Obama Rejects Pipeline

Last week Obama rejected the idea of the Keystone Pipeline, which transported oil from Canada to the US. This is hard to understand, considering the pros and cons. Canada has a huge abundance of oil sand reserves and they are wanting to build a pipeline to the US to sell to us. Being in AP environmental science, we have studied different ways of extracting oil, and oil sands are a lot less environmentally detrimental compared to the other possibilities, such as deep sea drilling- which a lot of our oil comes from! It does have its negative impacts however, mostly taking away from the natural beauty by digging up large areas. But the real deal is that if we dont buy it, someone else will. There is a growing demand in energy resources as technology is ruling the world. It is expected that if the US does not buy the oil, that Canada will make an agreement to build a pipeline to China. The only reasons that i have heard about Obama rejecting it is the negative environmental impact. So if thats the only con, let me tell you all the pro’s -- it will help the economy, increase job opportunities, lower oil prices and decrease dependency on the Middle East. Also, if the US wont buy the oil from Canada, TransCanada Corp. says that they will sell it to other countries instead. Therefore rejecting the building of the pipeline to the US will not help the environment; it is inevitable that Canada will sell it to someone else. Along with all of this said, many believe that Obama has only rejected the pipeline for the time being so he doesn’t have to make any big political decisions with the chance that he might loose votes in the upcoming election. As far as I can see, the only ones that would be against this would be radical environmentalists, who usually lean towards a more liberal standpoint. But I think more people would want to see this getting built than not, so I think he would actually gain support, especially considering how rising gas prices will only get worse as the weather warms up and people begin to travel. So are their any other reasons not to build this pipeline that I am missing? And do you think Obama will go back and end up approving it if he is reelected?