The White House is fresh out of ideas for delaying the Keystone XL pipeline.
For months, the president said he couldn?t move on the issue until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on a local legal challenge to the pipeline. ?I?m just going to gather up the facts,? he explained. Strange, since a brilliant attorney such as the president should have immediately recognized that the case was an obvious delaying tactic with no hope of winning.
In an unsurprising development, this month, the court threw out the case. That same day, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill approving Keystone. The Senate is expected to do the same soon.
Given these developments, President Obama should approve Keystone once and for all.
The only delay justified at this point is divisive partisan politics, which is no justification at all.
No more excuses on the Keystone pipeline
Initially, opponents claimed it would increase carbon emissions. President Obama used that line and promised to block Keystone if it was shown to negatively affect the environment.
The State Department looked into this issue and found that Keystone?s construction would have, at most, a negligible impact on carbon emissions.
What?s more, researchers determined that its construction could have positive environmental benefits as well. Keystone would help expand U.S. natural gas production. Gas releases about half the emissions of coal and is its lower priced substitute. So the migration to gas prompted by the pipeline could reduce overall domestic greenhouse gas emissions.