House Republicans Increase the Pressure on Obama Over Tar Sands Pipeline Decision | Common Dreams

House Republicans Increase the Pressure on Obama Over Tar Sands Pipeline Decision | Common Dreams
CommonDreams, January 4, 2012

House Republicans now have the clock ticking on President Obama's timeline for a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.

photo: M.V. Jantzen

From The Hill:

House Republicans are putting more pressure on President Obama to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, unveiling a clock that counts the number of days since the president signed legislation requiring a speedy verdict on the project.

Obama signed broad payroll tax cut legislation last month that includes a GOP-backed provision requiring him to make a decision on the pipeline within 60 days.

“Will President Obama choose jobs and energy security for America?” says the countdown clock unveiled Wednesday by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “America is waiting for President Obama's decision.”

The countdown clock marks the latest push by Republicans to pressure Obama to approve the project, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, has previously stated: “The State Department’s own environmental review states that pumping dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico through Keystone XL will pollute our water. It will also commit us to an unsustainable future based on dirty fossil fuels at the precise moment when the national interest demands that we rapidly transition to clean energy to avoid climate catastrophe. There is simply no way that President Obama can honor his commitments to the American people if he caves to Big Oil on Keystone XL at this late hour.”