Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and professor at Middlebury College, led two big anti-Keystone protests at the White House that factored into Mr. Obama's decision in November to delay the project.
Canada's new PM has committed to restoring environmental laws and budgets dismantled by Harper, but on the two biggest issues – Keystone XL pipeline and emissions reductions target – Trudeau is bound to disappoint.
"Large quantities of tar sands are potentially going to international markets when the big argument for Keystone XL has been energy security from our friendly neighbor to the north".
"We are fed up with the State Department's conflict-ridden, Big Carbon influenced, Keystone XL consideration process.
Prior to her big reveal against Keystone on Tuesday, it's not as if the Democratic front-runner for the presidential nomination had no environmental bona fides.
"The big problem with Keystone XL and other pipelines," said Schindler, "is that if we build them, we have an excuse to continue with this horrid pace of oil sands development".
They typically support conservative-leaning positions such as less regulation on big banks, the Keystone XL pipeline and expanded oil drilling in the U.S., and "entitlement reform" which they define as cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits needed by the disabled, seniors, surviving dependents, and the poor.
Oil companies have limited refining capacity for the dense crude in Alberta, and that's where the biggest pipeline project, Keystone XL, figures in.
"The latest pipeline review still ignores the biggest impact of Keystone XL: climate change," said May Boeve, the executive director of 350.org, an environmental advocacy group.
The Enbridge tar sands pipeline would be bigger than the Keystone XL.
