Obama Rejects Request To Suspend Keystone Pipeline Review

President Obama on Wednesday retained his authority to make the final call on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, rejecting pleas to delay the State Department’s review of the project and sparking a backlash among critics who say the administration’s decision-making process has been corrupted by politics.

State Department officials said late Wednesday afternoon they’ll ignore calls from the company proposing the project, energy giant TransCanada, because the review process has come too far to be stopped now. The decision all but guarantees Mr. Obama, who has sounded skeptical of Keystone’s merit and reportedly is leaning toward killing the pipeline, will be the one to decide whether the project moves ahead or is scrapped.

Environmentalists quickly praised the move, which seems to eliminate the possibility a potential Republican president — who surely would be more favorable to new domestic oil-and-gas projects than Mr. Obama — would be the one to decide Keystone’s fate.

“The process is fairly mature, and the secretary believes that, out of respect for that process and all the input that has gone into it, that it is the most appropriate thing to keep that process in place, to continue the review,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said, referring to Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

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