The US Environmental Protection Agency said developing Canadian oil sands would significantly increase greenhouse gases, a conclusion one environmental group said gives President Barack Obama reason to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
“Until ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of oil sands are more successful and widespread,” developing oil sands crude “represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” the EPA said Tuesday in a letter to the State Department, which is reviewing the project.
Obama has said he’ll reject TransCanada Corp’s Keystone if it would lead to a significant increase in carbon pollution. Proposed in 2008, Keystone would deliver Alberta oil sands to US Gulf Coast refineries.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the assessment means the pipeline fails the standard Obama has said he’ll use to judge the $8 billion project.
The State Department in an environmental impact statement released a year ago said the project probably wouldn’t increase emissions, even though oil sands are more carbon intensive, because the crude would be produced with or without the project.
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