Obama a 'hypocrite' for rejecting Keystone, says labor leader

By Daniel Chaitin, Daniel Chaitin

Published December 20, 2015

A labor union leader called President Obama a "hypocrite" for refusing to green-light the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Sean McGarvey, president of the North America's Building Trades Unions, said the president joined "radical environmentalists" and turned his back on labor groups, which largely back Democrats, when his administration rejected the 1,187-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast.

The company looking to build the pipeline, TransCanada, had applied for a permit with the State Department seven years ago and was denied by the administration on Nov. 6. It was expected to be able to carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day.

In an interview with the Financial Post, McGarvey said the decision to reject the pipeline defies the findings of a study by the Obama administration that showed Keystone would not have generated significant greenhouse gas emissions.