NYT To Obama: Prohibit Pipeline to Choke-Off Oil Supply

The New York Times published an editorial on Sunday calling on President Barack Obama to prohibit construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil to the United States from Canada–but not to protect a fragile landscape in Nebraska or anywhere else in the United States.

The reason Obama should prohibit the pipeline, according to the Times, is to begin choking off America’s oil supply.

The paper thinks this is a good thing.

The Times was responding to a draft environmental impact statement on the latest version of the pipeline proposal that the State Department released a week ago. A year ago, the State Department rejected an earlier proposal from TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, because the route the company proposed at that time would have traversed the Sand Hills of Nebraska. TransCanada subsequently changed the route, and the State Department is now signaling that this new route would not cause significant environmental problems.

Under executive orders issued by past administrations, the president has assumed authority to approve pipelines that cross the international borders of the United States. The State Department carries out that authority.

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