President Barack Obama stepped into an oil-slicked Keystone Pipeline mess on his way out of town Friday, contradicting the findings of his own State and Energy Departments. The pipeline, a 1,179-mile long planned conduit stretching from Albert, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, has generated environmental controversy that the administration pledged to weigh against the project's economic impact. Obama claimed Friday during a press conference before he left for an extended vacation that America would hardly notice the $8 billion enterprise's impact on their pocketbooks. 'At issue in Keystone is not American oil. It is Canadian oil that is drawn out of tar sands in Canada,' he told a packed press briefing room.
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Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, says his state and Montana are both planning to move crude oil on the $8 billion pipeline
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Obama said his chief concern with the TransCanada company's project is the environmental impact
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Hoeven said the Canadian oil's current transport – trucks and trains – have a bigger climate change impact than the pipeline
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The president spoke at a year-end press conference before jetting to Hawaii for an extended vacation
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Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said this week that approving the 1,179-mile pipeline will be the Senate's first job in January
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But the Nebraska Supreme Court could decide next month to reject its proposed path through the state, setting the project back months or longer
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