Republicans slam Obama for rejecting Keystone XL project
Republican US presidential candidates have slammed President Barack Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, saying the decision would have negative effects on the American economy.
"The Obama admin's politically motivated rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is a self-inflicted attack on the US economy and jobs," former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said on Twitter.
White House hopeful and US Senator Marco Rubio promised to approve the project if he becomes president. "President Obama's backward energy policies will come to an end," he said in a statement.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, also a White House hopeful, accused Obama of giving in to "radical environmentalists."
In a televised address from the White House, Obama announced Friday that his administration has rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline project after more than six years of review.
"The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States. I agree with that decision,” Obama said on Friday, standing next to Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.
The rejection of Keystone delivers a huge victory to environmental groups, and a crushing defeat to Republicans, who had championed the pipeline as a jobs creator.
Keystone XL is part of the Keystone oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States that was commissioned in 2010. Three phases of the project are in operation.
Various environmental groups, citizens, and politicians have raised concerns about the potential negative impacts of the oil pipeline, mainly the risk of oil spills along the pipeline’s route.
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, suggested this would not be the end of the Keystone project.
“Given this project’s importance to North American energy independence, the question still remains not if but when Keystone will be built," he said in a statement.
"Republicans have no intention of giving up on common-sense jobs ideas like Keystone. Our nation’s long-term need for the energy and jobs Keystone would provide will certainly outlast the little over a year remaining in the term of the current administration.”
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