The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told a Washington audience on Monday that building the contentious Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico would not, by itself, constitute a "climate disaster."
Many opponents of the pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico for export, argue that it would lead to the emissions of enough planet-warming greenhouse gases that it would be game over for efforts to constrain the amount and speed of global warming.
Speaking at a Politico luncheon on Monday, Gina McCarthy told moderator Mike Allen that a single pipeline project would not doom efforts to combat global warming.
"No, I don’t think that any one issue is a disaster for the climate, nor do I think there is one solution for the climate change challenge that we have,” she said.
McCarthy's own agency has been more critical of the environmental consequences of the pipeline, writing in a letter to the State Department in early February that the State Department should consider whether plummeting oil prices will encourage more widespread development of oil sands resources in Canada.
Because the pipeline would cross the U.S. border with Canada, the State Department, and ultimately the White House, have final say over whether to move forward with the project.
"Until ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of oil sands are more successful and widespread [the agency's environmental review] makes clear that, compared to reference crudes, development of oil sands crude represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions."
The agency's environmental review details this, and provides President Obama with a basis upon which to reject the pipeline, given the White House's emphasis on fighting climate change.
In a major climate address in June 2014, Obama said he would not allow Keystone to be built if it "does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."
"The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward," he said. "It’s relevant."
A spokesman for 350.org, one of the prominent environmental groups working to block the pipeline, criticized McCarthy's statements on Monday.
“Gina McCarthy would do well to look at comments published by her own EPA, warning that Keystone XL would accelerate development of the tar sands oil field in Canada, which in turn would mean game over for our climate,” Karthik Ganapathy told Politico in an email.
Independent experts have said that Keystone by itself would not cause greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket in a way that would put global climate targets in jeopardy.