Yeah, you read that correctly.

And OK, this particular permit is dead, but not the idea for the pipeline.

For anyone who opposes the Keystone XL Pipeline, Republicans offered a gift when they forced the Obama administration to make a decision by February 21, 2012. The deadline was part of the last-minute payroll tax cut deal in December.

Republicans weren’t happy that the Obama administration delayed a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 presidential election. They agreed to the payroll tax cut as long as they were able to impose a deadline on the pipeline decision. There was speculation the deadline would backfire on Republicans and instead offer the Obama administration political cover to kill the pipeline altogether and that is just what happened today, to the delight of environmentalists everywhere.

Thanks Republicans!

dks

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photo by M. V. Jantzen via Flickr