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                       Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

   by VOA News

   After seven years of debate, U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday
   rejected construction of the controversial Keystone oil pipeline from
   drilling sites in Canada through the central region of the United
   States.

   Obama said at the White House that the 1,900-kilometer pipeline "would
   not serve the national interests of the United States."

   He said it would not make "a meaningful long-term contribution" to the
   U.S. economy with job creation, or lower already-low gas prices for
   U.S. motorists. Obama said he called Canada's new prime minister,
   Justin Trudeau, to inform him of the decision.

   Environmentalists have long claimed that the Keystone project would
   damage the fragile environment in its path. The pipeline was planned to
   move 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from tar sands in Canada to
   refineries in Texas, on the southern U.S. shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

   ''Obama said the U.S. is leading the way to cutting carbon emissions to
   curb climate change and that approval of the Keystone project would
   have undermined its standing in the world ahead of talks in Paris next
   month on the global environment.

   TransCanada, the giant Alberta-based company with wide energy
   operations in North America, has sought approval for the project for
   years. It recently asked U.S. officials to delay a decision on the
   project, but the White House refused, in a signal that the
   administration's decision to reject the plan altogether was fast
   approaching.

   US. officials suggested TransCanada's request for a delay was a tactic
   intended to delay the issue until next year's presidential election, in
   the apparent hope that a Republican who favors the Keystone project
   would win the presidency and succeed Obama in office in 2017.

   The U.S. Constitution bars any president from seeking a third term in
   office, so Obama will turn over the White House to the winner of next
   year's election in late January of 2017.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline/30
   42115.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline/3042115.html