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State Department Requires Review of Alternate Routes for Keystone XL

Madison is wasting more than six million dollars on an unnecessary gym. But in a bit of cosmic fiscal karma, the State Department has made my week by deciding to delay the construction of the unnecessary and un-American Keystone XL pipeline for more than a year.

The State Department announced today that environmental concerns, especially about the Nebraska Sand Hills, justify conducting the in-depth examination of alternative routes, which is one of the big problems the EPA and others said State should have done in the first place.

Now let's look back at May, when Rep. Kristi Noem voted to force the State Department to make a decision two weeks ago. If the bill she voted for had passed, she'd have forced State to make a decision based on the information available on November 1. The State Department's announcement today makes clear that, forced to make a decision on November 1, concerns about the Sand Hills and the Ogallala Aquifer would have forced the Obama Administration to deny TransCanada's application to build Keystone XL.

In other words, Rep. Kristi Noem, in her willful ignorance, voted to kill Keystone XL. And President Obama, through State, just voted to keep it alive. (Kristi, take credit for that an run!)

Actually, opponents of the pipeline are claiming victory, perhaps the first great victory of the 99%. Bill McKibben says the President has effectively killed the pipeline. The dozens of South Dakotans and hundreds of fellow Americans facing eminent domain at the hands of TransCanada can only hope so.

We can only wish that the Madison Central School Board would have shown the Obama Administration's good sense in giving serious consideration to reasonable alternatives to a bad plan.

5 Comments

  1. Michael Black 2011.11.10

    Yet way more than 60% voted for the plan that was presented. The voters made a decision to pay more taxes to fund an unnecessary luxury gym. This was the first bond issue to pass in the Madison Central School District since the original bond issue was passed for the original construction of the Madison High School in the 1960's. That fact is amazing.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.10

    Arrgghh! There's always something. Article says the Enbridge line would run from Chicago to Cushing, then to Gulf. Interesting that Enbridge already has a line in place across the border to Chicago. Does that mean we already have access to more tar sands oil than we can use, and that the Canadians just want to move it all to the Gulf for export... and that Keystone XL was unnecessary to U.S. energy security all along?

  3. RGoeman 2011.11.10

    Madison Central didn't use any condemnation, emminent domain or federal funds to pass their local bond issue. It was a local decision, made after proper give and take, then coming up with a plan that local taxpayers approved by 2/3 majority vote. The only reason Obama is waiting until 2013 is the same reason he is going against his military advisors and pulling our troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. One word...re-election.

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