President Obama said the Keystone XL oil pipeline should be approved only if it won’t increase net greenhouse-gas emissions and that his administration is planning to partner with truck makers to set emissions standards “for the next generation of vehicles.”
Update: EPA Official Says Work to Begin ‘Immediately’ on New Truck Regs. (TT log-in required.)
Referencing heavy-truck emissions standards set two years ago, the president said his administration would partner with truck makers “in the coming months” on new standards, without laying out additional details.
Obama also said U.S. businesses will need to design new fuels and technologies and “deal with climate change in a way that produces jobs and growth.”
On the controversial Keystone pipeline, Obama said: “Our national interest will only be served if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”
“The net effect of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward,” the president said during a major speech on climate change in Washington.
The State Department said earlier this year it sees no major drawbacks to the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move oil from Canadian tar sands in Alberta to the United States.
The National Research Council released a report Tuesday that said the heavy oil that would be transported from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast by the pipeline poses no greater risk of a spill than do other kinds of oil, Bloomberg News reported.
The president also urged the Senate to quickly confirm Gina McCarthy to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
