What will Obama do about Keystone?

With majority of Senate backing pipeline plans, President faces tough decision

President Barack Obama is facing pressure to go back on his climate change promise as a bipartisan majority in the Senate has called for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to go ahead.

A letter from 53 senators, a group made up of both Democrats and Republicans, claimed there was no reason to deny approval of the project as it has undergone in-depth environmental review despite protests from campaigners who believe the pipeline, which will pump crude oil from Alberta Tar Sands in Canada to oil refineries in Texas, will lead to higher carbon emissions. 

Whatever Obama decides on the project, the decision will upset a lot of people

(Image source - ABC News)

Keystone leaves Obama in a very difficult position, having pledged to tackle climate change during his second term as President. Denying the project will anger many politicians, who see Keystone as way of providing more energy and creating jobs, but approving it will be seen by environmental campaigners as going back on his word. However, Henry Waxman, a congressman who has set up a taskforce on climate change with senator Sheldon Whitehouse and is against the pipeline, denies that the issue will be ‘make-or-break’ for Obama, saying ‘This is only a small issue compared to the overall objective that the president and we want to achieve," Waxman said. "What would you like me to do? Should I say to the president, 'If you don't agree with me on Keystone, I'm not going to work with you on solving the climate change issue'? That would be a little bit childish and counterproductive’.

Waxman’s views that Keystone is a small issue are held by many others, including the Washington Post, who in an editorial called on the President to ‘ignore the activists who have bizarrely made Keystone XL a line-in-the-sand issue, when there are dozens more of far greater environmental impact’.