Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline: UPDATE

US President Barack Obama has rejected the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project.

"The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy," Obama told a press conference on Friday.

Keystone XL would have linked existing pipeline networks in Canada and the US to bring oilsands crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico coast.

TransCanada first sought the required presidential permit for the cross-border section in 2008.

TransCanada said the pipeline would have strengthened North American energy security, created thousands of construction jobs and helped relieve a glut of oil.

Newly sworn in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a supporter of Keystone, voiced disappointment but said the Canada-US relationship "is much bigger than any one project."

TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling said the company would review its options to potentially file a new application for a pipeline to bring oilsands crude to the US.

"Today, misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science, rhetoric won out over reason," Girling said in a statement.

TransCanada had asked earlier in the week for the Obama administration to pause its review of the project, perhaps fearing a rejection.

Environmental groups have used the project to great effect as a symbol to raise the profile of climate change as a political issue.

Watch President Obama's announcement on Friday:

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: The Guardian, Financial Times, Reuters

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/10112015/obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-update/