From the Calgary Herald:
Suddenly the Keystone XL pipeline is all the talk of American politics — again.
A day after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Americans “deserve” the Canadian oil that Keystone would deliver, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said it was time for the U.S. to “embrace” the long-delayed project.
Clinton, speaking at an energy conference in Maryland, said he believes the pipeline should be approved on a new route that avoids the ecologically fragile Sand Hills region of Nebraska. He suggested Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. botched its initial application by proposing an original route that cut directly through the Sand Hills and the vast Ogallala Aquifer.
“One of the most amazing things to me about this Keystone pipeline deal is that they ever filed that route in the first place since they could’ve gone around the Nebraska Sand Hills and avoided most of the dangers, no matter how imagined, to the Ogallala with a different route,” Clinton said in remarks reported by Politico and Bloomberg News.
“The extra cost of running (the pipeline around the Sand Hills) is infinitesimal compared to the revenue that will be generated over a long period of time,” Clinton added.
“So, I think we should embrace it and develop a stakeholder-driven system of high standards for doing the work.”
Clinton’s remarks are certain to cause a stir among U.S. environmentalists who remain steadfastly opposed to the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Hardisty, Alta., to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The rest here.
So Clinton's position is Obama's position. Why is this news?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNope, BO blamed it on the Republicans. Said they didn't give him enough time to evaluate the project.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCall my cynical but I imagine that if the pipeline is moved around the Sand Hills it will somehow benefit Clinton or one of his cronies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse... And enable him to score fabulous babes ... !
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, this has been the plan all along. Accepting Keystone in 2011 would have produced no political benefit. Accepting it in 2012, especially if it can be dragged out and produce a few "centrist Obama" headlines, is a much better political move.
They can kill it with red tape next year or the year after.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI love how old Slick Willie managed to sum up his party's environmental policy in the phrase, "no matter how imagined."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOK, that makes two of us. It was the first ting I noticed when I saw this quote yesterday evening.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen did having former presidents walking around insouciantly running their yaps become a tradition?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's another thing we can blame on Jimmy Carter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"most of the dangers, no matter how imagined".
I wonder if anyone else noticed that Bubba tacitly admitted that environmentalists just make things up.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt all depends on what the definition of "imagined" is.
Other than that, it sounds as though ol' Bill has more sense than the rest of his party.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is utter nonsense. Proposing a different route is a way for Obama to get off the hook entirely. We shouldn't let this fly. He'd get credit for the pipeline while it would still be delayed... however many years and years all the government shuffling takes.
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