President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, rejected an application to build the Keystone XL pipeline Friday, putting to rest the political fight over the project that has lingered throughout much of his presidency.
During his announcement he stated the proposed project wouldn't serve U.S. national interests and would have undercut America's global leadership on climate change, according to the Associated Press.
"America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change, and frankly approving this project would have undercut that leadership," Obama said.
The decision to reject the 1,179-mile cross-border pipeline comes 2,604 days after Transcanada first applied for State Department approval, which had pitted oil companies and Republicans against liberal activists and environmentalists, reported CBS's Iowa affiliate KCCI-TV.
Obama went on to combine his statement on the Keystone rejection with a comment on Friday's positive jobs report, arguing the latter proves the economy is expanding and that the pipeline would make little difference.
"While our politics have been consumed with a debate about whether this pipeline would create jobs and lower gas prices, we've gone ahead and created jobs and lowered gas prices," he said.
Even as he rejected the proposal, Obama downplayed the significance of the decision, saying it had an "over-inflated role in our political discourse," according to USA Today.
"This pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others," Obama said at the White House.
The decision comes as Obama prepares to meet with world leaders at an international climate summit in Paris, where they are expected to finalize a major global climate pact would be a crowning jewel for Obama's environmental legacy.
