Questão 533427

Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

Why Keystone XL Is Dead

President Obama announced Friday morning

that he has denied TransCanada’s permit application

to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the U.S.

“The State Department has decided that the

5 Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national

interest of the United States,” Obama said. “I agree

with that decision.”

Obama said America is a global leader on taking

action on climate change, and approving Keystone XL

10 would have undercut that leadership. Some crude oil

needs to be left in the ground to keep the climate from

warming further, and rejecting Keystone XL will help

meet that goal, he said.

Among the reas ons for rejecting Keystone XL,

15 Obama said the pipeline would not make a meaningful

long-term contribution to the U.S. economy, nor would

it increase U.S. energy security or help to lower gas

prices, which have already declined dramatically over

the last year.

20 TransCanada said in a statement that it “would

review all of its options in light of a permit denial for

Keystone XL,” including the possibility of filing a new

permit application for a pipeline.

“TransCanada and its shippers remain absolutely

25 committed to building this important energy

infrastructure project,” TransCanada CEO Russ

Girling said in a statement.

State Department officials said at a news

conference Friday that TransCanada is free to apply

30 for a new permit to build a cross-border pipeline and it

is up to the company to do so.

The \$8 billion Keystone XL pipeline was slated to

stretch 1,179 miles from east-central Alberta, Canada,

to the Texas Gulf Coast. It would transport 830,000

35 barrels of crude oil per day from the Canadian tar

sands to refineries near Houston. Proposed in 2008,

the 875-mile section between the Canadian border

and Steele City, Neb., needed State Department

approval because it crossed an international border.

40 Other parts of TransCanada’s Keystone Project

between central Nebraska and Texas have already

been built and are carrying tar sands oil to refineries

along the Gulf Coast today. Environmental advocates

have rallied against the unbuilt portion and urged the

45 Obama administration to reject it, saying emissions

from the production and burning of tar sands oil it

would carry could worsen climate change.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

calculated that the tar sands oil the pipeline would

50 carry is highly damaging to the climate, emitting about

1.3 billion more tons of greenhouse emissions over

the pipeline’s 50-year lifespan than if it were carrying

conventional crude oil. The production of tar sands oil

releases 17 percent more CO2 into the atmosphere

55 than the average barrel of crude oil produced

elsewhere, according to the State Department.

“Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would

be inconsistent with stabilizing global warming below

dangerous levels,” Penn State University climate

60 scientist Michael Mann said. “I am pleased that the

administration has made good on their promise to take

seriously the task of acting on climate by rejecting the

construction of the pipeline.”

Available at: <http://www.scientifi camerican.com/article/obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline/>. Retrieved on: Nov. 10th, 2015. Adapted

In the fragment of the text “nor would it increase U.S. energy security or help to lower gas prices, which have already declined dramatically over the last year” (lines 16-19), the adverb dramatically can be replaced, with no change in meaning, by