Hillary Clinton comes out against Keystone XL pipeline project

Hillary Clinton asks protesters opposed to the Keystone XL oil pipeline to stop disrupting her campaign event Friday in Portland, Maine.

The White House is now seen by the oil industry as the main obstacle but White House spokesman Josh Earnest deflected a question at Tuesday’s briefing when asked how the administration might respond to an announcement by Clinton, who had said last week that she would finally have to take a position.

DES MOINES, Iowa-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a campaign event in Des Moines Tuesday to push her plan to combat high prescription drug costs but she upstaged that news by finally saying she opposes the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline project. “And unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward with all the other issues”.

Environmental activists vehemently oppose the pipeline, which they say will be vulnerable to leaks, cause harmful effects on the environment and represent a step backward from attempts to address global climate change.

Clinton previously – and repeatedly – declined to answer questions about Keystone, citing her role in the pipeline’s State Department-approval process.

But environmentalists say it would spur more development of Canada’s oil sands, which are far more polluting than traditional varieties of crude oil.

“On issue after issue – marriage equality, drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, children fleeing violence in Central America, the Syrian refugee crisis, and now the Keystone Pipeline, Secretary Clinton has followed – not forged – public opinion”. “Clearly it would be absurd to encourage the extraction and transportation of some of the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet”.

Clinton has announced an ambitious climate proposal that would vastly increase the number of solar panels to half a billion by 2021 and said that she would put the United States on a path toward generating enough renewable energy to power every home in the country by 2027.