Lengthy, Balanced Look At Current Status Of Keystone XL -- The Tea Leaves Are Swirling

This is a fairly lengthy politically geeky article on the Keystone XL. Bloomberg is reporting:

Still, should Obama sign off on the pipeline, he would risk blowback from many supporters he’s counting on to help finance next year’s congressional races. That’s led some administration allies to suggest that the president may back the project while either modifying it or offering new measures to reduce carbon pollution in a bid to mollify environmental activists.

The White House is playing down the decision, arguing to both supporters and critics that Keystone’s impact on the environment and the economy will be less than activists argue.

“There have been thousands of miles of pipelines that have been built while President Obama has been in office, and I think the point is that it hasn’t necessarily had a significant impact one way or the other on addressing climate change,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last month.

Earnest told reporters the administration’s new fuel- economy standards, which will double vehicle mileage by 2025, will have far greater consequences in curbing oil demand than Keystone would in promoting it.

Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington policy institute with ties to the administration, said Keystone opponents are pessimistic because the White House has offered no signals that it will turn down the permit.