{"id":4652,"date":"2012-01-18T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2012-01-20T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2012-01-20T14:14:14","slug":"why-obama-decided-against-the-keystone-xl-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/why-obama-decided-against-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Reasons Why Obama Decided Against the Keystone XL Pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4666\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 192px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"President Obama at a meeting in Washington on Jan. 17\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/137249411.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4666\" title=\"President Obama Meets With Council On Jobs And Competitiveness In White House\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/137249411-300x467.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/137249411-300x467.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/01\/137249411.jpg 381w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Obama at a meeting in Washington on Jan. 17<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On Wednesday the Obama administration <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/its-official-keystone-xl-rejected-by-obama-administration\/\">officially\u00a0rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline<\/a>, which would take oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The president said in a statement that his decision was \u201cnot a judgment\u201d on the merits of the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/\">Keystone XL pipeline<\/a>, rather it was based on the \u201carbitrary nature of the deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after making that statement the administration also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/284357-120118-kxlreport.html\">sent a report to Congress<\/a> detailing why they decided against the pipeline, and there are more reasons than just the deadline. The report is short, just five pages, and it&#8217;s actually readable (we&#8217;ve embedded it below), but here are a few quick takeaways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Many estimates of the potential jobs created by the pipeline are way off.<\/strong> &#8220;Regarding employment,&#8221; the report says, &#8220;the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would likely create several thousand temporary jobs associated with construction; however, the project would not have a significant impact on long-term employment in the United States.&#8221; It goes on to note that while some have projected hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result of the pipeline, &#8220;this inflated number appears to be a misinterpretation of one of the economic analyses prepared on the pipeline.&#8221;\u00a0<!--more--><\/li>\n<li><strong>In fact, the pipeline would only result in a few thousand jobs.<\/strong> &#8220;Based on the amount of money the applicant projects it would\u00a0spend on labor in building the pipeline, and the number of construction crews likely to be used in constructing the pipeline, the final EIS [Environmental Impact Study] estimated there would be approximately 5,000 to 6,000 direct construction jobs in the United States that would last for the two years that it would take to build the pipeline,&#8221; the report says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><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\/18\/reax-roundup-the-keystone-xl-rejection-as-seen-from-texas\/\">Reax Roundup: The Keystone XL Rejection, As Seen from\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/where-the-keystone-pipeline-would-go-through-texas\/\">Where the Keystone XL Pipeline Would Go Through Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/the-keystone-xl-delay-kicking-the-can-down-the-road\/\">The Keystone XL Decision: Kicking the Can Down the\u00a0Road?<\/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><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>And the overall economic impact would be minimal.<\/strong>\u00a0Relying on the Environmental Impact Study prepared by the State Department for the pipeline in late August, the administration says that\u00a0&#8220;over the remainder of this decade, even if no new cross-border pipelines were constructed, there is likely to be little difference in the amount of crude oil refined at U.S. refineries, the amount of crude oil and refined products such as gasoline imported to (or exported from) the United States, the cost of crude oil or refined products in the United States, or the amount of crude oil imported from Canada.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>By rejecting Keystone, we&#8217;re not losing out on massive amounts of oil.<\/strong>\u00a0The administration&#8217;s report to Congress says that &#8220;there is currently excess cross-border pipeline capacity, but limited connections to the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.&#8221; But the administration says there are ways of getting that oil to refineries in Texas without the Keystone XL, namely through &#8220;other new domestic pipelines, expansions or reversals of existing pipelines, and other modes of transport such as rail, that could play a role in increasing imports of crude oil from Canada to the United States, including to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast area.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Read the full report:<\/h5>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\"> <div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.4444444444444%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/284357-120118-kxlreport.html?embed=true&amp;responsive=false&amp;sidebar=false\" title=\"120118 KXLReport (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Further reading:<\/strong>\u00a0You can also read <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/reax-roundup-the-keystone-xl-rejection-as-seen-from-texas\/\">our roundup of the different reactions to the decision<\/a>, our conversation with a Texas professor on <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/18\/the-keystone-xl-delay-kicking-the-can-down-the-road\/\">why the pipeline is inevitable<\/a>, and the <em>Washington Post<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/five-myths-about-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/2011\/12\/19\/gIQApUAX8P_story.html?hpid=z3\">5 Myths About the Keystone XL Pipeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What was behind the decision? A new document sheds some light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":4666,"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\/4652"}],"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=4652"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4668,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions\/4668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}