"Just a day before President Obama announced he would only approve the Keystone XL pipeline if it 'does not significantly exacerbate the climate problem,' six environmental groups quietly lodged a protest with the State Department charging it would do exactly that."

"The 48-page letter obtained by The Washington Post demands the State Department, which has jurisdiction over the pipeline permit, prepare a new supplemental environmental impact statement to take into account several new analyses that they say prove the project will speed heavy crude extraction in Canada's oil sands region.

The State Department is currently responding to more than 1.2 million comments on the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement it issued March 1, which it plans to finalize this fall. In that document, the department suggested denial of TransCanada's permit would have little overall climate impact because the oil would be extracted and shipped out anyway, largely by rail."

Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post June 27, 2013. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"In Bid for Keystone, Visions of a Greener Pipeline" (New York Times) [3]

"The Significance of Obama's Cryptic Keystone Comments" (Grist) [4]