{"id":4588,"date":"2012-01-18T12:47:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T18:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2012-01-19T09:43:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T15:43:20","slug":"the-keystone-xl-delay-kicking-the-can-down-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/the-keystone-xl-delay-kicking-the-can-down-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The Keystone XL Decision: Kicking the Can Down the Road?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2037\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"William Fisher teaches at UT's Jackson School of Geosciences. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2037\" title=\"William Fisher\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher-620x463.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher-220x164.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/William-Fisher-138x103.jpg 138w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Mose Buchele\/StateImpact Texas<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Fisher teaches at UT&#39;s Jackson School of Geosciences.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Obama administration has officially <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/its-official-keystone-xl-rejected-by-obama-administration\/\">rejected the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline<\/a>,\u00a0a multi-billion dollar project that would take crude 1,700 miles<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\"> from the oil sands of Canada to refineries in\u00a0Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>StateImpact Texas spoke with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utexas.edu\/opa\/experts\/profile.php?id=574\">William Fisher<\/a>, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin&#8217;s School of Geosciences, to get a sense of what the decision means. (<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Read our explainer on the pipeline here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Texas has quite a bit at stake here,&#8221; Fisher says. &#8220;What\u2019s different now [from last fall, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/18\/in-texas-confidence-that-tar-sands-crude-will-find-a-way-to-the-gulf\/\">when the Obama administration rejected the pipeline<\/a>] is that Congress <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/19\/what-is-going-on-with-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">put this two month thing on it<\/a>. My guess is that this thing will be put off until after the election, at which time Obama or a Republican administration would almost certainly approve it. I guess it\u2019s really just business as usual.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/18\/in-texas-confidence-that-tar-sands-crude-will-find-a-way-to-the-gulf\/\">In Texas, Confidence that Tar Sands Crude Will Find a Way to the\u00a0Gulf<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/30\/where-not-to-put-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Where Not to Put the Keystone XL Pipeline<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/13\/challenges-await-obama-as-keystone-decision-looms\/\">Challenges Await Obama as Keystone Decision Looms<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/where-things-stand-on-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Where Things Stand on the Keystone XL Pipeline<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/131643233-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">What is the Keystone XL Pipeline?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Fisher, who served in the\u00a0Reagan and Ford administrations, says that pipeline construction isn&#8217;t likely to begin even on the approved legs until the Nebraska piece is in place. For now, Fisher says, the\u00a0President &#8220;can say he\u2019s just waiting on the State Department to do environmental impact study&#8221; of the Nebraska leg.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, White House spokesman Jay Carney gave a preview of today&#8217;s decision <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/photos-and-video\/video\/2012\/01\/17\/press-briefing#transcript\">using that very reason<\/a>, saying it&#8217;s\u00a0\u201cit is a fallacy to suggest that the President should sign into law something when there isn\u2019t even an alternate route identified in Nebraska and when the review process is &#8212; there was an attempt to short-circuit the review process in a way that does not allow the kind of careful consideration of all the competing criteria here that needs to be done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the\u00a0<em>Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0reports that &#8220;the administration\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/health-science\/obama-administration-to-reject-keystone-pipeline\/2012\/01\/18\/gIQAPuPF8P_story.html?hpid=z1\">will allow TransCanada to reapply<\/a>\u00a0after it develops an alternate route through the sensitive habitat of Nebraska\u2019s Sandhills.&#8221; The paper writes that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.transcanada.com\/keystone.html\">TransCanada<\/a>, the company behind the pipeline, is expected to &#8220;submit a new route proposal for the Nebraska leg of the pipeline within two weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So is today&#8217;s expected announcement merely a way for the Obama administration to delay approval or denial of the pipeline until after the election? Are they maneuvering around the Congressionally-imposed deadline and kicking the can down the road?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s my judgement,&#8221; Fisher says. &#8220;This was more of a political ploy by Congress to draw attention to it. If you had it up for a vote, it would carry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fisher says that while most of the environmental groups are opposing the pipeline because they worry it will increase reliance on fossil fuels and mean more carbon emissions, the oil sands of Canada are too much a part of the Canadian economy for the oil not to end up on the market. &#8220;They\u2019re going to build another line to Vancouver,&#8217; he says. &#8220;It\u2019s gonna be produced, they\u2019re going to to go up to 5 or 6 million barrels a day. And if we don\u2019t do it, it\u2019s total stupidity. But that doesn\u2019t mean that won\u2019t happen &#8212; our energy policy is full of a lot of stupidity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the long term, the pipeline will almost surely be built,&#8221; Fisher says, &#8220;someway, somehow.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Obama administration has officially rejected the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline,\u00a0a multi-billion dollar project that would take crude 1,700 miles from the oil sands of Canada to refineries in\u00a0Texas. StateImpact Texas spoke with William Fisher, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin&#8217;s School of Geosciences, to get a sense of what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[73,21],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4689,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}