Inquirer Editorial: No reason to rush decision on pipeline

Confronted with an arbitrary congressional mandate to rush a decision on the controversial Keystone oil pipeline, President Obama made the only responsible call. At least for now, he says, the answer is "no."

There are just too many unresolved questions about the toll the project will inflict on the environment. It will take far more than the short 60-day limit Congress irresponsibly imposed for deciding whether some version of the project can be done without inflicting unacceptable and irreversible damage.

The pipeline developer, TransCanada, has already agreed to look for a new route in Nebraska. Intense opposition there, including from the state's Republican governor, demanded that the project stay out of the ecologically vulnerable Sandhill region. A pipeline leak could contaminate the enormous Ogallala aquifer, an underground reservoir that irrigates $20 billion a year worth of agriculture from Texas to the Dakotas.

Beyond questions about a new route, the Keystone line poses a much more profound concern: Will it cause a huge spike in global warming by abetting development of the world's dirtiest source of oil - Canadian tar sands?

Getting that oil requires massive strip mines, digging hundreds of feet into the earth across dozens of square miles. It takes huge amounts of energy to heat the sands and melt out the oil.

However, the project does offer a reliable supply of oil from a friendly nation. Canada seems determined to develop the dirty fuel, possibly shipping it to China if our country doesn't take it. And building the Keystone line would be a helpful economic stimulus during tough times.

The 60-day limit for deciding on Keystone was the price Republicans in Congress demanded for a two-month extension of President Obama's payroll-tax break. It was cynical political gamesmanship, designed to hurt the president by forcing him to choose between two powerful constituencies, unions and environmentalists.

President Obama has long contended we as a nation don't have to choose between a clean environment and a strong economy with good jobs. The Keystone pipeline is a huge test of that premise. Whether the nation can find a responsible way forward on the project is a question that bears much more careful study.