The Hill News

On January 18th, Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, spoke to reporters about the administration’s decision to deny the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Over and over again, Assistant Secretary Jones said that there was not enough information to make an adequate decision. It “could not be deemed in the national interest.”

However, it was her response to Andrea Mitchell of NBC News that sums up the administration’s take on the project: “We’re making this decision because of the process.”

This is the same process, however, that led to the 2009 approval of a transnational pipeline between Canada and the United States: “...the addition of crude oil pipeline capacity between Canada and the United States will advance a number of strategic interests in the United States. These included increasing the diversity of available supplies among the US worldwide c! rude oil sources in a time of considerable political tension in other major oil producing countries and regions….Canada is a stable and reliable ally and trading partner of the United States, with which we have free trade agreements which augment the security of this energy supply.”

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