Ex-Obama official Marcia McNutt backs Keystone oil pipeline
Former head of US Geological Survey supports Keystone XL project to transport crude from Canada's highly polluting oil sands through US
The former head of the US Geological Survey (USGS), now editor-in-chief of Science magazine, has endorsed building a pipeline to transport crude oil from Canada's oil sands to the United States.
Marcia McNutt argued in the magazine that if the Keystone XL pipeline were not built, the oil would be carried by rail and road tankers, which would be more environmentally damaging.
McNutt, who headed the USGS from 2009 until last year and also served as the US Interior Department's senior science adviser, wrote in an editorial, "I believe it is time to move forward on the Keystone XL pipeline" in exchange for getting Canadian officials to reduce their oil industry's carbon emissions.
One of the primary objections environmentalists have raised against the project is that it would accelerate global warming because of the high amount of energy needed to extract oil from the deposits in Alberta.
McNutt is the latest former Obama administration official to come out in favour of the pipeline in recent weeks. Former interior secretary Ken Salazar said on February 5 that he thought the administration should approve the project, which would transport oil to refineries on the US Gulf coast.
The idea of Canada compensating for the pipeline's climate impact has been publicly contemplated for months, but neither Canadian nor American officials have ever specified what policies would satisfy the Obama administration.
US President Barack Obama has repeatedly raised the prospect of collaborating with Canada on carbon reductions when discussing the pipeline.