: President Obama鈥檚 rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline provoked cheers from environmental groups, boos from rival politicians and a little bit of head scratching in the State of Texas.
鈥淭echnically, from my vernacular, the northern leg of the Keystone XL was rejected because the southern leg of the Keystone XL has been in operation since January of 2014,鈥� said Julia Trigg in response to the news.
Trigg was one of the most visible faces in the fight against the Keystone XL in Texas. She sued TransCanada when it used eminent domain to run pipeline through her Northeast Texas farm. t and TransCanada started running oil from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf Coast almost two years ago.
That project 鈥� what would have been the southern leg of Keystone XL 鈥� at the urging of industry back in 2012. Thure Cannon, the head of the Texas Pipeline Association, says that worked out well for Texas producers and refiners.
鈥淭he Golf Coast leg of the pipeline is beneficial because that removes 鈥� it helps remove the bottleneck that鈥檚 already in Cushing, and that鈥檚 good for Texas producers,鈥� said Cannon.
The fact that plenty of oil is running through the southern half of the pipeline has many oil analysts agreeing with the president, when he said the Keystone decision was not make or break for the industry.
鈥淭hose refineries will still run. It鈥檚 just an issue of what鈥檚 the crude stream they鈥檙e going to be pushing through. And it鈥檚 going to be, you know, a heavy variety. It鈥檚 just going to be from a different location,鈥� says Ken Medlock, the director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University in Houston.
The rejection of the northern part of the pipeline may slow mining of carbon intense tar sands oil, helping in the fight against climate change, but Medlock expects more Canadian crude will find its way to the Texas Gulf eventually. He says wait for global oil prices to start creeping up again.
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