A new report by the British environmental group, Carbon Tracker Initiative, concludes that the State Department’s analysis of the Keystone Pipeline project’s environmental impact is seriously flawed.  

Yahoo News : The report “directly challenges the State Department’s assertion that construction of the pipeline would not “significantly increase” demand for the extraction of Canadian oil sands.”  

The analysis shows that “because the pipeline would lower the cost of transporting oil extracted from the tar sands (compared with current costs of rail transport), energy companies would be able to afford to take on additional projects—and extract more.”  

The report “concludes the pipeline would double the U.S.’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by stimulating the production of up to 5.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.”  

Takeaways from the report :  

The State Department analysis “did not consider the IEA’s global 450ppm low emissions scenario, which is in line with global efforts to limit carbon emissions. The capacity of KXL is equivalent to the net oil production growth for the entire OECD Americas region under the IEA 450ppm scenario. This makes it significant in the context of future production plans for the US and Canada.”  

“The question of whether increased production and GHG emissions enabled by KXL are ‘significant’ is highly subjective.”  

Crossposted from Wonk Wire.