“Today we begin to make things right,” President Trump said Friday morning shortly after the State Department granted
the pipeline giant TransCanada a permit for Keystone construction, a reversal of Obama administration policy.
“Keystone XL will create thousands of good middle-class jobs for Canadians during construction.’’
Though Mr. Obama ultimately took a different stand, his State Department concluded in an environmental-impact statement
that the pipeline project would not add to carbon pollution because the oil would find its way to market one way or another.
Jack Gerard, the president and chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the primary industry lobbying arm, said the decision was “welcome news”
and was “critical to creating American jobs, growing the economy and making our nation more energy secure.’’
Opponents say the pipeline is unnecessary at a time when American oil production is soaring
and future demand has been put in question by increasingly efficient cars, electric cars and growing concerns over climate change.
U. S., in Reversal, Issues Permit for Keystone Oil Pipeline -
By CLIFFORD KRAUSSMARCH 24, 2017
The Trump administration approved a permit for the construction of a pipeline to carry oil
from Canada to the Gulf Coast, reversing an Obama policy and angering environmentalists.
Protests helped sway the Obama administration to reject the project, and environmentalists have been further emboldened by demonstrations last year in North Dakota, mostly by Native American groups,
that have delayed another project, the Dakota Access Pipeline.