President Obama will announce today the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, ending a seven-year-long review process and delivering a key victory to climate activists who'd advocated for its rejection.
The Obama administration has finally decided that the 1,179-mile pipeline is not in the United States' interest, weeks before the president travels to Paris to achieve a multi-national agreement on climate change.
Obama's late rejection of the controversial pipeline, however, is largely symbolic as it was widely expected.
TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, asked the State Department this week to suspend its evaluation in a last ditch effort to stall the final rejection.
The pipeline would have carried tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Climate scientist James Hansen famously declared that approval would have meant "game over" for solving the climate crisis.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to join the president for today's White House announcement. The president is expected to announce his decision today at 11:45 am EST.
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