--- title: TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline | TIME description: Building the Keystone XL pipeline will create jobs and potentially lower the price of oil, but it comes at an environmental cost. TIME's Bryan Walsh explains. canonical: https://time.com/video/HjKrhtY2/ og:title: TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline og:description: Building the Keystone XL pipeline will create jobs and potentially lower the price of oil, but it comes at an environmental cost. TIME's Bryan Walsh explains. og:url: https://time.com/video/HjKrhtY2/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HjKrhtY2/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline twitter:description: Building the Keystone XL pipeline will create jobs and potentially lower the price of oil, but it comes at an environmental cost. TIME's Bryan Walsh explains. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HjKrhtY2/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: The Keystone Pipeline](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HjKrhtY2.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2013-02-11. Building the Keystone XL pipeline will create jobs and potentially lower the price of oil, but it comes at an environmental cost. TIME's Bryan Walsh explains._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:30 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Supreme Court Upholds Ruling Blocking Permit for Keystone XL Pipeline](/video/NvkKtvlT/) ### Supreme Court Upholds Ruling Blocking Permit for Keystone XL Pipeline [Know Right Now: Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline](/video/2JSg9M2m/) ### Know Right Now: Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline [Watch: Keystone XL Pipeline by the numbers](/video/xkX85rv0/) ### Watch: Keystone XL Pipeline by the numbers --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Today I'm directing my administration to cut through the red tape. Break through the bureaucratic hurdles. And make this project a priority. [ SOUND ]. The decision on whether or not to actually build the proposed Keystone Pipeline is one of the most important economic and environmental choices President Obama faces during the first few months of his second term. Here's what you need to know [ MUSIC ] The Keystone Pipeline is a proposed project that would take processed oil from Canada's oil sands in Western Canada, in Alberta, and pipe it down to the Gulf Coast in the US By building the pipeline, you would enable the U. S. to greatly increase the amounts of oil sans crude. It would bring in the United States, it would boost North American oil production, probably lower the price of oil as well. [ MUSIC ] There are three main reasons really why environmentalists are very much opposed to this project. One is the potential per spill you'll have with the pipeline at many stores. Especially one that in this case would be carrying very heavy unconventional oil that can do more damage to the local land if there is actually a spill. But the much bigger issue really is what this means for the development of big oil stands in Canada. Oil sand oil is much more carbon intensive than conventional. That means [ MUSIC ] The whole process of, of actually getting it out of the ground, processing it, burning it, releases a lot more carbon than the equivalent amount of oil from Saudi Arabia, from Texas, for instance. And then, third, the actual process, locally, in Canada, of, of the oil [ UNKNOWN ] can produce a lot of pollution. And there have been concerns about water pollution for downstream, native Canadian populations. And so, environmentalists worry that, if you build a pipeline like this, you're essentially. Hooking the United States on this unconventional crude, oil sands. And therefore, you're encouraging Canada to, continue developing them. [ MUSIC ] State department, which has jurisdiction over this project as it does cross international borders between U. S. and Canada, is still looking at the project, still coming up with its report. [ MUSIC ] We expect that to be sometime in the spring, maybe March they'll actually come forward with it. 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