Obama should approve pipeline

To the editor:

President Barack Obama's arguments against the Keystone pipeline doesn't hold water. He has been studying this for six years and now that the Nebraska Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Nebraska governor can approve the route and issue the required eminent domain proceedings, he has run out of excuses.

Obama's own environmental study says building the pipeline would have no negative environmental impacts because oil will be taken out of the Alberta Tar Sands whether the pipeline is built or not. The more oil that reaches the world market the lower the world oil price will be. Building the Keystone XL pipeline will lessen the environmental risk because there is a much larger risk to the U.S. from huge oil trains exploding.

The Senate needs to add amendments to the House Keystone XL pipeline bill to hold TransCanada responsible for cleanup costs of any spills from the pipeline. The Senate also should add amendments to the House Keystone XL pipeline bill which extends the federal tax credit program on green energy programs such as wind farms and solar energy until January 2017.

William Peterson

North Liberty