Pro-Keystone XL ad airs on White House site

Advocates of the Keystone XL oil pipeline were briefly front and center Thursday on the White House’s website.

{mosads}An ad from the prominent oil and gas lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, aired right before the live video stream of President Obama’s virtual town hall about Hispanic healthcare enrollment. That stream was embedded on the White House website, The Associated Press reports. 

Those watching the town hall through www.whitehouse.gov were shown the American Petroleum Institute ad, calling on Obama to approve the $5.4 billion project, which would carry crude from Alberta, Canada’s oil sands to Gulf refineries.

The oil and gas lobby told AP it was a coincidence that the ad aired on the White House website.

The Obama administration is conducting a review to determine whether the pipeline is in the national interest. Once that determination is made, President Obama will have the final say on whether to approve the project.