Despite the rejection of the Keystone
XL pipeline permit by the White House last month, TransCanada has vowed to revive the pipeline at a future date.
The White House position is that
cross-border pipeline permits are a matter for the president to decide — not Congress, which passed a bill earlier this month forcing the approval of the project.
Heather Briccetti, president of the Business Council of New York, wrote in a letter to Cuomo last week that the state has had more than enough time to review the
Constitution pipeline permits, saying «it is time to fulfill the state's responsibility and not obstruct the buildout of necessary energy infrastructure.»
And the Keystone
XL pipeline permit is pending — something that probably would have sailed through the permitting process without a hitch had a national protest movement not been organized to raise the relevant issues while raising the stakes politically on the decision.
His environmental agency says it will review
the pipeline permits and make a decision based on «sound science.»
The State Department had never turned down
a pipeline permit.
Granting
a pipeline permit would expedite the full - scale development of the tar sands and their movement into the global market.
A U.S. decision on
the pipeline permit is likely to play a major role in the economics of whether full - scale development of the tar sands will be expedited.
Secretary Kerry said recently that he is only beginning to focus on
the pipeline permit — but, in fact, his whole career has led him toward the correct and courageous decision.
It belies the conclusion in the SEIS that this question has already been settled and is essentially independent of any decision on
the pipeline permit.
Where Obama comes down on the question of
the pipeline permit will be an early and essential indication of just what it means to Obama when he says:
Instead, they intend to hand over most of
the pipeline permitting process to Trump agency officials.
In December, 200 landowners and advocates came together to testify at a Maryland Department of the Environment public hearing on
the pipeline permit.