Obama rejects Keystone pipeline
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- President Obama rejected TransCanada Corp.'s application for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the White House said Wednesday.
The State Department says it has not had enough time to assess whether the project, which would run through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, is in the national interest. The State Department says it wants to see an assessment of alternative pipeline routes that would avoid the sensitive terrain.
Obama said his decision to deny the pipeline is due to a deadline imposed by Republicans in Congress.
"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," the president said in a statement Wednesday.
"In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security -- including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf of Mexico -- even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas."
TransCanada will be able to file another application for a permit for the pipeline, which would run from Alberta, Canada, to Texas.
A measure signed in December that extended taxpayer benefits gave the president until Feb. 21 to make a decision on Keystone. Republican leaders support the pipeline, saying it would reduce dependence on Middle East oil and create U.S. jobs. Environmentalists, critical of the Alberta oil sands industry, have been vocal in their opposition to the pipeline.
2nd Democrat enters Wis. recall election
MADISON, Wis., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A second Democrat announced her candidacy Wednesday in the campaign to recall and replace Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Kathleen Falk is the former executive of Dane County, an overwhelmingly Democratic area that includes the state capital, Madison. In a YouTube clip on her Web site, she attacked Walker's collective bargaining law for state employees and blamed him for the loss of jobs in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
"You and I both know things aren't working here," she said. "We can change that and we must. We can't wait three more years to fix what's wrong."
State Sen. Tim Cullen of Janesville has also said he is running, meaning a Democratic primary is likely. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and former U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis., are believed to be considering entering the race.
Falk has made two previous bids for statewide office. In 2002, she was defeated in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and in 2006 she beat an incumbent attorney general in the primary and lost the general election.
Democrats submitted petitions containing more than a million signatures Tuesday to recall Walker, more than twice the number needed though they have yet be certified. Petitions also were filed seeking to recall Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators.
If a primary is needed, it would take place 60 day after the petitions are certified, with the general election to follow four weeks later.
Last year, Democratic state senators fled the state in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid a vote on the bill stripping public employee unions of collective bargaining rights.
Gingrich says he paid 31 percent in taxes
COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Newt Gingrich, campaigning in South Carolina, said Wednesday his effective tax rate last year was 31 percent, more than double what Mitt Romney paid.
Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, told reporters he plans to release his 2011 tax returns Thursday, NBC News reported. He said the documents will show he paid 31 percent of his income last year in taxes.
While Romney has declined to release his returns, he said he paid about 15 percent last year. Most of his income comes from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate than earned income.
The former Massachusetts governor has said he will release his return in April if he has the Republican presidential nomination locked in by then.
Gingrich spoke to a crowd of about 150 people in Winnsboro, S.C.
"We are going to name our flat tax the Mitt Romney 15 percent flat tax," Gingrich said. "My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes, but to let everyone pay Romney's rate."
Romney, who finished in the Iowa caucuses only a few votes ahead of former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and won handily in New Hampshire, continues to lead in the polls for Saturday's Republican primary. Gingrich is trying to convince conservative voters to pick him as the alternative.
Mild winter does not bode well for apples
LONDON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A mild British winter will mean a bad apple harvest and increased prices for the fruit in supermarkets, the Royal Horticultural Society said.
Most fruit trees require a period of cold weather to end their dormancy and promote spring growth, the society said, but the winter has been so mild many trees may fail to produce fruit.
The warm weather, combined with a drought in the British Southeast and Midlands, could push up fruit prices across the country, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.
In addition to apples, blackcurrents and cherries require the chilling effect of a cold winter to produce fruit.
Jim Arbury of the horticultural society recommended covering trees and bushes that blossom early because of the mild conditions to protect them from possible subsequent frost.
"But changing weather conditions is the challenge of gardening that gardeners have to accept," Arbury said. "No matter how much we tend our plants and control pests and diseases we are still so dependent on the weather for abundant crops."
