President Obama has made it clear through most of his presidency that he is against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline for economic and global warming concerns.
The plan to pump oil from Alberta, Canada through the U.S. for use by refineries in the Gulf of Mexico has created heated exchanges between the president and proponents of the pipeline.
Here are eight quotes from President Obama on the debate:
1. "Understand what this project is," Obama noted at a Nov. 14, 2014 press conference in Burma. "It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn't have an impact on U.S. gas prices."
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2. Obama was in Brisbane, Australia two days later and described the Keystone project as "a pipeline shipping Canadian oil to world markets, not to the United States."
3. "If my Republican friends really want to focus on what's good for the American people in terms of job creation and lower energy costs, we should be engaging in a conversation about what are we doing to produce even more homegrown energy? I'm happy to have that conversation,"
reports New Republic.
4. The president vetoed a move by Congress to construct the pipeline. He stated "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,"
according to USA Today.
5. At Columbia, South Carolina's Benedict College in March 2015,
Forbes reported Obama said, "Its proponents argue that it would be creating jobs in the United States, but the truth is that it's Canadian oil that's then going to go to the world market. It will probably create a couple thousand construction jobs for a year or two, but only create about 300 permanent jobs."
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6. "I haven't made a final determination on it," he added, "but what I've said is, we're not going to authorize a pipeline that benefits largely a foreign company if it can't be shown that it is safe and if it can't be shown that overall it would not contribute to climate change," reports Forbes.
7. Obama went on to include climate change in the pipeline debate, according to Forbes. "If you don"t stop it at a certain point, you can't stop it at all, and it could be catastrophic. It's not speculation. This is what the science tells us."
8. "We're not going to authorize a pipeline that benefits largely a foreign company if it can't be shown that it is safe and if it can't be shown that, overall, it would not contribute to climate change,"
says Obama, according to The Washington Times.
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