Today, shortly after Secretary of State John Kerry rejected the pipeline, President Obama rejected the proposal for the Keystone XL Pipeline, saying it, "would not serve the interests of the United States."
"While our politics have been consumed with whether this pipeline would increase jobs and lower gas prices, we have increased jobs and lowered gas prices," Obama stated. "America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change, and frankly approving this project would have undercut that leadership," Obama explained.
This is a great victory of the hundreds of thousands of people who protested, the hundreds, if not thousands who have been arrested engaging in civil disobedience.
Bill McKibben and his team at 350.org stated,
"We just made history together. 4 years to the day after we surrounded the White House, President Obama has rejected the Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline!This is huge.
A head of state has never rejected a major fossil fuel project because of its climate impacts before. The President's decision sets the standard for what climate action looks like: standing up to the fossil fuel industry, and keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
Make no mistake: this victory belongs to us, the movement. President Obama's courage today is a reflection of the courage shown by thousands of people who have sat in, marched, organized, (and opened a lot of emails) across North America against this pipeline."
CNN stated, in an article,
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also been caught up in Keystone politics. In October 2010, Clinton indicated she was "inclined" to approve the project but has since backed away from that stance, and in September said she opposes it. Fellow Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley also oppose the pipeline, and Clinton faced criticism from the left for not taking a firm stance."
