EPA Will Comment Soon On Keystone XL Pipeline: 'Concerned About Emissions And Potential Leaks'

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WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:56pm EDT

(Reuters) - The top U.S. environmental regulator on Thursday said her agency would soon comment on the proposed $7 billion Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, adding she was concerned about emissions and potential leaks that could result from the project.

"We have comments we are just about completing on the current environmental impact statement," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said at a Howard University event with youth environment leaders.

Jackson listed concerns about the pipeline including additional greenhouse gas emissions from producing the oil sands; the possibility of leaks on the line; and harmful emissions from refineries in communities along the Gulf Coast that could result from the project.

"This isn't a little tiny pipeline, this is a pipeline that cuts our country literally in half," she added. The $7 billion project would take 700,000 barrels per day or more from Canada through six states to refineries in Texas.


read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-usa-pipeline-epa-idUSTRE79Q60U20111027

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1. 'I think the president said it best yesterday'

“I think the president said it best yesterday. He has certainly heard your voices and he is very much aware of the concerns that have been raised about ... the pipeline,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190189-epa-chief-keystone-pipeline-comments-almost-done-obama-very-aware-of-greens-concerns-

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2. Jackson: Keystone conversation is 'awesome'

“People ask me all the time, ‘What about this whole issue?’ To me, it’s awesome; it’s awesome that we’re having this conversation in this country. This should be a moment where we’re having a big conversation,” she said.

One student, Jarymar Arana from Texas, who planned to bring up the pipeline again Thursday when the students visited the White House, thanked the administrator for Environmental Protection Agency’s previous “robust review” of the pipeline and asked “if you will continue to stand up for the communities affected by Keystone XL.”

“Yes, that’s our job,” Jackson said, speaking of EPA’s obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act to review environmental impact statements.

But, she noted, “everyone, I think, knows here that the actual decision makers are the State Department.”


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67001.html