John Kerry may have lost the U.S. Presidential election in 2004, but the Secretary of State has been tasked with making a decision that the White House had previously stated would be made by the President.

Last week in Washington, a White House aide indicated that a decision on TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline was in the domain of the State Department and not President Obama.

“The reality is that it’s the State Department [that must make the decision on whether to approve the project] and they will pursue the process under the Executive Order to make a national interest determination,” Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the President for energy and climate change, said during a press event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

She added that the State Department’s decision would be based on a soon-to-be released Environmental Impact Statement, which will involve an open and transparent process. “Beyond that I would direct questions [on the Keystone XL project] to the State Department,” Zichal said.

Her statement indicates a reversal for the White House, which previously, in November 2011, stated that President Obama would make the ultimate decision on the controversial pipeline.

While speaking to KETV in Omaha, Nebraska, President Obama said, “[The State Department] will be giving me a report over the next several months and…my general attitude is, what is best for the American people? What’s best for our economy both short-term and long-term? But also, what’s best for the health of the American people?...and that’s how I’ll be measuring these recommendations when they come to me.”

While the President may be taking a less public role in the Keystone XL decision, Zichal stated that energy will be one of the centerpieces for his agenda as he begins his second term in office.

“Earlier this month in his State of the Union, you heard President Obama speak directly to some of its [energy] challenges and make clear his priorities for energy and climate policy in his second term. But that was just the beginning of the conversation, and in the weeks and months ahead you’ll hear more from the President as he makes the case for new action on these issues,” she said.

The President’s case will begin by seeking to create jobs in energy to rebuild the economy. Zichal noted that seven of the ten states that produce the most energy in the U.S. currently have unemployment rates lower than the national average. In addition, the rebirth of the American manufacturing sector through the development of affordable natural gas has led to the creation of about 500,000 jobs in the past three years.

“Right now the abundance of affordable natural gas is supporting a new dawn in American manufacturing. The fact that natural gas prices in the United States are the lowest in the world makes America a much more attractive place to do business,” she said.

While the administration will continue to support the development of domestic supplies of oil and gas, Zichael said that it will also continue to institute more stringent rules for this development, specifically for hydraulic fracturing, well integrity and wastewater management.

At the same time, the administration will also continue to encourage the development of clean energy by seeking to double the amount of power the country generates from wind, solar and geothermal sources by the end of this decade.

“It’s an ambitious yet achievable goal, and in order to meet our target we need Congress to step up. We need to create more certainty in the tax code instead of perpetuating the cycle of one-year and two-year policies that hinder stable, long-term growth. That’s why the President supports making the renewable energy production tax credit permanent and refundable,” she said.

The second point of the President’s energy agenda focuses on improved domestic energy security by reducing both the country’s dependence on imported oil as well as reducing its consumption.

This policy would continue the President’s efforts from his first term when the U.S. reduced its oil imports by more than 3.5 million barrels and created new fuel efficiency standards for automobiles that will mandate an equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by 2025.

While these efforts have helped, Zichal said that it was ultimately in the country’s best interests to shift its vehicles off of oil to new fuels. To accomplish this, President Obama has proposed an energy security trust that would use $2 billion of the revenues generated from oil and gas development over the next decade to fund research into various cost-effective transportation technologies, including advanced batteries, homegrown biofuels and natural gas.

“Funding for the energy security trust would be stable and guaranteed and therefore help spark innovation and breakthroughs in technologies that have the greatest potential to displace oil in transportation and advance energy security,” she said.

President Obama’s third point of his energy policy centered on instituting a market-based solution to climate change, which Zichal pointedly noted would first focus on legislative action through Congress; but if necessary, would focus on executive actions to reduce carbon emissions and increase the transition to “more sustainable sources of energy.”

“From our vantage point following the State of the Union address, the President’s expectations of Congress couldn’t be clearer, and now it’s ultimately up to them to choose which path we take.

“I also want to make clear that response to climate change can’t be a Washington-centric solution. One of our priorities moving forward will be to engage with state and local officials as well as leaders in the private sector so that we can leverage our collective resources to keep moving forward,” she said.

Zachal declined to state a timeframe for Congressional action before the President would seek to institute policies on his own, but said that such regulatory actions could be used outside of the Environmental Protection Agency, while noting efforts by the Department of Interior and Department of Energy to increase the use of renewables and the development of new energy sources.

“This administration as a whole has demonstrated time and time again our ability to think creatively about our existing authorities and use them. We’ve done very big, bold things with the Clean Air Act and things that I think a lot of people didn’t even know would be possible: doubling fuel efficiency by 2025, the mercury standard for coal plants. These were done after literally decades of inaction in the face of a lot of naysayers, but we did get them done. I’m really confident that those actions and activities are going to provide a strong foundation as we look towards the future,” she said.

Contact the author, Frank Nieto, at fnieto@hartenergy.com