Supporters and opponents of the massive Keystone XL pipeline project, which would allow Canadian crude oil to flow all the way to refineries in Texas, made their final arguments in Washington on Friday.
The U.S. State Department is concluding hearings on the controversial project that would be owned and operated by TransCanada.
Union members who see the pipeline as an important source of jobs gathered outside the hearing, clad in orange. Critics, who came dressed in blue, see the proposed project as an unnecessary threat to the environment.
The 2,735-kilometre pipeline has become a rallying point for environmentalists who have united to fight against what was once considered a no-brainer as the U.S. attempts to wean itself off oil from more volatile parts of the world.
Environmentalists argue the pipeline, which would travel through six states, including some sensitive ecosystems, could cause immeasurable damage to the environment if it were to leak.
Canada has been repeatedly slammed during the hearings for the harvesting practices used in Alberta's oil sands.
Advocates, however, argue that the pipeline project will bring millions in investments to the U.S. and up to 20,000 jobs. It will also give Texas refineries a new source of oil, cutting America's dependency on foreign countries with questionable human rights practices, said CTV's Mercedes Stephenson.
"They've been looking at reducing their dependency on foreign reserves because they're concerned about where the profits from that oil goes -- to dictatorships or funding potential terrorist groups. And of course when they buy their oil from Canada they don't have to worry about those problems," Stephenson told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel.
U.S. President Barack Obama will have to sort through the debate and choose a side in the coming weeks.
Stephenson said it has essentially come down to a divide between one side that believes in the project as a means of creating jobs and potentially boosting the floundering economy, and another side which rejects Alberta's oil sands as dirty and unsustainable and is pushing for greener sources of energy.
Obama also faces pressure from within his own party. On Friday, 36 Democrats from the House of Representatives signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking assurances that the pipeline will help make the U.S. less dependent on overseas oil sources.
"We urge you ensure that the approval of this project, if it occurs, requires the oil and refined product the pipeline transports to be sold in the United States," the letter states. "Anything less would certainly not be in the national interest."
The State Department is expected to make a decision by December.
Russ Girling, the chief executive for Calgary-based TransCanada, said Friday he has been surprised by the backlash to the proposed project.
He said he did not expect the issue to become a "lightning rod" in the debate over fossil fuels and alternative energy -- especially since a similar pipeline was installed by TransCanada less than two years ago with little blowback.
With an unemployment crisis persisting in the United States it seems unlikely that Obama would decline to issue a permit to build the pipeline, said CTV's Washington Bureau Chief Paul Workman.
But opposition groups say they will challenge the Keystone XL project in court if it goes ahead.
With a report from CTV's Washington Bureau Chief Paul Workman
