Not every industrial initiative masked as “good-paying jobs” program is worth the country’s time. President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry made that quite clear when they formally announced that they would not be partaking the Keystone XL pipeline project.
President Barack Obama on Friday rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, ending the political fight over the Canada-to-Texas project that has gone on for much of his presidency.
Secretary of State John Kerry concluded the controversial project is not in the country’s national security interest, and Obama announced from the White House that he agreed.
“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change, and frankly, approving this project would have undercut that leadership,” Obama said.
The massive project has been a seven-year political football during presidential and congressional elections that has pitted oil companies and Republicans against environmentalists and liberal activists. The State Department has been reviewing the project for much of Obama’s time in the White House.
The proposed pipeline would span nearly 1,200 miles across six U.S. states, moving more than 800,000 barrels of carbon-heavy petroleum daily from Canadian oil sands through Nebraska to refineries in the Gulf Coast.
Take a look at the descriptive overview of the Keystone XL pipeline in the video below and flip through the gallery below to see reactions from both sides of the political spectrum. Majority rules.
