Last June President Obama said he would approve the project if it would not "significantly exacerbate" the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

Today the State Department released an 11 volume environmental impact study which included an assessment  that the pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution. The main reason for the conclusion was that denial of the project would not prevent the extraction of the oil in Canada nor it's transportation to refineries. It would simply continue to be transported by train.

You see the lie that environmentalists have been trying to sell is that if they can prevent the completion of the pipeline they can prevent the extraction, sale and use of the oil (bitumen) from Canada and thus reduce carbon emissions. That has never been true. The oil is being shipped as we speak and will continue to be produced and shipped without the pipeline.

But lies are nothing new from environmentalists.

The real issue is safety, transportation by pipeline is far more safe than rail; as we saw a few weeks ago in North Dakota.