Keystone XL pipeline crosses political boundaries in Nebraska and beyond

Asked about the extra greenhouse gases that would be emitted extracting the heavy oil sands crude that will flow down the pipeline, Fischer said simply: “I’m not going to get into a discussion of climate change.”

That, however, is where Kerrey starts. In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, he said that climate change was a key issue that propelled him into the race.

Map: Keystone XL pipeline

Explore the controversies surrounding the pipeline. View the full graphic

Video

Opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline gathered in Spalding, Neb., for a cookout to thank state senator Ken Haar for his work to reroute the pipeline away from Nebraska�s Sand Hills and portions of the Ogallala Aquifer. But in spite of this reroute, many of the Nebraskans at this event do not want to see the pipeline built at all. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

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• A refiner awaits Keystone boom
• An oil rush up north
• Fort McMurray is busting at the seams
• Pipeline a sticking point in U.S.-Canada trade relations

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• In North Dakota, the gritty side of an oil boom
• Pipeline is issue of property rights for some ranchers
• Pipeline raises tribal concerns
• Keystone XL pipeline may threaten aquifer that irrigates much of the central U.S.
• For oil driller Harold Hamm, Bakken boom brings more billions and a chance to dabble in politics
• Keystone XL pipeline crosses political boundaries in Nebraska and beyond
• GRAPHIC: Keystone XL pipeline
• VIDEO: The startof Keystone XL
• About this series

But Kerrey also told the Omaha newspaper that he had not thoroughly reviewed the pros and cons of tapping Canada’s oil sands. “It may be that that genie’s out of the bottle already,” he said, “and if you’re down to a choice of summarily shipping it West and having it end up being sent to China or shipping it south and used by the United States, it’s probably difficult to oppose it at this point. But I haven’t reached an absolute decision on it.”

“Bob has taken the position that if they’re going to build it, it is better to send [the Canadian oil] to the United States than to China,” his campaign manager, Paul Johnson, said in an interview. “If the appropriate authorities approve it, that’s fine with him.”

Job expectations

On the national stage, the politics of the pipeline have little to do with the Ogallala Aquifer or even eminent domain. It has everything to do with promises of jobs and a secure supply of crude oil.

Romney has said that he will approve the Keystone XL his first day in office. “Day One, President Romney immediately approves the Keystone pipeline, creating thousands of jobs that Obama blocked,” says the narrator in one of the candidate’s ads.

In April, Romney told state Republican Party leaders at a retreat in Arizona, “I will build that pipeline if I have to do it myself.”

Obama has embraced the southern portion that would run from Cushing, a major storage terminal and pipeline hub that is a bottleneck for oil moving south from Canada and North Dakota. And the language Obama used when he rejected TransCanada’s application in January suggested he was open to a revised proposal for the northern leg.

At that time, Obama was being pressed by congressional Republicans who set a Feb. 21 deadline for the pipeline’s approval as part of a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, an effort to wrangle a permit from the administration.

“This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people,” the president said.

Eventual approval might anger Obama’s supporters in the environmental movement, and some major donors have threatened to hold back contributions. But openness to the pipeline falls in line with public opinion. About six in 10 Americans said the government should approve the pipeline while fewer than two in 10 oppose it, according to a Washington Post poll. Even among Democrats, 48 percent say it should be built; while 26 percent say it should not be built.

One reason for the support: 83 percent of those polled said the pipeline, if built, would “create a significant number of jobs” while far fewer, only 34 percent, said it would “significantly damage the environment.”