Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline from Canada

US President Barack Obama has rejected an application to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, claiming that the project would not have served the “national interests” of the US.

The proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried around 800,000 barrels of petroleum a day from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast, has been hotly disputed for seven years and environmentalists have warned that it would do irreparable damage.

“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Obama said in comments from the White House. “Frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.”

He added that he had spoken to newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and that the two of them agreed that the issue of climate change trumped any differences of opinion over the pipeline.

Obama’s move came ahead of a major UN summit on climate change to be held in Paris in December, when Obama hopes to broker a historic agreement that would see world leaders commit to policies to counter climate change.

The Keystone project has taken on a symbolic role in recent years, amid broader clashes on climate change, energy and the economy. When announcing its rejection, Obama said that it has taken “an overinflated role in our political discourse”.

“It has become a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than a serious policy matter,” he said, “All of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others.”

Republicans, the oil industry, and several Democrats from oil-producing states such as North Dakota have supported the project as one that would create jobs and stimulate economic growth. In February, congressional Democrats joined with Republicans in sending Obama a bill to speed up the approval of the project, but the president vetoed the proposal to await environmental reports.

Controversy over the pipeline is not likely to end any time soon. Its proponents could challenge the decision in court and its construction could yet be approved if a Republican is elected president next year.