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US House vote sends Keystone XL approval bill to Obama’s desk

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 12 02/12/2015 The US House of Representatives voted by 270 to 152 to pass S. 1 , which would deem the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline approved more than 6 years after sponsor TransCanada Corp. applied for its presidential crossborder permit. The Feb. 11 action sends the measure to US President Barack Obama’s desk, where it is likely to be vetoed. GOP energy leaders on both side of the Capitol nevertheless urged Obama to approve the bill. “Now that Congress has spoken overwhelmingly in favor of closer energy ties with Canada, it’s time for President Obama to make a decision,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) said. She said, “To me, this is a pretty simple choice between job creation and greater energy security on one hand or more of the status quo on the other.” House Energy and Commerce Committee […]

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TransCanada Plans to Seek U.S. Approval for New Pipeline Project

ENLARGE Despite the yearslong fight over Keystone XL, TransCanada plans to ask the U.S. government to permit a new and different pipeline project. Photo: Reuters The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline plans to ask the U.S. government to permit a new and different pipeline project. Despite the yearslong fight over Keystone XL, TransCanada Corp. will apply to the U.S. State Department to build a 200-mile pipeline from North Dakota’s booming oil fields across the border into Canada to connect to another proposed pipeline, according to a person briefed on the plan. In its earnings report Friday, the company will announce it is proposing the $600 million Upland Pipeline Project, which aims to transport up to 300,000 barrels a day of North Dakota crude to a connection in Saskatchewan, according to the person briefed on the plan. From there, the oil can flow on TransCanada’s planned Energy East pipeline, […]

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How environmental activists turned a pipeline into a climate movement

WASHINGTON— In the summer of 2011, James Hansen, then the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, raised the alarm about an obscure oil pipeline project that appeared to be on track  for approval, just as hundreds of others like it had in the years prior.    The 1,179-mile proposed pipeline would transport crude oil extracted from Canada’s tar sands—a particularly intensive process that produces 17 percent more emissions than conventional extraction—to refineries on the Gulf Coast. “The U.S. Department of State seems likely to approve a huge pipeline to carry tar sands oil (about 830,000 barrels per day) to Texas refineries unless sufficient objections are raised,” Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, wrote in an essay entitled “Silence is Deadly.” “An overwhelming objection is that exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts.” Hansen argued constructing […]

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Alberta’s premier stumps for Keystone XL

Alberta’s premier says U.S.-Canadian energy partnership about more than just Keystone XL. Photo courtesy TransCanada WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (UPI) — While clearly in the region’s interests, the energy relationship between the United States and Canada is about more than Keystone XL, Alberta’s premier said. Submitted for approval more than six years ago, TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta has become a scapegoat for the politics surrounding the debate over North American energy. Alberta Premier Jim Prentice told members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of his long-standing support for the pipeline. "I have long been a vocal advocate for the Keystone pipeline and for its approval by the U.S. government," he said in prepared remarks sent to UPI. From vetting of public comments on a State Department review, to delays because of legal challenges over the pipeline’s route in Nebraska, the White House has been accused of […]

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EPA wants further review of Keystone XL

Oil and gas lobby group says EPA’s latest comments on Keystone XL another example of unnecessary delays. (courtesy TransCanada) WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) — A statement from the EPA on how low oil prices may influence decisions on Keystone XL pipeline ruffled feathers, with the industry crying foul. The Environmental Protection Agency said assessments made to date on the pipeline meant to cross the U.S.-Canadian border should be re-evaluated because crude oil prices are about 40 percent lower than when most recent considerations were made. Pipeline planner TransCanada submitted an application to the U.S. government to build Keystone XL more than six years ago. Louis Finkel, executive vice president for the American Petroleum Institute, said the EPA’s decision is another example of bureaucratic delays . "Suggesting that the drop in oil prices requires a re-evaluation of the environmental impact of the project is just another attempt to prolong the […]

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EPA Keystone Review Links Oil Sands to Carbon Emission Jump

Oil sands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said developing Canadian oil sands would significantly increase greenhouse gases, a conclusion environmental groups said gives President Barack Obama reason to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. “Until ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of oil sands are more successful and widespread,” developing the crude “represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” the EPA said Tuesday in a letter to the State Department, which is reviewing the project. The proposed pipeline has pitted Obama’s allies in the environmental movement against the U.S. energy industry. Obama has said he’ll reject TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone if it would lead to a significant increase in carbon pollution. Proposed in 2008, Keystone would deliver Alberta oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The Republican-led House next week probably will pass a Senate […]

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EPA Says Low Oil Prices Should Be Weighed in Keystone Decision

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency said the government should factor in the recent trend of lower oil prices as part of its decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. The EPA, in a letter sent Monday to the State Department, said the monthslong drop in oil prices should compel the department to “revisit” conclusions about U.S. oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions it made in an environmental assessment published in January 2014, which found the pipeline wouldn’t significantly add greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. The State Department oversees cross-border pipelines and is in the process of deciding whether the Keystone project should receive a permit. The letter by Cynthia Giles, EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, said building the pipeline at a time of lower oil prices could prompt production of more oil from Canada’s oil sands deposits. The letter said the 2014 environmental assessment […]

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Keystone XL bill passes in Senate, faces Obama veto

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Thursday to approve the long-pending Keystone XL oil pipeline, despite the White House saying earlier in the day that President Barack Obama would veto the measure. The Republican-led Senate passed the bill that would approve TransCanada Corp’s ( TRP.TO ) project to carry 800,000 barrels per day of heavy Canadian crude to Nebraska on the way to Gulf Coast refineries and ports. The House has passed its own pipeline bill and will work with the Senate to send the bill to the Obama’s desk. After the potential veto, Obama is expected to make his own decision on the pipeline after the State Department finishes a review in coming weeks. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Susan Cornwell ; Editing by Sandra Maler )

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How Nebraskans are winning the fight against Keystone XL

Resilience Published on Resilience (http://www.resilience.org) Published by Waging Nonviolence on 2015-01-28 Art Tanderup and his wife speaking at Harvest the Hope in September 2014. (Flickr / Hear Nebraska / Chris Dinan) Senate Democrats filibustered a measure yesterday that would speed up the vote on whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which could take the decision on Keystone out of the hands of both the White House and the State Department. Known as cloture, the move — pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — would have effectively quashed 12 amendments to the bill brought by Democrats, including one to close the “Haliburton loophole” and mandate that gas drilling companies comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, and another to require that oil companies contribute money to government clean-up efforts in the event of spills or leakage. In the wake of the 50,000 gallon crude oil spill into Montana’s […]

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Keystone Pipeline Bill Stalls in Senate, Prolonging Debate

ENLARGE Some of more than 350 miles of pipe awaiting shipment for the Keystone XL oil pipeline is stored at Welspun Tubular, in Little Rock, Ark. Photo: Associated Press WASHINGTON—The Senate on Monday rejected a procedural motion to advance legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, prolonging the chamber’s debate over the project. Amid a partisan fight over congressional procedure and absences due to weather and other conflicts, Senate Republican leaders couldn’t amass the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and move toward a final vote on approving the pipeline. The procedural vote was 53-39. While enough Senate Democrats support the pipeline to clear the 60-vote hurdle, several of them are fuming over a decision last week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to vote against taking up Democratic amendments and to prevent Democrats from delivering one-minute floor speeches on their amendments. Their effort […]

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