WASHINGTON — An Environmental Protection Agency review of the Keystone XL pipeline emphasized that the recent drop in global oil prices might mean that construction of the pipeline could spur increased development of the Canadian oil sands — and thus increase planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
That review might influence President Obama’s long-delayed verdict on the 1,179-mile pipeline, which could bring about 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. Obama has said that an important element of his decision will be whether construction of the pipeline would contribute significantly to climate change.
The letter, which came from Cynthia Giles, the assistant administrator of the EPA, and was posted on the EPA website Tuesday, came in response to an 11-volume environmental impact statement on the project produced last year by the State Department.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry asked eight other agencies to weigh in on the project. The deadline for those responses was Monday, and the State Department has not publicly released comments from all of the agencies.
The letter notes that the State Department’s environmental review concluded that the process of extracting oil from the Canadian oil sands produces about 17 percent more greenhouse-gas pollution than the process used to extract conventional oil — but that the oil was likely to be produced, extracted, and brought to market with or without construction of the pipeline. It concluded that without construction of the pipeline, the oil would be brought to market by rail.