House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) today credited an August sit-in organized by environmentalists with driving President Obama's decision to deny a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Upton's comments largely reiterated what his party has frequently charged since Obama first delayed a decision on the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline: that the president acted under pressure from his green base, the leaders of which were threatening to pull support from his re-election bid. But his specific invocation of last year's late-summer protests against the XL link gave a nod to the success of the grass-roots, outside-the-Beltway tactics that conservationists employed to great effect in forcing Obama's hand.

"Let's remember why he made the decision he did, in all likelihood," Upton said during an interview with CNBC, noting that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had said in the fall of 2010 that she was "inclined to" approve the pipeline hotly sought by the oil industry and the GOP.

"Then we had a huge protest out at Lafayette Park in the fall," Upton added, referring to the Washington, D.C., demonstrations organized by climate activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben in September and again in November (Greenwire, Aug. 19, 2011). "The message was, 'Mr. President, if you approve this pipeline, we're going to be sitting on our hands in the election.' Within a couple of days, the president said, 'We're going to punt until after the election.'"

Obama's move to delay a permit for Keystone XL, a multibillion-dollar project that would nearly double U.S. imports of emissions-heavy Canadian oil-sands crude, came several days after the second round of protests spearheaded by McKibben's group and rallied around by other top green organizations (E&ENews PM, Nov. 10, 2011).

In explaining that November delay, as well as a January denial of Keystone XL's permit based on a deadline forced by congressional Republicans, the White House portrayed the lack of a consensus pipeline route through Nebraska as its primary motivation for not acting. Even as Nebraska environmental regulators begin assessing a proposed new path for the XL line, the administration continued to point to the Cornhusker State in its veto threat against a House-passed transportation bill that contained language fast-tracking the project (E&ENews PM, April 17).