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Obama: Keystone XL Pipeline Would Undercut U.S. Leadership On Climate Change
Obama: Keystone XL Pipeline Would Undercut U.S. Leadership On Climate Change
President Obama announced Friday that he rejected a permit to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The controversial project would have carried oil harvested from tar sands in Canada.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed pipeline which would've carried 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the Canadian tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast had been under review for seven years.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Environmentalists celebrated the decision. Republicans attacked it. In his announcement at the White House today, Obama lamented that the issue had become a campaign cudgel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARACK OBAMA: For years, Keystone pipeline has occupied what I frankly consider an overinflated role in our political discourse.
SIEGEL: Still, the president said approving the project would have undercut the United States' global leadership on climate change.
We'll get reaction to the decision in this country in a moment, but first we go to Canada where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that he was disappointed by the decision.
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