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(Washington, D.C.) - President Obama on Wednesday, January 18th. rejected TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL Pipeline Project; a proposed $7 billion pipeline, saying that the 60-day deadline imposed by Congress did not allow sufficient time for the State Department to weigh the risks associated with the project.

"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," Obama said in a statement.

 Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline Route

It isn't often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and -- beyond the symbolism -- won't even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his re-election and by using some form of political smoke and mirrors, he believes that by "playing" to his environmental supporters his chances for re-election will improve. Except for a political and public relations victory, environmentalists won't get much. Stopping the pipeline won't halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed.

Obama rejected the proposed $7 billion pipeline, saying the 60-day congressionally imposed deadline didn’t allow sufficient time to weigh the risks. By law, Obama's decision was supposed to reflect "the national interest." His standard was his political interest. The State Department has spent three years evaluating the Keystone Pipeline Project and it appeared that it was ready to approve the project by the end 2011. Then the administration, citing opposition to the pipeline's route in Nebraska, reversed course and postponed a decision to 2013 -- after the election.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. said that it would accept the administration’s invitation to reapply for a route -- already being negotiated -- around the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region in Nebraska.

Tags: 2012 Election, Barack Obama, Canada, Congress, Democrats, Keystone Pipeline Project, Keystone XL Pipeline, National Politics, Nebraska, Republicans, Sand Hills, TransCanada Corp., U.S. State Department