Whether he likes it or not, President Obama’s logic-defying but unsurprising decision to deny TransCanada the permit to construct a 1,700-mile long pipeline to deliver up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries put the ball in Congress’s court—and some Members are seizing that opportunity.
On January 24, Representative Ted Poe (R–TX) and 11 co-sponsors, including Representative Dan Boren (D–OK)
introduced the Keystone For a Secure Tomorrow Act (K-FAST) that would approve TransCanada’s permit submitted to the Department of State (DOS) on September 19, 2008. Instead of ignoring the three years of environmental review DOS conducted—like President Obama did—this legislation would accept the finding that the project poses no significant environmental risk and would bring much-needed jobs, economic growth, and energy to our country.
Poe’s bill would accept DOS’s environmental impact statement as sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. No further environmental review would be necessary, nor should it. For three years with multiple comment periods, DOS studied and addressed risks to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, wildlife, and endangered species. It concluded that construction of the pipeline would pose minimal environmental risk. Keystone XL also met 57 specific pipeline safety standard requirements created by DOS and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Furthermore, the pipeline would be equipped with 16,000 sensors connected to a satellite that would monitor pressure.