http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/epa-wants-state-dept-to-rework-analysis-of-keystone-xl-pipeline/2013/04/22/1c6e9812-ab9f-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html?wprss=rss_energy-environment

EPA wants State Department to rework Keystone XL analysis


	By  Lenny Bernstein and Juliet Eilperin, Published: April 22
	

The Environmental Protection Agency objected Monday to the State Department’s latest review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline,
 suggesting that more work must be done before the Obama administration 
can determine whether to approve the 1,179-mile northern leg of the 
project.



		The EPA recommended that State reassess the amount of greenhouse 
gas that would be emitted by the development of oil sands in Alberta, 
Canada, as a result of construction of the pipeline, which eventually 
could transport as much as 830,000 barrels of diluted bitumen crude to 
refineries in Texas.


Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator in the
 EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, suggested the 
total gas released could be higher than State has estimated, depending 
on assumptions in the analysis.


She recommended that State 
acknowledge that large portions of the crude will sink if there is a 
spill into a waterway and spell out how it would require pipeline 
operator TransCanada to respond. She asked State to take another look at
 an alternative route for the proposed $5.3 billion pipeline, one that 
would take it away from the Ogallala aquifer, one of the world’s largest
 sources of fresh groundwater.


The EPA’s objection provides opponents with political ammunition and
 could force President Obama to weigh in on the permitting decision. 
Secretary of State John F. Kerry will decide whether the pipeline is in 
the U.S. national interest unless another federal agency objects. If the
 EPA continues to challenge State’s analysis, Obama will have to make 
the call.


The EPA sharply criticized a draft environmental analysis issued by State in April 2010.


Anthony
 Swift, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a
 statement that “the EPA has got it exactly right — the State 
Department’s draft environmental review of the Keystone XL tar sands 
pipeline is insufficient. The EPA determined that the Keystone XL pipeline would have significant negative environmental impacts.”


State
 Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the department “has 
always anticipated” that in preparing a final supplemental review it 
would conduct additional analysis and incorporate public comments 
received on the draft review.
















    


		
		
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