U.S. State Department Report Boosts Prospects of Keystone XL Pipeline

In a long-awaited report, the U.S. State Department has concluded that the carbon-heavy oil from Alberta’s tar sands will be extracted whether or not the Keystone XL pipeline is built, improving the prospects that the highly controversial project will be built. In an environmental impact statement that was six years in the making, the State Department concludes that the process of extracting and burning tar sands oil creates 17 percent more greenhouse gases than traditional oil, but that the heavily polluting oil will be brought to market with or without the pipeline. “It’s unlikely for one pipeline to change the overall development of the oil sands,” said a State Department official. If completed, the pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama will make the final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and he vowed last year that he would approve the pipeline only if it would not “significantly exacerbate” the problem of carbon emissions. Environmental activists such as Bill McKibben of 350.org have said it would be “game over” for the climate if Keystone XL is built.