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January 31, 2014, 03:09 pm Keystone pipeline clears hurdle By Laura Barron-Lopez The controversial Keystone XL pipeline cleared a major hurdle on Friday as the State Department ruled the project wouldnÂ’t significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions. The finding puts the pipeline one step closer to approval, and sets up a new battle between environmental groups and oil companies over whether the project is in the national interest. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the project reiterates key parts of a draft analysis released early last year, finding that oil sands extraction would continue regardless of whether the pipeline is built....

The fight over the Keystone XL pipeline is far from over. Friday’s release of the State Department’s final environmental study sets in motion a series of deadlines in the coming months that will allow the public and federal agencies to weigh in on whether the long-debated project meets the broader U.S. national interest. Secretary of State John Kerry has no deadline to make a decision, which means he could indefinitely delay the project if he chooses. Neither does President Barack Obama, if the project formally makes it to his desk. An executive order from the George W. Bush administration lays...

Fixated as we Americans are on Canada’s three most attention-getting exports — polar vortexes, Alberta clippers and the antics of Toronto’s addled mayor — we’ve somewhat overlooked a major feature of Canada’s current relations with the United States: extreme annoyance. Last week, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canada’s foreign minister calmly but pointedly complained that the United States owes Canada a response on the Keystone XL pipeline. “We can’t continue in this state of limbo,” he sort of complained, in what for a placid, imperturbable Canadian passes for an explosion of volcanic rage.

Among Washington's most important but rarely covered realities is the daily close coordination among Democratic politicians, executive branch bureaucrats and the left side of the non-profit activism community. Emails obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute exposed a slice of that coordination in the campaign to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The emails show, according to Fox News correspondent John Roberts, "senior policy officials at the EPA working closely with environmental groups in what appears to be an effort to kill the pipeline."...

'Secret Dealing'? Emails Show Cozy Relationship Between EPA, Environmental Groups By John Roberts Published January 22, 2014 FoxNews.com Newly disclosed emails suggest senior policy officials at the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups are working closely to kill the Keystone XL pipeline, critics say. "These damning emails make it clear that the Obama administration has been actively trying to stop this important project for years," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who has long advocated for the Canada-to-Texas pipeline's construction, said in a statement to Fox News. The emails were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Energy and...

Brushing aside pressure from Canada, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the United States will not be pushed into making a decision on the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. At a joint appearance with Canada's foreign affairs minister, John Baird, Kerry said he has not received a crucial environmental report on the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas. "My hope is that before long, that analysis will be available, and then my work begins," Kerry said, referring to a recommendation he is expected to make on whether the pipeline is in...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., joined Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird in urging President Barack Obama on Wednesday to approve the long-delayed Keystone XL Pipeline. "We think the time has come for the administration to make a decision," Baird said during a meeting with reporters in the senator's Washington office. He said Landrieu's support for the project is important, particularly in the Senate Democratic caucus where some are pushing the president to turn down the project. TransCanada said the pipeline would have the capacity to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the western Canadian province of Alberta...

Where crude oil is concerned, Canada waits for no country. It doesn’t matter how wealthy or how friendly that country is -- or whether that country is the United States. With the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline stuck in limbo on the U.S. side, Canada’s Energy Board recently gave a thumbs up to a $6.5 billion pipeline designed to carry 525,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta to ships on the British Columbia coast. The final destination is most likely Asia. The development has the U.S. oil industry attacking the Obama administration over its drawn-out process....

BREAKING NEWS: A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota. It happened at 35th Street and 154th Avenue Southeast just before 2:20 p.m. Monday. Several area emergency teams are on scene and are setting up an incident command center. A viewer who is about a half mile from the derailment tells Valley News Live she can see large flames. Several train cars are on fire and huge plumes of black smoke can be seen for miles. Emergency crews are urging people to stay inside and a code red alert has been sent out to residents in a two mile...

".......“Podesta has no financial interest in the Keystone XL decision,” says Credo Action. Is that truly the case? I am not saying that John Podesta is directly invested in companies that will profit if Keystone is defeated. What I am saying is that the connections between VIPs and think-tank donors and corporate boards and lobbying clients are hard to disentangle. It is so easy for a reporter to lose the thread, especially when that reporter is already inclined to think that the motives of his subject are pure. Podesta’s fame and power have certainly helped line the pockets of his...

For more than a decade, there has been a complex international effort to stymie the oil industry in Canada. It’s called the Tar Sands Campaign and the main sources of funding for this campaign are the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Sea Change Foundation, the Tides Foundation and other charitable foundations, most of which are based in California. By my calculations, these foundations have provided at least $75-million for campaigns and land use planning initiatives that thwart the development and export of Canadian oil. Until now, little information has been available about...

Whether or not President Barack Obama will approve the Keystone XL pipeline or not, oil sand in Alberta will continue to be extracted, as the president recently gave the go ahead in a new cross-border pipeline benefiting Canadian oil producers. The 1,900-mile proposed Cochin, Kinder Morgan pipeline, approved on Nov. 22, will transport natural gas liquids (NGL) produced from hydraulic fracturing in Texas, north through Illinois and eventually into Alberta. There is a demand for imports of condensate to use as a diluent for blending with heavy Canadian crude. Extracting oil sands requires a lot of energy to break down...

WILLISTON, N.D. – The entire U.S. Williston Basin produced more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in September, driven by another record month of North Dakota oil production. North Dakota produced 931,940 barrels per day, a 2 percent increase over August, according to preliminary numbers released Friday by the Department of Mineral Resources. The U.S. Williston Basin also includes portions of South Dakota, which produced 5,017 barrels per day in September, and Montana, which produced 75,460 barrels per day in August. ... Bakken oil production in North Dakota and Montana is projected to top 1 million barrels of...

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said Tuesday that she would continue to put pressure on the administration to speed up its review of the Keystone XL pipeline. "I intend to see if we can push forward the approval of the Keystone pipeline," Landrieu told reporters after a meeting the senator held with Premier Alison Redford of Alberta, Canada, to discuss a way forward on the pipeline, which, if built, would bring crude from Alberta's oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries. "The ball is in our court and I hope the United States will make a decision," Landrieu said. "So I'm going...

Capitol Hill supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline are hitting the panic button over a seemingly harmless amendment to a non-controversial federal land-swap bill to facilitate a new Arizona copper mine. The amendment, filed Sept. 26 by Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D.-N.M.) to H.R. 687, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act, a bill that authorizes the transfer of federal land in Arizona to the Resolution Copper mine partnership, in exchange for land owned Resolution, gives the Secretary of Interior the power to designate a site as sacred or culturally significant to Indians. Remember, there are already protections for...

House Republicans plan to tie an increase in the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling to a a broad GOP wish list that includes delaying ObamaCare for a full year. The House Republican wish list circulating on K Street also indicates the GOP also hopes to kickstart tax reform, permit the Keystone XL pipeline and trim a slew of federal regulations in exchange for a borrowing boost. The move to the debt ceiling comes as Congress moves toward a possible government shutdown on Oct. 1. Moving to the debt ceiling fight, which Republican leaders have long seen as stronger ground, could be...

Both the Alberta and federal governments see a West Coast pipeline as crucial to opening Asia as a large market for Canadian energy resources.

CALGARY • An anti-Keystone XL pipeline commercial funded by President Barack Obama supporter and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer confirms what many Canadians have long suspected — American anti-oil activists have gone mad. The commercial was intended to be aired Tuesday evening on WRC-TV, an affiliate of NBC in Washington, D.C., to coincide with the president’s appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The commercial is so offensive the station refused to air it. While intended as a parody, it insults TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling, whose company is proposing Keystone XL; it’s a low blow to Canada; and it...

Full title: ‘Keystone oil will travel through America not to America’: Billionaire steps up anti-Keystone campaign with US$1M ad blitzThe author of the piece is with Bloomberg so it can not be posted on FR. However, the title says it all. Financial guru and billionaire Tom Steyer has re-invented himself as an anti-Keystone campaigner. He is sponsoring ads in a four-part, US$1 million advertising campaign to convince viewers the Keystone XL pipeline will hurt the economy and communities and should be blocked. Coincidentally (or not so) he is one of Obama's biggest campaign supporters and fund raiser. His activities aren't...

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told U.S. President Barack Obama that he's ready to work on joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector in an effort to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The CBC, citing unnamed sources, said Mr. Harper wrote to Mr. Obama in late August, signaling he is ready to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and prepared to work with the White House to address concerns raised about Keystone and its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. A spokesman for Mr....