Politicians React To Obama's Rejection Of Keystone Pipeline

"The Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States," Obama said.
Andrew Burton via Getty Images

President Barack Obama announced the rejection of the Keystone pipeline on Friday.

"The Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States," Obama said in an announcement from the White House.

Below, politicians' reactions to Obama's announcement:

Al Gore
Bob Goodlatte
Paul Ryan
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
“This decision isn’t surprising, but it is sickening. By rejecting this pipeline, the president is rejecting tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. He is rejecting our largest trading partner and energy supplier. He is rejecting the will of the American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress. If the president wants to spend the rest of his time in office catering to special interests, that’s his choice to make. But it’s just wrong. In the House, we are going to pursue a bold agenda of growth and opportunity for all.”
Pat Roberts
Jeff Merkley
Edward Markey
Boston Globe via Getty Images
“The Keystone XL pipeline would have been like a giant straw running through America, transporting the dirtiest oil in the world to the thirstiest foreign markets. It would have asked the American people to bear all of the environmental risk without guaranteeing any of the energy rewards. “This pipeline was not in the best interests of our climate. It was not in the best interests of American consumers and our environment. It was not in our national interest. President Obama was right to reject this pipeline. I commend President Obama and Secretary Kerry for taking this historic action to protect our climate.”
Billy Long
Tom Graves
Martin O'Malley
Andrew Burton via Getty Images
"We have a moral and economic imperative to tackle climate change. Paving the way for something like the Keystone Pipeline would be a step backward, and I'm glad to see that President Obama and Secretary Kerry today are rejecting the Keystone permits. We need to be serious about transitioning our energy off fossil fuels completely and investing in the growing clean energy sectors that are a tremendous jobs opportunity. I'm the only candidate who is setting a progressive goal of powering our nation by 100 percent renewable energy. I am also the only candidate who has gotten results - cutting greenhouse gases and creating thousands of clean energy jobs to tackle climate change. Clean energy isn't a pipe dream, especially if we show the leadership to make bold and progressive choices about our energy future."
Ryan Zinke
Randy Hultgren
Rick Santorum
Charles Boustany
Steve Scalise
Brian Schatz
Bill Clark via Getty Images
“Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation, and it is time to transition away from dirty energy projects like Keystone and move toward clean renewable energy. Today’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is a victory for our environment, for our communities, and for our country. The climate action community is thrilled with this decision. It gives us more momentum and credibility going into the climate talks.”
Kevin McCarthy
Sheldon Whitehouse
Congressional Quarterly via Getty Images
“The Keystone pipeline would have been a disaster for our environment and public health and would create only a few dozen permanent jobs. As the State Department’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the project made clear, at present and expected oil prices the additional carbon pollution from the pipeline would have been equivalent of putting nearly six million new cars on the road for 50 years. As our country begins implementing the Clean Power Plan and prepares for a positive outcome from the climate talks in Paris, this pipeline was simply inconsistent with our goal of reducing emissions and preventing the worst effects of climate change. I thank the President for rejecting the pipeline, and I also applaud the years of hard work by environmental advocates across the country who helped to educate the public about the importance of stopping this project.”
Chellie Pingree
Kris Connor via Getty Images
"The Keystone pipeline was a bad idea from the beginning. It would have been bad for the environment and bad for the country's long-term energy security. Instead of investing in dirty tar-sands oil that will create massive amounts of greenhouse gas pollution, we should be developing new sources of clean energy that create good paying jobs right here in this country,"
Patrick McHenry
Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Today’s announcement from President Obama is disappointing but not particularly surprising. Throughout his second term, we have seen President Obama cater to his liberal base at the expense of the American people. Rejection of the Keystone pipeline is simply the latest example. Rather than grant approval for a job-creating project that John Kerry’s State Department has declared environmentally safe, President Obama has decided instead to appease the radical environmentalists on the left. It is my sincere hope this project can be revived in 2017 when—hopefully—we will have a President who understands the concerns of the vast majority of Americans: reducing energy prices and creating jobs.”
Heidi Heitkamp
Tom Williams via Getty Images
“After about seven years of exhaustive studies and delays, the Administration finally made a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline – unfortunately, it made a decision purely driven by politics that ignored the facts,” said Heitkamp. “This commonsense project is just one small piece of a much larger energy strategy, but it has grown into a symbol for whether our country will support needed energy infrastructure. If we truly believe that realizing North American energy security and independence is a worthy objective for our nation, implementing a diverse energy strategy with our North American neighbors is necessary, and I’ll continue to work with our Canadian partners as I’ve done in the past. Yet, political ideologies on both sides of the aisle amplified the Keystone XL pipeline into something well beyond its actual reality. As I have said time and time again – it’s a pipeline. For years, I’ve been calling on the President to support this energy infrastructure project – or at least just finally make a decision – and building support among Senate Democrats for the project. Now Congress needs to find a path forward to reverse today’s decision. We need to work together to rise above partisan rhetoric, deal in real facts, achieve the all-of-the-above energy strategy this county needs, and see the Keystone pipeline for what it really is – just one more building block in making our nation more energy secure.”
Patrick Leahy
MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images
"This has been a long time coming, but the President has made the right decision. Taking either a long view or a short one, this misguided project is not in the national interest of the United States. Keystone XL represents the energy past. This inherently dirty tar sands project would be a wasteful diversion from the cleaner and more sustainable energy future and energy security that we want for ourselves and our children. It has no place in the energy future and the energy economy that we want. And it has no place in any strategy to avert the disastrous effects of climate change.This timely action also sets another strong example to other nations, ahead of the upcoming climate negotiations in Paris, that the United States is willing to walk the walk when it comes to tackling climate change."
Tom Cotton
Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Once again President Obama put his political allies ahead of the interests of Arkansas workers and families. Worse, both he and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent years pretending to deliberate this decision when it was their intention to kill Arkansas jobs from the beginning. Rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline is a mistake—one that comes at great cost to our economy and our national security. This project would lower energy costs and create and sustain jobs in the Natural State and across the country. And it would facilitate United States energy independence, making us less reliant on the turbulent Middle East.
President Obama’s decision to appease his liberal donors also puts further strain on our relationship with one of our greatest allies: Canada. His changes to Country of Origin Labeling have already distorted trade relations between our two countries—now he’s added fuel to the fire. Rest assured, I will continue to fight for common-sense, job-creating projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline that benefit Arkansans and all Americans."
Mike Pompeo
SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
“After much fake studying and drawn out political theater, this administration has predictably decided that jobs and economic growth are not a priority for our nation. It is truly sad that what Secretary Clinton tried to kill during her term at the State Department the Obama administration has finally buried.”
Jan Schakowsky
Tom Williams via Getty Images
“I strongly support the President’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. As I have consistently said, Keystone XL is all risk, no reward, and I have consistently opposed its construction. The Keystone XL pipeline would have allowed the full development of the Alberta tar sands, which would generate almost half of the total carbon pollution the world can produce before reaching catastrophic and irreversible climate change. The pipeline would have pushed nearly a million barrels of oil each day directly through the Ogallala Aquifer – threatening 30 percent of the United States irrigation water and drinking water for millions of Americans."

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