wednesday.
