Obama delays decision on embattled pipeline

The Obama administration announced this afternoon that it would delay a decision on a heavy-oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico pending study of alternate routes to address environmental concerns in Nebraska about the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer, "pushing off a no-win decision for President Barack Obama until well after the 2012 election," report Dan Berman and Darren Goode of Politico.

"Environmental groups have been protesting the pipeline that would run from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries, and there have been rumblings that greens would abandon Obama next fall if he approved it," Politico notes. "At the same time, labor unions have backed the pipeline, arguing that it would create badly needed jobs for American workers."

House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement: “More than 20,000 new American jobs have just been sacrificed in the name of political expediency. The current project has already been deemed environmentally sound, and calling for a new route is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to avoid upsetting the president’s political base before the election.” A spokesman for Republican Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, who opposes the planned route, said the senator welcomes the review if it is "sincere and not just an effort to push it past the election." (Read more)