Hearings on controversial pipeline end

October 8, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

With the formal debate over Friday, a decision on an oil pipeline that will cross America’s heartland and open up a greater market for Canada’s oil sands now rests with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In the last of nine public hearings, people got three minutes each to tell two State Department officials their views about whether the pipeline from the oil sands to Texas refineries is in the nation’s best interest.

They spoke of the nation’s dependence on oil, the need for a secure source, the risks of pipeline spills, the benefits of pipeline- construction jobs, the health risks at both ends of the pipeline and the effects of a relatively high-pollution form of oil on climate change.

For President Barack Obama, the debate also has political weight for the 2012 election. Environmentalists have accused him of going back on promises of cleaner energy and political transparency. They also say that emails and other examples of how Washington works show bias at the State Department in favor of the oil industry.

Canada is the No. 1 U.S. oil supplier. About 9 percent of the 11.8 million barrels a day imported from Canada last year — or about 1.1 million barrels per day — was from the oil sands.

Canada’s oil industry projects that oil-sands development will grow. The region has 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil worth trillions of dollars.

The Keystone XL pipeline would link the oil sands to the Gulf Coast refining hub for the first time.