Keystone XL start welcomed by Obama
By DARREN GOODE | 2/27/12 2:07 PM EST
President Barack Obama "welcomes" the news that TransCanada will start building the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, even as the White House continues to take shots for not approving the entire 1,700-mile route.
The rapid response from White House spokesman Jay Carney underscores the political sensitivity of the proposed pipeline and Obama's balancing act. The White House is trying not to anger its liberal base by approving the pipeline, but at the same time is publicly saying TransCanada should keep working on an alternative route through Nebraska.
TransCanada announced Monday that it will treat the section of the pipeline project from Cushing, Okla., to Texas refineries as a stand-alone project and not part of the presidential permit process that has tied up approval of the entire project starting in Canada.
The White House will try to expedite approval of the Oklahoma-to-Texas section, Carney said in a written statement.
Obama "welcomes today's news" from TransCanada, Carney's statement added. "As the president made clear in January, we support the company's interest in proceeding with this project, which will help address the bottleneck of oil in Cushing that has resulted in large part from increased domestic oil production, currently at an eight year high. Moving oil from the Midwest to the world-class, state-of-the-art refineries on the Gulf Coast will modernize our infrastructure, create jobs and encourage American energy production."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73329.html#ixzz1ndKbWYYd
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