White House will not say if Obama will weigh in on Keystone pipeline

[ProSense]

White House will not say if Obama will weigh in on Keystone pipeline

By Anita Kumar

White House spokesman Jay Carney sidestepped repeated questions Friday about whether President Barack Obama will weigh in on the Keystone pipeline.

“We have a longstanding process…in place to determine whether projects like this are in the national interest,” Carney said. “And at this point, the process is now at the State Department, and we're gonna let that run its course, as is in keeping with past practice of previous administrations.”

Carney reminded reporters at his daily briefing Friday that the State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone pipeline “does not represent a decision, but rather another step in the process.”

“There will be an opportunity after the release of the (review) for both the public and other government agencies to comment before the State Department makes its final national interest determination,” Carney said.

- more -

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/31/216562/white-house-will-not-say-if-obama.html

Keystone XL Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Released

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC

January 31, 2014

The State Department is today releasing the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Final Supplemental EIS) for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project.

The Final Supplemental EIS is not a decisional document on whether to approve or deny the proposed project. The Final Supplemental EIS is a technical assessment of the potential environmental impacts related to the proposed pipeline. It responds to over 1.9 million comments received since June 2012.

The Presidential Permit review process now focuses on whether the proposed Project serves the national interest, which involves consideration of many factors: including, energy security; environmental, cultural, and economic impacts; foreign policy; and compliance with relevant federal regulations and issues. During this time, the Department will consult with, at least, the eight agencies identified in Executive Order 13337: the Departments of Defense, Justice, Interior, Commerce, Transportation, Energy, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

A 30-day public comment period will begin with the publication of a Federal Register notice on February 5, 2014 and will close on March 7, 2014. During this period, the public and interested parties are encouraged to submit comments on the national interest to http://www.regulations.gov. Comments are not private and will be made public.

The Final Supplemental EIS and additional documents are available on the State Department’s website: www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/01/221112.htm

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[freshwest]

2. Obama has been stalling final approval since 2009. But the states are building it already. n/t

[ProSense]

3. Seems this is the part of the report

that people are focusing on:

ES.4.15 Cumulative Effects

The cumulative effects analysis evaluates the way that the proposed Project’s impacts interact with the impact of other past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions or projects. The goal of the cumulative impacts analysis is to identify situations where sets of comparatively small individual impacts, taken together, constitute a larger collective impact.

Cumulative impacts associated with the proposed Project and connected actions vary among individual environmental resources and locations. Generally, where long-term or permanent impacts from the proposed Project are absent, the potential for additive cumulative effects with other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future projects is negligible.

Keystone’s CMRP and planned mitigation measures, individual federal and state agency permitting conditions, and/or existing laws and regulations would, if permitted, work to control potential impacts and reduce the proposed Project’s contribution to cumulative effects.

http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/documents/organization/221135.pdf

[freshwest]

4. IIRC, PBO has 3 objections: No energy, tax dollars or jobs in the long run for the USA.

Just going from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and then to China.

The Koch brothers stand to double their net worth from the profit they will recieve from it. It already is an international project.

We're seeing news stories of accidents and risks, as well as overloading the domestic railway traffic to create an economic and environmental crisis.

With it they intend to further pressure Obama. The GOP Congress has put a rider in every CR since 2009 that Keystone be fast tracked.

Obama hasn't 'caved' but if enough states, since they have the right to build the lines, it will go through eventually.

The oil pipeline leak in Arkansas was from a lead that was decades old and was carrying the same materials as Keystone was designed to do. Either the lead was left to rupture by neglect, over pressure or some other factor to again force Ohama's hand.

I am trying to look to the real economic situation that is going on here. This country has been criss crossed with pipellines for years and the owners are all international concerns.

They don't care about us and would do us all the harm both monetary and to our land as necessary to keep going. At times I feel like these people are not human beings.