WASHINGTON - The impact of the Obama Administration’s rejection of a permit for the Keystone Pipeline proposal is felt in East Texas.
Several area counties stood along the route of the 1,700 mile pipeline which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas, including Lamar, Delta, Hopkins and Wood counties.
Saying Wednesday that it did not have sufficient time to properly vet the proposal, NPR reports that the State Department said it would recommend rejecting the proposal by TransCanada. The President first sought to put off a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections, but he agreed to make a decision by Feb. 21 as part of the payroll tax cut negotiations.
The Los Angeles Times reported early Wednesday afternoon that it's still unclear whether the Obama administration will reject the pipeline proposal outright or try to stick to the original timeline, which gives the State Department more time to evaluate the proposal. In his press briefing Tuesday, the president's press secretary Jay Carney expressed the administration's displeasure with the rush timeline agreed to during the payroll-tax negotiations.