We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen \u201d\u201d with long-term trends in the global market, it\u2019s far too valuable to keep in the ground \u201d\u201d but it would go to China. And, as a State Department report found, U.S. refineries would still import low-quality crude \u201d\u201d just from the Middle East. Stopping the pipeline, then, wouldn\u2019t do anything to reduce global warming, but it would almost certainly require more oil to be transported across oceans in tankers.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists and Nebraska politicians say that the route TransCanada proposed might threaten the state\u2019s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region. But TransCanada has been willing to tweak the route, in consultation with Nebraska officials, even though a government analysis last year concluded that the original one would have \u201climited adverse environmental impacts.\u201d\u009d Surely the Obama administration didn\u2019t have to declare the whole project contrary to the national interest \u201d\u201d that\u2019s the standard State was supposed to apply \u201d\u201d and force the company to start all over again.<\/p>\n