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Obama's Keystone XL Veto Was All About the Climate

As expected, Obama has shot down the nation's most controversial oil pipeline. And it's not why he says he did.
​TransCanada Pipeline. Image: ​Wikimedia

​As expected, President Obama has vetoed a bill passed by Congress to approve the nation's most controversial oil pipeline. The bill, which was passed easily in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, and by a narrow margin in the Senate, would have greenlit the construction of a 1,700 mile pipeline, connecting tar sands oil fields in Alberta, Canada with US Gulf Coast refineries.

"I am returning herewith without my approval S. 1, the 'Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act,'" Obama wrote in a letter announcing the veto. "Through this bill, the United States Congress attempts to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest."

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In other words, the reason Obama claims he's wielding the veto pen is that Congress's bill improperly overrides the State Department's mandatory review process (which was being conducted because the pipeline crosses an international border).

However, there's good reason to believe that more than just legal concerns are gnawing at the president. A persistent, vocal activist effort has risen up to oppose the pipeline. Led primarily by environmentalists, as well as indigenous peoples and farmers worried about their land, the movement has on more than one occasion showed up at the White House's doorstep to express its opposition.

Meanwhile, climate scientists have singled out the Keystone as a "carbon bomb" and a potentially serious contributor to global warming. (Because tar sands oil is more difficult to refine, it generates a lot more greenhouse emissions.) In the waning days of his presidency, Obama is thinking about and acting on climate issues more than ever, and he likely views Keystone XL as part of his legacy.

Notice how he rolls both concerns—legal override and environmental protection—into the language of his rejection:

"The Presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously. But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people. And because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest—including our security, safety, and environment—it has earned my veto." The only way the Keystone XL could ever hope to get approved now is if a super-marjority in Congress votes to override the veto, the State Department determines the project is in the national interest after all, or a later president decides to approve it.

In the face of a climate change-denying Congress, Obama has galvanized the EPA to regulate carbon emissions, forged a deal with China to slash greenhouse gas pollution, and, now, he has vetoed an oil pipeline that the public actually supports. This is not a popular move, though it may shore up his bona fides with his environmentalist base. (In that sense, it worked: "President Obama has taken a stand for America's wildlife, clean water and stable climate against a polluting project that threatens wildlife every step of the way, from caribou to waterfowl to endangered whooping cranes," Collin O'Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.)

And it is not a dispute over legal procedure—Obama undeniably has his eyes to his climate legacy now. And environmentalists have forced them there.