(New throughout, adds details, reaction from Canada, Clinton to
release energy plan in days)
By Amanda Becker
DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S.
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has long avoided a
firm position on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, broke her silence
on Tuesday and said she opposed it.
"I have a responsibility to you and other voters," Clinton,
a former secretary of state, said at a town hall event in Iowa
about TransCanada Corp's TRP.TO project to bring Canadian oil
to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico via Nebraska.
A decision on Keystone that has been pending for seven years
is important as it has become "a distraction from the important
work we have to do to combat climate change," she said.
"Therefore, I oppose it," she said.
Environmental activists close to Clinton's campaign said the
timing of her remarks was driven by her desire to make clear her
opposition before the Oct. 13 Democratic debate.
Senator Bernie Sanders, a rival for the Democratic
presidential nomination, opposes the pipeline and had urged her
to take a position.
Sanders said in a statement he was glad Clinton "finally has
made a decision and I welcome her opposition to the pipeline."
It would be "absurd to encourage the extraction and
transportation of some of the dirtiest fossil fuel on the
planet," he said.
Clinton told the Des Moines Register editorial board she
would release a plan in the next few days for a clean energy
agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. She said
the plan would create jobs.
UNIONS VS. ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Clinton has walked a fine line on supporting or opposing the
pipeline, which puts two key Democratic constituencies at odds:
organized labor and environmentalists. (For a graphics package
on Keystone see http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/15/keystone/index.html)
Many labor unions have pushed for approval of the pipeline,
saying it would create thousands of construction jobs.
Environmental activists have opposed it as delaying the
transition to cleaner forms of energy and increasing emissions
of greenhouse gases by speeding development of Canada's oil
sands.
The State Department has said the pipeline would directly
create 3,900 construction jobs for the year or two it was being
built, and would create 35 full-time jobs once completed, along
with 15 temporary contractor positions.
Jeb Bush, a Republican presidential candidate, tweeted that
Clinton's stance on Keystone means she "favors environmental
extremists over U.S. jobs."
Keystone watchers have been eager to learn Clinton's opinion
about the pipeline since 2010. Then, as secretary of state, she
said she was inclined to approve it. Asked repeatedly about the
project since she entered the race in April, she has declined to
state her stance.
Accused by some of being evasive out of political
expediency, Clinton has said she refrained from taking a stand
because did not want to "second-guess" her former boss,
President Barack Obama.
Obama is expected to decide on Keystone in coming months.
The White House declined to comment on Clinton's position.
The State Department, which will make a recommendation to
Obama when it is finished with a review of the project, said
there is no timeline for the completion of that review.
Canada's conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a
strong proponent of the pipeline approval of which could breathe
life into Alberta's oil fields. Harper said through a spokesman
that Canada knows "the American people support the project."
ID:nL1N11S2JP
TransCanada spokesman Davis Sheremata said the company
remains focused on securing a permit for the project.