Rejection of oil pipeline project

WASHINGTON - A coalition of Christian and other faith leaders is applauding the decision by the Obama administration to reject the construction of an oil pipeline that would have run from Canada to southeast Texas.
  
Washington-based Sojourners says the pipeline "would have been a backward step in the administration's professed commitment to investing in clean and renewable energy sources."
  
More than 1,200 protesters were arrested in August in a massive demonstration outside the White House against the 1,700-mile project.
  
President Barack Obama said his decision on the project wasn't a judgment on its merits but against what he called the "arbitrary nature" of a Feb. 21 deadline imposed by a GOP-written provision in a tax bill that he signed. Obama said the deadline didn't allow time for a full environmental review. Supporters say the project would create jobs and help reduce dependency on foreign-oil.
  
But Sojourner's spokesman Tim King says the administration decision shows "profits aren't the only part of the equation." King says "God gave believers the responsibility to care for the Earth."
  
The 1,700-mile pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries in Texas. It would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.