In a Friday morning speech, President Obama officially rejected the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. The proposed pipeline would have linked pipeline networks in Canada and the United States and opened the gates for 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian heavy crude oil and diluted bitumen to be pumped down to U.S. refineries in Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Controversy

Since its proposal back in 2008, Keystone became a major point of contention between environmentalists and the oil industry. Environmentalists saw the pipeline as disruptive to the local environment and another step in the wrong direction in the fight against global warming.

TransCanada Corporation (USA) TRP 1.29%, who had hoped to construct the pipeline, had argued that Keystone would have increased North American energy independence, created thousands of construction jobs and helped alleviate the massive global crude oil glut that has sent oil prices plummeting from above $100/bbl to below $50 per barrel.

Oil Reacts

WTI crude oil, which was trading above $48/bbl on Wednesday, was down…

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