UPDATE 1-Protesters circle White House in oil pipeline row
* Protesters press President Obama to nix pipeline
* Company says the project would create jobs
* Obama at golf game while protesters gathered (Updates with potential delay in decision)
By Jeff Mason and Patrick Temple-West
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons.
Opponents to TransCanada Corp's (TRP.TO) Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change.
On Sunday thousands of men and women, many of them wearing orange vests with "Stop the pipeline" printed on them, lined up around the White House grounds, which include the presidential mansion, the U.S. Treasury department and a sprawling executive office building.
Carrying signs that matched Obama's campaign colors of blue and red, some protesters chanted "Hey Obama, we don't want no climate drama" and "Stop the pipeline, yes we can," copying phrases connected to Obama's successful 2008 election effort.
The pipeline controversy threatens to loom over the 2012 presidential race. Obama faces political pitfalls whether his administration approves or rejects the project.
A decision in favor would support Obama's goal of creating jobs and diversifying U.S. energy sources, but it would alienate core Democratic supporters who are already disappointed by his progress in fighting climate change.
"We have to leave the tar sands oil in the ground. That's the only solution if we're going to save the planet," said Martin Springhetti, 63, a Democrat and retired teacher from Pennsylvania, who said his active support for Obama next year would depend on the pipeline decision.
"I certainly won't work for him, but I won't vote for him if he doesn't ... say no to the pipeline," said actress Margot Kidder, 63, who campaigned for Obama in 2008 in Montana and was arrested at a similar pipeline protest earlier this year.
JOBS AND OIL
The State Department is running the review process for the decision, though Obama has made clear he will influence the final call.
"As the president has made clear, he recognizes that there are a number of critical issues involved in this decision, including climate change and impacts on public health and natural resources," said White House spokesman Clark Stevens.
"These issues, along with American energy security and economic factors, will be considered in the State Department's ongoing assessment."
The State Department said last week the decision-making process could be delayed past an end-of-year target.
TransCanada said the protesters were ignoring out-of-work Americans who could benefit from the jobs the pipeline would create.
"What these millionaire actors and professional activists don't seem to understand is that saying no to Keystone means saying yes to more conflict oil from the Middle East and Venezuela filling American gas tanks," said company spokesman James Millar.
"Our opponents can trivialize the jobs the largest energy infrastructure on the books right now in the U.S. will create, but we know the 20,000 Americans we will put to work constructing and manufacturing the parts needed to build Keystone XL feel differently."
Opponents dispute the jobs figures that TransCanada projects. The Sierra Club, a prominent environmental group and one of the organizers of Sunday's demonstration, said the protest was about more than the pipeline itself.
"(It) is really about a larger issue, which is getting off oil altogether," said Michael Brune, the group's executive director.
Obama was not at the White House when the protest took place. As he often does on the weekends, the president was playing golf. (Editing by Anthony Boadle)
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Plan is to strip mine or drill through forests the size of Florida in order to access tar sands. Think about that scale: this is the largest industrial project in human history.
The leaching process is toxic: it leaves behind huge toxic pools filled with cancer causing heavy metals
Highly inefficient: 4 tons of tar sands must be mined to produce 1 barrel of oil
Producing tar sands oils creates 3 times more carbon pollution than traditional oil
“Game over” for the climate: this is the warning of our leading NASA climate scientist if we fully extract the tar sands, the second biggest pool of carbon in the world. It’s strange that only half of American think we are threatened by climate change when 97% of climate scientists believe we are.
The 1,700 mile pipeline would be built across America’s agricultural heartland and over sensitive aquifers providing drinking water for 2 million people
The smaller TransCanada Keystone pipeline, which connects the tar sands to refineries in Detroit, has had 14 oil spills in its first year which isn’t surprising as tar sand is highly corrosive and the only way this project is affordable is by using cheap steel from India.
The petroleum product is Tar Sands crude. It is a physically heavy, thick and abrasive product to which is added large quantities of highly toxic and corrosive chemicals needed to increase viscosity to aid in the physical flow of product through the line. Furthermore, thick viscosity requires the product to be pumped through the pipe under much higher pressure than traditional crude.. Taken together, these characteristics and problems make the pipe highly vulnerable to thinning, pipe failure and dreaded spills. The high pressure exponentially increases the risk of pipe breakage and the volume of spilled product w/ each occurrence. Factor high toxicity of certain chemicals which are very challenging, and some certainly impossible to clean up and the pipeline becomes a horrific disaster waiting to happen, every inch of its entire length.
I sat as a Witness at the Austin, Tx hearing: deceitful and otherwise questionable study data submitted by the pipeline suporters/owners was revealed and refuted by real study data provided by reputable scientists who each submitted their hard copy data as evidence for the offical record. I can only assume this hearing was typical of the numerous hearings which took place in the areas affected by the pipeline. The original pipeline study data should be thrown out simply by virtue of the close association with the corporate pipeline owners.
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