Obama administration denies permit for Keystone XL pipeline

The administration's decision on the pipeline came well ahead of the Feb. 21 deadline given by Congress last month.

The president wanted to delay a decision until early next year, but Congress — led by Republicans who support the pipeline — forced his hand with a provision in the bill that temporarily extended the payroll tax cut.

The decision announced Wednesday that the pipeline is not in the national interest doesn't prevent TransCanada, which proposed the pipeline, from reapplying once an alternate route is found through Nebraska.

The administration said in November that public concerns about the passage of the pipeline through the ecologically sensitive Sandhills region of Nebraska prompted the delay.

Because the 1,700-mile pipeline would cross the Canadian border into the United States, the State Department had the permitting authority. The department recommended Wednesday that the permit not be approved, and Obama agreed.

“As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment,” the president said.

“This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.”

In a statement, TransCanada said it would reapply for a permit for the pipeline, which would carry crude from the tar sands region of Alberta, Canada, through Oklahoma, to the Texas Gulf Coast.

“This outcome is one of the scenarios we anticipated,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer.