WASHINGTON — The State Department issued a revised environmental impact statement for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline on Friday that makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be.
The 2,000-page document also makes no statement on whether the pipeline is in the United States' economic and energy interests, a determination to be made later this year by President Obama.
But it will certainly add a new element to the already robust climate change and energy debate around the $7 billion proposed project. The new report does not make any policy recommendations, but its conclusion that the environmental and climate change impacts are manageable could provide Mr. Obama political cover if he decides to approve the pipeline.
Although the study will help guide the president's decision, it does not make the politics any easier. Environmental advocates and landowners along the route have mounted spirited protests against the project, including a large demonstration in Washington last month. They say they view Keystone as a test of Mr. Obama's seriousness about addressing global warming.
The president faces equally strong pressure from industry, the Canadian government, most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, local officials and union leaders, who say the project will create thousands of jobs and provide a secure source of oil that will replace crude from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and other potentially hostile suppliers.
The draft report, which updates a 2011 study that essentially gave the project a green light, weighs the impacts of the pipeline, which would carry about 800,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil from tar sands formations in Alberta across the Great Plains to Gulf Coast refineries.
In January 2012 President Obama rejected the original route proposed by the pipeline operator, TransCanada, because of potential adverse impacts on sensitive grasslands and aquifers in Nebraska. The new environmental statement looks at a revised route submitted by TransCanada last spring.
The new impact statement says that extracting, shipping, refining and burning oil from the tar sands produces more climate-altering greenhouse gases than most conventional oil, but less than many of the project's critics claim. The State Department study says that tar sands oil produces 5 percent to 19 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than other crude, depending on what oil was compared and who performed the calculations.
It predicts that Canada and its oil industry partners will probably continue to develop the oil sands even if the Keystone XL pipeline is not built. It states that building or not building the pipeline will have no significant impact on demand for heavy crude in the United States.
And it says that alternate means of transporting the oil — rail, truck and barge — also have significant environmental and economic impacts, including higher costs, noise, traffic, air pollution and the possibility of spills. The study does not say that one method is better for the environment than another. It does say that a spill is more likely for rail transport, although the report says that the volume of oil spilled from a pipeline is likely to be greater.
Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, said the report was careful not to pre-empt policy decisions that Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will make on the pipeline. She said the report was designed to analyze technical issues and serve as the basis for public debate.
"I think it's premature at this point to try to come down with strong conclusions, and we want to make sure we have a lot of comments and a full public debate on the document," Ms. Jones said in a conference call with reporters.
Publication of the document next week starts a 45-day public comment period and then a protracted review before a final impact statement is issued, meaning a presidential decision on the project is still months away.
Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, an advocacy organization that is adamantly opposed to the pipeline, said her group had wanted a 120-day period for Nebraskans to be able to comment on the supplemental environmental report. She said 45 days was not enough time, especially because local cattle ranchers were in the middle of calving season.
Ms. Kleeb said that federal reviews of the pipeline have not yet addressed longstanding concerns about spills and the overall impact of Keystone XL on the environment.
She also disputed the conclusion that the oil sands would be exploited regardless of whether the Keystone XL pipeline is built.
"The State Department's assumption that tar sands development does not change with or without this pipeline is wrong and laughable," she said in an e-mail message. "Why would TransCanada spend billions on building the pipeline and millions on lobbying unless this piece of infrastructure is the — not a — but the linchpin for the expansion of tar sands?"
State environmental officials in Nebraska conducted a review of the revised route and said that the risks to the state's land and waters were relatively minor. Based on that report, Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, has voiced support for the pipeline and urged the Obama administration to approve it.
The American Petroleum Institute, a strong backer of the project, said the new report made the case for building the pipeline.
"No matter how many times KXL is reviewed, the result is the same: no significant environmental impact," said Marty Durbin, the institute's executive vice president. "The latest impact statement from the State Department puts this important, job-creating project one step closer to reality."
Dan Frosch contributed reporting from Denver.
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