In a headline grabbing move, last week President Obama rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline, ending a seven year waiting period. The pipeline would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil each day from Canada's tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. After he reviewed comments and studies on Keystone from seven federal agencies, Obama killed the project because he did not believe it would make a meaningful long term contribution to the domestic economy, reduce gas prices, or increase American energy security.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Paris climate summit, the private sector is stepping up efforts to help the nation meet its clean energy goals. On November 2, Goldman Sachs announced a goal of arranging financing or investments in $150 billion worth of clean energy projects by 2025 in an effort to harness market based solutions to address climate change. This new target is nearly four times the $40 billion goal Goldman set in 2012. The investment bank is taking the cause to its own operations as it pledged to spend $2 billion to make its operations more environmentally friendly. For more on the latest energy happenings, read this week's update from ML Strategies.
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