In yesterday's White House press conference, press secretary Jay Carney said that the administration is not to blame for turning down the Keystone XL pipeline. Once again, the administration lays the blame on Republicans for setting a unrealistic schedule for reviewing the impact of the pipeline to the environment.
"In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear. And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline," Carney said when asked about the pipeline by ABC News' Jake Tapper.
Carney continues deflecting by saying, "The Republicans were the ones who unfortunately decided because they were looking for scalps, I guess, or wins in a situation where they somehow found themselves on the wrong side of cutting taxes for 160 million Americans last December. They decided to play politics with this decision and attack the payroll tax cut extension. Even though it was made clear by the State Department that doing so would make it impossible for them to conduct the review responsibly, they did it anyway knowing what the result would be."
When asked about the rising oil prices, Carney continues to step gingerly around the issue and states that the cost of oil is a result of other factors.
"There are no magic solutions to rising oil prices," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The rising gas prices clearly the effect of a variety of factors on the global price of oil," he told reporters, citing geopolitical unrest and rapid growth in India and China.
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