Keystone ‘Increasingly Irrelevant’ as Protests, Energy Markets Shift Focus

The Keystone XL pipeline, a project that has dogged Obama Administration energy policy and become a focal point for massive protests and industry lobbying, “is increasingly irrelevant in the midterm elections and the energy markets,” Politico reports.

“Environmental groups are happily endorsing pro-Keystone candidates, as long as they support President Barack Obama’s broader agenda of slashing greenhouse gases,” Schor writes. And “Keystone isn’t even North America’s biggest oil-sands pipeline project anymore. That title now belongs to a project most Americans have never heard of called Energy East, which would bypass the need for U.S. approval by piping Alberta’s heavy crude oil to Canada’s Atlantic provinces.”

Schor notes that many front-line climate groups are shifting their focus to other pipeline proposals, including Energy East. TransCanada’s Shawn Howard told Schor that potential customers “have still not walked away” from deals to run oil on the pipeline “despite the musings by some in public about whether or not it’s as critical today.”