SD Keystone XL review goes on despite president’s rejection

President Barack Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline Friday drew a rebuke from South Dakota’s congressional delegation but celebration from an environmental group that has fought the project’s path through the state.

For the first time in two decades the U.S.is now producing more oil than it imports but the country will continue to rely on oil and gas as it transitions to a clean energy economy, Obama said, as he took time to tout his record on the issue.

Those opposed to the pipeline project say today’s rejection is a huge victory for the environment, and for rural America. The pipeline project would merely have increased the distance of the already-existing Keystone Pipeline in Canada, increasing the amount of oil to almost 830,000 barrels a day. Yet it also puts the president in a direct confrontation with Republicans and energy advocates that will nearly surely spill over into the 2016 presidential election.

Their positions shifted dramatically when “the environmental movement on the left” made Keystone a be all, end all, giving an ultimatum of sorts to politicians: “If you’re truly an environmentalist, you’re against this thing [constructing the pipeline]”.

“This president clearly worships at the altar of climate change”, U.S. Sen.

Speaking from the White House and flanked by John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, and Joe Biden, the vice-president, he said “America is prepared to show the rest of the world the way forward” on climate change.

Representatives of communities which would have likely seen an economic boost from the pipeline are sharing their disappointed with the decision.

The president forecast his reluctance to authorize the pipeline on Wednesday when his administration rejected TransCanada’s unusual request to suspend – but not withdraw – its application. TransCanada and other oil companies said the pipeline would have strengthened North American energy security, created thousands of construction jobs and helped relieve a glut of oil in the country’s heartland. They argued transporting crude by pipeline would be safer than alternatives like rail, and charged Obama with hypocrisy for complaining about the lack of investment in USA infrastructure while obstructing an $8 billion project.

Amid vote after vote in Congress to try to force Obama’s hand, the president seemed content to delay further and further into the future. “He is rejecting the will of the American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress”.