An energy project that would be good for the U.S economy, can be built without taxpayer help, and would have little to no environmental impact?

That’s the Keystone pipeline President Obama keeps blocking.

A new environmental impact statement released Friday said again that the Keystone XL pipeline is safe.

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“It finds that the pipeline, a Canada-based project to deliver up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast refineries, would pose no significant environmental risk and would not contribute substantially to carbon dioxide emissions,” explained Nicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow.

President Obama has blocked the pipeline’s completion despite several reports confirming it would have little to no negative environmental impact. Yet he’s now taking credit for the boom in America’s energy production.

In his State of the Union address last week, he said, “The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.”

In fact, America is enjoying an energy boom in spite of President Obama.

Heritage expert David Kreutzer explains that the President’s policies have only held the country back from surging ahead even more.

Thanks to new smart-drilling and production technologies (including hydraulic fracturing), the U.S. is the leading liquid fuels producer in the world and will soon be the world’s largest producer of petroleum. And we would be even further in the lead if we had pro-growth federal energy policies.

Producing and refining oil here at home are good news for Americans. Kreutzer notes that “This new production provides a cushion that helps insulate oil markets from the price spikes we might have seen with the continuing turmoil in the Middle East—from the Arab Spring to the nonstop threats from Iran.”

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The Keystone XL pipeline also would bring a number of benefits for Americans. Loris says the pipeline:

  • will add economic value;
  • can be built without the help of the taxpayer;
  • will result in billions of dollars of tax revenue for states it runs through; and
  • will provide a stable supply of oil from Canada, an important trading partner.

Friday’s report form the State Department doesn’t clear the pipeline for completion. That decision is still up to the Obama Administration. But Senate Democrats from energy-producing states are putting pressure on the President. Advancing energy here at home brings security, jobs, and, well—energy. And with each new report that emphasizes the pipeline’s environmental safety, the Administration looks worse for robbing Americans of these benefits.

Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.

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