By Grist Staff
02 March 13

The U.S. State Department just released a draft environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL pipeline, and it's not what climate activists have been hoping for.

As The New York Times puts it, the report "makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be." According to The Washington Post, the report "suggest[s] that blocking the project would not have a significant impact on either the future development of Canada's oil sands region or U.S. oil consumption."
…
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune captured the feelings of many activists with his response to the news: "President Obama said that he's committed to fighting the climate crisis. If that is true, he should throw the State Department's report away and reject the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline."

…

This is by no means a final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. This draft report will be published next week and then subject to 45 days of public comment, after which it will be revised and finalized. The State Department also still has to release an analysis of whether the pipeline is in the "national interest," so look for that to drop on another Friday afternoon. Ultimately, President Obama will make the final decision, probably in late spring or summer.

In the meantime, get those angry comments ready, folks. You know the American Petroleum Institute is already all over it.