RSS Feed
Author Archive
With U.S. Awash in Oil, Nat’l Interest Argument for Keystone Weakens
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on May 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: U.S. oil production is suddenly growing so fast that some analysts are questioning how much the country really needs the Canadian tar sands oil that would move through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. This month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expects domestic crude oil production to surge 20 percent by the end of 2014 from its level at the start of this year. That means an additional 1.4 million barrels of U.S.-produced oil will be available each day—about twice as much...
Posted in 
Public Comment Period Ending on Controversial Keystone Report
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on April 22nd, 2013
InsideClimate: Advocates and opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline are due to file detailed comments on its environmental impacts on Monday, after the State Department refused to extend the comment period, which environmental groups had complained was too short.
As many as a million members of the public are expected to meet the comment deadline, which by happenstance fell on Earth Day, April 22. Comments are also expected from industry, labor and environmental groups on both sides of the debate over the proposed...
House Tries Again To Force Keystone Pipeline Approval
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on April 17th, 2013
InsideClimate: A House subcommittee has taken the first step toward legislation that would push through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, bypassing the State Department and the White House while limiting other regulatory and court reviews.
The subcommittee on energy and power voted 17-9 on Tuesday to approve the Northern Route Approval Act and send it to the full Energy and Commerce Committee. Two Democrats joined 15 Republicans in support of the bill.
The legislation declares that the delivery of oil...
To Win Support for Keystone, Alberta Premier Pleads Poverty in D.C. Visit
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on April 15th, 2013
InsideClimate: The premier of Alberta, Canada, made another visit to Washington D.C. last week, pleading again for U.S. approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would carry Alberta's heavy crude to refineries on the Texas coast. Without expanded access to markets in the United States and beyond, Premier Alison Redford said, her province's oil sands crude is selling for discounted prices—and that is creating big problems for Alberta's budget, which relies heavily on oil royalties. "It has really had an...
Groups Ask State Dept for 120-Day Comment Period on Keystone Pipeline
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on April 4th, 2013
InsideClimate: The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have asked the State Department to extend until early summer the looming deadline for public comments about the agency's controversial draft environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Unless the State Department agrees to allow more time for comments on the impact statement, which exceeds 3,500 pages and was released on March 1, the groups will be hard pressed to fully present their "significant concerns," representatives of 15 organizations...
Keystone Public Comments Won’t Be Made Public, State Department Says
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on March 25th, 2013
InsideClimate: When the State Department hired a contractor to produce the latest environmental impact statement for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, it asked for a Web-based electronic docket to record public comments as they flowed in each day. Thousands of comments are expected to be filed by people and businesses eager to influence the outcome of the intense international debate over the project.
But the public will not find it easy to examine these documents.
A summary of the comments will be...
Keystone Report Skirts Central Question Posed Under NEPA, Lawyers Say
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on March 12th, 2013
InsideClimate: The surprising message of the State Department's latest Keystone review—that the decision whether to approve the disputed pipeline won't have much effect on the environment—can be traced to the way the agency framed the report. The study presents an analysis of how markets will adjust if the pipeline isn't built. But lawyers and pipeline opponents say that approach allowed the State Department to dodge the central question that the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, presents about major...