Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources committee and the former chair of the disbanded Global Warming and Energy Security committee, has applauded the decision to drop the “bad idea” of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have made the United States a “middleman” for the “dirtiest oil on the planet”:
The Keystone pipeline was never and will never be a key part of U.S. energy policy, and has instead become a distraction from real attempts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. This pipeline would have taken the dirtiest oil on the planet, sent it snaking across the Midwest in an already-leaky pipeline, only to be exported to foreign markets once it reached the Gulf Coast.
The United States shouldn’t be used as a middleman between the dirtiest Canadian oil and the thirstiest foreign markets, when what the American people get in return is environmental risk and higher gas prices. This pipeline was a bad idea from the start, and this is the correct decision in the end.
As Markey mentions, the main effect for Americans of the Keystone XL pipeline would have been higher gas prices as Canadian oil was diverted to the international market.
Update
Other Congressional leaders in the fight against the corrupt Keystone XL approval process have weighed in.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), the only member of Congress to attend an anti-Keystone rally outside the White House last year:
For almost two years, I have been working to convince the State Department that their environmental review for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline was flawed and insufficient, which they finally acknowledged today. I would like to commend the President for his bold leadership and dedication to protecting the environment and upholding the ideals of transparency and scientific integrity. I would also like to commend the hundreds of thousands of Americans who stood up for clean air and water and helped convince the President that their review is insufficient. Today is not only a victory for everyone who wants to protect the water we drink and the land we live on. It is also a victory for democracy and for the enduring gift the Founding Fathers gave us in free speech and public participation in government.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR):
I’m pleased that the President is not being intimidated by attempts to short-circuit the review process for the Keystone XL pipeline. This is not just any pipeline. It would carry tar sands oil, which is more polluting than conventional crude oil, from Canada’s boreal forest, through sensitive ecosystems and water supplies in the Midwest, to the Gulf Coast for refinement and likely export. Despite exaggerated jobs claims by pipeline supporters, there is no national security or economic reason to expedite approval of this project, which could be environmentally damaging and unsafe.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
