State Department Likely to Approve Oil Sands Pipeline Over the Objections of Environmental Lobbyists

Environmental lobbying groups really hate the Keystone XL pipeline which would be constructed through the middle of the country, enabling more than 1 million barrels per day of Canadian oil sands crude to get to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast. Environmental activist Bill McKibben is leading protests against the pipeline outside the White House this month (he's spent two nights in jail). The protesters want the president to order the State Department to nix the pipeline. Will the protests stop it? The Washington Post suggests not: 

The State Department will remove a major roadblock to construction of a massive oil pipeline stretching from Canada to Texas when it releases its final environmental assessment of the project as soon as Friday, according to sources briefed on the process.

The move is critical because it will affirm the agency's earlier finding that the project will have "limited adverse environmental impacts" during construction and operation, according to sources familiar with the assessment who asked not to be identified because the decision has not been made public.

That's good news for people worried about U.S. energy security and jobs. For my somewhat different take on the Keystone XL pipeline see my recent dispatches from my trip to northern Alberta—The Man-Made Miracle of Oil from Sand and Conflict Oil or Canadian Oil?