A permit for the Keystone XL pipeline has been officially denied by President Barack Obama. The Keystone XL pipeline was to transport oil from Alberta, Canada, south through the Great Plains states, ending in Texas. Its primary route was to travel across environmentally fragile areas, such as the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, though other routes were suggested.

The president’s decision falls in line with the State Department recommendation to reject the proposed pipeline. The State Department said it needed more time to study the proposed routes, both primary and alternate, and could not give its blessing to the proposal.

While ordinarily this would be a bit of a lame-duck excuse, not enough time was given to properly discuss the proposal. Congress, making a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, decided to set a deadline of 60 days. This legislative action forced the president to make an uninformed decision.

Decisions of this magnitude take time, but they also must be made with a certain rapidity. Hesitation could cost this country millions of barrels of oil and thousands of desperately needed jobs. Acting rashly could cause devastating repercussions environmentally, which could outweigh the economic benefits.

The president is entrusted to make policy decisions, particularly those that are international in character. By forcing the president to act on the Legislature’s time line, Congress was making a thinly veiled power grab. This attempt to force Obama to bend to their will was an unacceptable intrusion into the president’s powers and responsibilities.

If the president is forced to act before he is fully informed and prepared, he may make a decision he ordinarily would not. He made a wise decision to resist approving the pipeline, thereby protecting the United States from any unintended consequences until more information is known.

This does not mean the pipeline will never be built; it may be built after more careful consideration. By delaying approval of the pipeline, Obama is able to gather enough information to make the kind of informed decision we entrust our president to make.

Too much rides on it environmentally to simply push the pipeline through. We all remember the damage done by the Deep Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf in 2010, and the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska still haunts our nation’s collective memory. Decisions like this are larger than short-term job opportunities. They need to be handled with the appropriate care that one would handle any other permanent environmental decisions.

When policy moves too fast for adequate research and discussion, the whole country is at risk. Policy decisions of all kinds need to be given ample time to study the policy’s goals and effects. The quality of those policy decisions are of the utmost importance, at the expense of quantity. Our government owes us the best, even if it means delaying the construction of this pipeline so we can take care to protect our environment from harm.