TransCanada, the Canadian company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, asked the U.S. government on Monday to suspend its permit application, throwing the politically fraught project into an indefinite state of limbo, likely beyond the 2016 U.S. elections.
After an expected rejection from President Obama on the bill, it seems like TransCanada is just waiting it out hoping that a GOP candidate will take office in 2016. All Democratic candidates are against the pipeline, while all of the Republican candidates are for it.
So is this a win for environmentalists or just dragging out a loss if a GOP candidate takes the White House? It’s hard to say. Without a complete outline of the pipeline, it’s honestly hard to say what impact it would have on the environment. Even environmentalists cannot deny that most American infrastructure relies on fossil fuels. As candidates continue to fight it out for the presidency, it looks like the Keystone XL debate is going to be dragged out a little bit longer than expected.