The following quotes are all from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/us/provision-may-halt-keystone-pipeline-but-oil-is-still-likely-to-flow.html
The tax cut and unemployment insurance extension approved by Congress on Friday included a Republican provision that requires President Obama to make a decision on the pipeline within 60 days. The State Department, which has authority over cross-border pipelines, said that it would not be able to complete the required environmental review within that short a period and would be unable to recommend that the project be approved. White House officials said Mr. Obama would honor the agency’s advice. end of first quote.
So, this means that when the Republicans demanded this decision within 60 days it became impossible to complete the environmental impact report within 60 days as required by the legislation so it would have to be re-applied for by the same or another company in order to have a a successful conclusion to having a U.S. Pipline come down through Canada.
However, this is the other problem with the processing more than the pipeline:
next quote from same source above:The oil sands formation in western Canada, sometimes referred to as tar sands because of the density of the extracted oil, contains an estimated 1.75 trillion barrels of recoverable oil, the second-largest known deposit of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia’s. Extracting, transporting and refining it, however, is energy intensive, producing 15 percent to 80 percent more carbon emissions over its life cycle than average petroleum products. Thus James Hansen, an eminent climatologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has warned that if development of the oil sands deposits goes forward unchecked it means “game over,” in his words, for the global climate.end 2nd quote.
So, if James Hansen is right the processing of the second largest deposit of recoverable oil on earth if recovered, will destroy the world's climate over time if I'm reading this correctly.
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