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A report released on Tuesday by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute concludes that the economic damage caused by potential spills from the Keystone XL pipeline could far outweigh the benefits of jobs created by the project. The institute, which advocates the creation of union jobs in renewable energy and analyzes sustainability issues, said that more than a million people work in agricultural or tourism jobs in the six states along Keystone XL’s route and that the economic costs could be considerable if a major spill occurred. The risks of an economically damaging accident are higher than those for conventional crude,...

A state-owned Chinese bank that had agreed to finance the Pakistani section of a gas pipeline from Iran that is opposed by the United States is no longer interested in the project, a Pakistani finance ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON _ The Senate on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a sweeping measure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected areas to oil drilling, as well as to approve construction of the Keystone pipeline project. Tuesday's vote was the first time in four years that the Senate has voted on a measure including ANWR drilling, and it failed miserably.

Only intense lobbying by the president himself ensured the latest congressional bid to approve the Keystone XL pipeline was defeated in the U.S. Senate last week. But if Keystone's opponents won the latest skirmish, it appears they are losing the war. The vote revealed deep divisions among Senate Democrats as well as the waning influence of environmentalists and the growing power of the oil and gas lobby in Congress. It seems only a matter of time before the controversial northern section of Keystone, which goes from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma, is given the go-ahead. It will probably happen once the...

Unions may be united in working to re-elect President Barack Obama, but their leaders also are trying to repair bitter divisions over his rejection of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. Trade unions representing workers who stand to benefit from thousands of new construction jobs from the Keystone XL pipeline are furious at other unions that joined environmentalists in opposing the project. The issue reflects a decades-old conflict between union leaders who believe creating jobs is paramount and others who are more strongly aligned with progressive groups on environmental and social causes. After the White House blocked the pipeline...

A pipeline that is set to begin transporting crude oil from the Midwest to refiners on the Gulf Coast later this year is already fully booked through its initial phase, a company spokesman said, the latest sign of the intense interest in moving crude trapped in the central U.S. The Seaway pipeline is set to begin transporting 150,000 barrels a day of crude from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast starting June 1, expanding to 400,000 barrels a day starting in the first quarter of 2013. Currently, the pipeline moves crude in the opposite direction toward Cushing. The pipeline is...

Washington, D.C.— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued the following statement after the Senate defeated a Republican amendment to impose an artificial timeline on the Keystone XL pipeline project:“Today the Senate voted against Republicans’ attempt to impose an artificial timeline and short-circuit the process needed to plan the best route for the Keystone XL pipeline. If Republicans truly want to move ahead with this pipeline, they should stop treating it like a political football.“Half of the pipeline is already being built, and the company building the pipeline is submitting another application for the remainder of the route. This process should...

President Obama is twisting Democratic arms to stop the Keystone pipeline, which when built will end billionaire Warren Buffett’s railroad monopoly on shipping oil from the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota. The billionaire investor is the second richest man in the nation and an ardent supporter of this regime. So obvious is President Obama’s opposition to allowing the pipeline to be built on his watch, that even CNN noticed. From CNN: A razor close vote is expected in the Senate Thursday on a Republican amendment to bypass the Obama administration’s objections and approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Senate aides...

Former President Bill Clinton said the federal government should embrace the Keystone XL pipeline that the Obama administration rejected last month. Clinton also said that one of the “best things” about being out of office is “you can say whatever the heck you want.” “One of the most amazing things to me about this Keystone pipeline deal is that they ever filed that route in the first place since they could’ve gone around the Nebraska Sandhills and avoided most of the danger, no matter how imagined, to the Ogallala with a different route, which I presume we’ll get now, because...

Clinton: No timeline yet for new Keystone pipeline decisionBy Ben Geman - 02/28/12 03:54 PM ET Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says it’s too early to say how quickly the State Department might decide on TransCanada Corp.’s revised plans to build the controversial Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. The company plans to file a new application soon for the controversial pipeline to bring oil sands from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries, following the Obama administration’s rejection of a permit for Keystone in January. Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday that she can’t yet estimate how quickly the review...

White House gives blessing to partial Keystone XL constructionBy Andrew Restuccia - 02/27/12 02:27 PM ET The White House backed TransCanada Corp.’s bid to build a major portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline Monday, a move that could shield President Obama from growing GOP attacks over the project. By supporting the southern portion of the pipeline, the White House was able to blunt Republican criticism of the administration's energy policies. But the move quickly re-opened a rift with the president’s environmental base, which condemned the project. TransCanada said Monday that it will begin construction on a section of the...

TransCanada, the company behind the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, has resubmitted its application for approval from the administration — and the Obama administration today announced that the president just might say “yes” to the plan this time around. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney used the announcement to hammer Republicans, saying, “House Republicans forced a rejection of the company’s earlier application in January, by not allowing sufficient time for important review or even the identification of a complete pipeline route.”“But as we made clear, the president’s decision in January in no way prejudged...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin today applauded TransCanada’s decision to proceed with the construction of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The pipeline represents the southern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline project that would transport oil from Canada and various U.S. markets to the Gulf Coast. “Connecting Cushing to oil markets in the Gulf Coast will provide both an immediate economic jolt to the state of Oklahoma as well as a long term boost to our energy sector,” Fallin said. “Construction of the pipeline alone will create 1,200 jobs, while increasing access...

TransCanada Corp. said Monday it plans to begin building a major portion of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline despite the Obama administration's decision to reject a key permit for the project. The company told the State Department in a letter Monday that it will begin construction of a section of the pipeline that runs from Cushing, Okla., to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The stand-alone portion of the project, which TransCanada dubbed the Gulf Coast Project, will cost $2.3 billion and will be completed in mid-to-late 2013, according to the company. The project must still receive other regulatory approvals....

Carney: GOP cancelled Keystone, not Obama By Neil Munro - The Daily Caller 1:49 PM 02/21/2012 WASHINGTON – The president didn’t stop the Keystone XL oil pipeline — Republicans did. That’s the message on Tuesday from White House spokesman Jay Carney as gas prices rise above $4.00 per gallon. “The president didn’t turn down the Keystone pipeline,” Carney said, because the proposal to construct the pipeline was reviewed by the Department of State. President Barack Obama’s decisions to nix construction of the pipeline has been repeatedly attacked by the GOP, and by some Democratic-allied unions representing construction workers. They say...

Barack Obama's re-election campaign hired Carrie Doyle, a high powered lobbyist for Colorado's most outspoken anti-drilling environmental organization, to run his campaign in the nation's key electoral battleground: Colorado. ... Among the green groups that Doyle lobbied for -- Colorado Conservation Voters, the Colorado chapter of the League of Conservation Voters. That would be the same League of Conservation Voters who most recently won national stardom for pressuring the Obama Administration to reject the Keystone Pipeline. Wondering whether Obama was going to move to the middle to shore up Colorado's notoriously independent voters? Wondering whether Obama's rejection of the Keystone...

The fun begins at 4:30 of the clip. Carney’s playing a game here by stressing the weak distinction between canceling the pipeline project outright and “merely” postponing a decision on it until after the election so that environmentalists will keep donating to the Unicorn Prince. The State Department announced the postponement back in November — with the approval of Obama’s pals in the green lobby. Remember? “This is not a political decision,” [a State Department] said, adding that when it came to White House involvement, “there was no effort to influence our decision.”Once the State Department broached the idea of...

White House press secretary Jay Carney says Republicans "forced" President Obama to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Later in his press briefing, Carney says Obama didn't turn down the pipeline. "In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear. And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline," Carney said when asked about the pipeline by ABC News' Jake Tapper. Later...

The rush towards natural gas is also turning natural gas pipeline construction into a booming business for jobs and investment, with more than $200 billion capital investment and an additional 125,000 jobs expected in the next 25 years, according to a Black & Veatch study released on Friday. The study, which was commissioned by the INGAA Foundation, estimates that construction of necessary new pipelines will generate more than $171 billion in labor income, with jobs that pay on average about $65,000. The investment will fund an average of 2,000 miles of new natural gas transmission lines each year through 2035,...

Gov. Sean Parnell’s goal of nearly doubling the flow of oil through the trans-Alaska pipeline could be achieved over the next 10 to 15 years — but not without major fiscal and policy changes, a consultant said. Pedro van Meurs, an oil and gas consultant, told a joint hearing of the Senate Resources and Finance committees that Parnell’s tax-cut bill “does not even come close” to going far enough to hit the Republican governor’s goal of 1 million barrels a day. He said “more elaborate” legislation is needed if Alaska wants significant increases in production. Reaching Parnell’s goal includes new...