Keystone Update

Updates

March 3, 2013: I can't recall if I posted a link to the March 1, 2013, WSJ story about the State Department's draft review of Keystone XL 2.0. The general consensus, it seems, that it was a slam dunk -- the State Department's assessment gave the president the "green light." However, that's not how the WSJ/CanadaRealTime is seeing it. Here's the headline:

State Dept. Environmental Review Doesn’t Reach Firm Conclusions on Keystone XL – Official  

From the story:

A State Department official said Friday that the department’s review of the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline doesn’t reach any firm conclusions about the environmental impact of the pipeline.

Kerri-Ann Jones of the State Department was speaking after the release of a lengthy draft environmental review of the pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the U.S.
In one possible favorable sign for project supporters, the draft assessment said that building the pipeline would not “significantly” impact the further development of Canada’s tar sands or U.S. demands for heavy oil. Environmentalists have attacked the project because, they say, further tar sands development would be economically challenging without a pipeline.

For the past several days, I have interpreted all the stories coming out of the State Department as trial balloons and a prelude to the president's approval of the Keystone. However, this certainly should be less than reassuring to the Canadians. The story continues:

The Obama administration likely will not make a final decision on the pipeline until this summer at the earliest. The State Department said the preliminary environmental review would be subject to 45 days of public comment, and it said it wouldn’t issue conclusions now.

“We’ re not going to come out and make those conclusions at this point, until we engage with the public and really get some feedback. We have found that there are in some cases impacts, in some cases those impacts can be mitigated,” Ms. Jones said. She called for a “fuller public debate before we move forward.”

For all practical purposes, we are no further along than we were five years ago. The State Department's bottom line: a) this was just a draft study; b) public comment necessary; c) SecState Kerry needs to review; d) and, "fuller public debate before we move forward." Some might interpret that to mean Congressional hearings. 

March 2, 2013: and still another story foreshadowing President Obama approving the Keystone XL; this one a Bloomberg article. Pretty much just a re-write of other stories linked below.

Original Post

The tea leaves .... that's all one can do ... read the tea leaves ...

Here's the latest cup:

The Obama administration today moved one step closer to approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, concluding in a draft environmental impact statement that the project would not accelerate global greenhouse gas emissions or significantly harm the natural habitats along its route.

The report, done by the State Department, suggests that the proposed 875-mile pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, has cleared a significant hurdle on its way to President Obama's desk for final consideration.

The comments at the linked article are as good as, maybe better than, the article itself.

Okay, back to the tea leaves.

The opening sentence certainly suggests which way the administration is leaning (or which way the writer thinks the administration is leaning): "...today moved one step closer to approval...."

It has all the markings of a trial balloon, "... concluding in a draft EIS that the project....." was environmentally neutral. And then again, "...has cleared a significant hurdle on its way to President Obama's desk for final consideration." 

Reminder, from an earlier post: a Billings Gazette story that Nebraska won't get the power lines in place for the Keystone XL before the end of 2015.

A Nebraska utility says the new route for a proposed oil pipeline that would carry Canadian crude oil through the state will delay work on electric transmission lines for the pipeline.

Nebraska Public Power District officials said they won't be able to build the transmission lines by the deadline TransCanada set for the end of 2014.

NPPD Chief Operating Officer Tom Kent said there's no way the transmission lines will be ready by 2015.

And I doubt the administration will stay up late at night thinking of ways to expedite the project.