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Even Keystone Foes Grow Weary of Obama’s Delay in Deciding
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on May 8th, 2015
Bloomberg: Keystone XL supporters often complain that President Barack Obama’s delay in deciding on whether to allow the oil pipeline to be built is costing jobs and keeping the U.S. tied to unstable energy partners.
With the review now stretching beyond six years, some critics, increasingly confident that Obama will reject the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline, have joined them in calling for a resolution.
“We don’t understand what the White House is waiting for,” says Jane Kleeb, the founder of Bold Nebraska,...
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Obama urged to plug methane leaks to meet climate goal
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on September 20th, 2014
Bloomberg: Environmental groups are asking the Obama administration to beef up its climate plan by targeting methane leaks in the web of valves, pipes and pumps drillers use to produce and deliver natural gas. While companies have a vested interest in keeping methane bottled up on its way to customers, some gas inevitably seeps out. That’s worrisome because methane -- the primary component of gas -- is 25 times more potent than carbon at trapping heat. The administration has embraced gas as a cleaner alternative...
Gore predicts Obama will reject TransCanada’s Keystone XL
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on June 18th, 2014
Bloomberg: Al Gore, who has called the Keystone XL project “ridiculous” and an “atrocity,” said he thinks President Barack Obama will reject the controversial pipeline between Alberta’s oil sands and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. Former Vice President Gore, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize for advocating action on climate change, wrote in Rolling Stone magazine issue dated June 18 that Obama “has signaled that he is likely to reject the absurdly reckless Keystone-XL pipeline.” In the article, Gore expresses optimism...
Keystone builder’s 2013 U.S. lobbying topped $1 million
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on January 22nd, 2014
Bloomberg: TransCanada Corp. (TRP), the Calgary-based company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, spent $1.05 million to lobby Congress and the administration last year, about 24 percent more than it spent in 2012, records filed with the U.S. Senate show. The $5.4 billion proposed link between Canada’s oil sands and refineries along the Gulf Coast is under review at the U.S. State Department because it crosses an international border. The project has inflamed environmental groups including the Sierra Club that...
Keystone backers await report vital to pipeline’s fate
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on December 8th, 2013
Bloomberg: Supporters and foes of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline are bracing for the release of an environmental analysis from the U.S. government that could determine the $5.4 billion project’s fate.
While the report isn’t the final step, it’s eagerly anticipated because it will answer a question central to whether President Barack Obama approves the project: would Keystone contribute significantly to climate change? Obama has said he wouldn’t support the pipeline if it were found to substantially...
Bike path proposed for Keystone pathway
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on October 29th, 2013
Bloomberg: The debate over the Keystone XL pipeline has gotten pretty heated and Kinder Baumgardner has an idea to cool the emotions: a really long bike path.
The creative director for the SWA Group, an Houston-based architectural firm that designed Google Inc.’s corporate campus, says building the lane along Keystone’s path through the country’s mid-section could turn what is now a source of rancor into a tourist attraction.
The firm sent a letter Oct. 17 pitching the plan to the State Department and...
House passes Keystone bill as White House vows veto
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on May 23rd, 2013
Bloomberg: The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the eighth time congressional Republicans have advanced a measure promoting the project.
Democrats called yesterday’s vote in the Republican-controlled chamber a largely symbolic effort to score political points because the bill was unlikely to become law. The Senate, where Democrats have the majority, isn’t considering similar legislation, and President Barack Obama’s administration has threatened a...
Keystone fought by Nebraska landowners vowing to block
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on April 17th, 2013
Bloomberg: Bob Allpress describes himself as a “redneck Republican.” Standing on the pasture behind his Nebraska home, the burly former Marine Corps sergeant with a Fu Manchu mustache explains what made him an environmental activist.
The Keystone XL pipeline, which TransCanada Corp. (TRP) wants to build to bring Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico, would cut across the 900 acres near Naper, Nebraska, that Allpress’s grandfather acquired by homestead in 1886. He is vowing...
Keystone Foes Downplay Senate Vote Hailed by Supporters
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on March 25th, 2013
Bloomberg: Environmentalists reacted swiftly to downplay a bipartisan Senate vote backing the Keystone XL pipeline, which supporters said underscored widening political support for the project.
The Senate approved 62-37 language that encourages development of the $5.3 billion pipeline, which would link Alberta’s oil sands and refineries along the Gulf Coast. Seventeen Democrats joined all Senate Republicans on March 22 to add the pipeline amendment to the budget plan that is at odds with the House version....
Murkowski Says Gas Boom Should Back Clean-Energy Options
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on February 4th, 2013
Bloomberg: Senator Lisa Murkowski, citing a need for policies to deal with abundant energy supplies after years of scarcity, offered proposals that include expanding oil and gas development to help underwrite clean-energy research.
“What we are trying to establish here is a new direction,” Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said today at a news conference in Washington. “We want to change the conversation.”
Murkowski, top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said combating climate...