President Obama pulled the plug Friday on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Saying it doesn’t make sense to build a behemoth that would allow oil from Canada to flow across the U.S. and down to the Gulf of Mexico, Obama said he is rejecting the project.  “The State Department has decided the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interests of the United States,” Obama said. “I agree with that decision.”  The 1,179-mile proposed pipeline wouldn’t have lowered U.S. gas prices, Obama said.  Nor would it contribute a significant number of U.S. jobs or make the country less dependent on foreign energy, he said.  Obama also said the proposed project had taken on an “overinflated role” in U.S. political discourse and had been used as a “campaign cudgel” by supporters and opponents alike.  “The critical factor in my determination was this: Moving forward with this project would significantly undermine our ability to continue leading the world in combating climate change,” Secretary of State John Kerry added in a statement.  Immediately the GOP presidential hopefuls weighed-in with condemnation.  “The Obama admin’s politically motivated rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is a self-inflicted attack on the U.S. economy and jobs,” former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, now a floundering Republican presidential candidate, said on Twitter.  As a leader in the opposition to Keystone XL from Day 1, I strongly applaud the president’s decision to kill this project once and for all.  Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another presidential candidate, vowed to approve the pipeline if he wins the White House in 2016.  Oil producers and the few construction unions that backed the project also slammed Obama’s move.  "It’s ironic that the administration would strike a deal to allow Iranian crude onto the global market while refusing to give our closest ally, Canada, access to U.S. refineries," said API trade association Jack Gerard. "This decision will cost thousands of jobs and is an assault to American workers. It’s politics at its worst.”  Newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Keystone supporter, said he was disappointed but added that Canada’s relationship with the U.S. “is much bigger than any one project.”  The Obama Admin's politically motivated rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline is a self-inflicted attack on the U.S. economy and jobs.  In turning thumbs down on the project, Obama handed environmentalists a huge victory and ended seven years of suspense about what he might do about the contentious issue.  “This is a big win,” Bill McKibben of the environmental group 350.org told The Associated Press.  Obama’s decision “is nothing short of historic, and sets an important precedent that should send shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry,” McKibben said.  Keystone critics have long maintained that that the pipeline is unnecessary at a time when oil prices are low and new, non-polluting sources of energy are being developed.  They note that since 2008 the U.S. has had a domestic drilling boom which boosted oil production 80 percent and contributed to a slump in U.S. oil prices from above $100 a barrel to about $44.  The Keystone pipeline would have brought synthetic crude from Alberta's oil sands — one of the filthiest ways to extract black gold — to refineries in Illinois before shipping it further south.  TransCanada Corporation, the Canadian company that had hoped to build the pipeline, applied for the required presidential permit for the cross-border section back in 2008.
President Barack Obama says he's rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline because he does not believe it serves the national interest.