Keystone XL Project Gets State Department Environmental Approval

摘要

WASHINGTON-Even as its planned Keystone XL pipeline passed an important regulatory checkpoint in late August, TransCanada Corp.'s proposed superhighway for Alberta's oil sands production aroused uncertainty among some U.S. independent producers and outright condemnation from anti-oil protestors. The U.S. State Department, which has authority over project approval because the pipeline would cross an international boundary, has issued a final environmental impact statement concluding that, with proper management, the project poses no significant environmental impact. Anti-development groups have begged to differ and are urging the White House to deny the permit while organizing acts of civil disobedience that have led to dozens of arrests, including that of James Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who asserts, "If the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it is essentially game over" for anthropogenic climate change.