Former Obama Adviser Encourages Keystone Pipeline Approval

Served president in his first term

A former top adviser to President Obama, responsible for shaping the administration's foreign policy, urged the president to approve the controversial Keystone pipeline project.

Thomas P. Donilon, the influential national security adviser in the Obama administration's first term, begrudgingly told a think tank audience in Washington on Tuesday that he would advise his old boss to give the long-stalled pipeline the green light.

Pressed for an answer by Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson as to whether he would urge Obama to allow the 1,700-mile proposed pipeline to move forward, Donilon laughed before stammering: "You know, I uh, you know, I, I would."