If the U.S. State Department process is suspended for long enough, a more pipeline-friendly Republican may be in the White House by the time the review is complete.
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On Monday, TransCanada asked the U.S. State Department to suspend review of its controversial Alberta-to-Nebraska pipeline in the latest episode of a six-year drama that has seen as many as five environmental reviews, numerous legal challenges and a rejection in 2012 by President Barack Obama.
Earnest countered on Tuesday by saying that “there’s probably no infrastructure project in the history of the United States that’s been as politicized as this one, although I wasn’t around for the intercontinental railroad”.
The 1,200-mile (2,000-km) pipeline would help link Canada’s heavy oil fields to USA refineries.
The second argument, Jaccard said, is that the existence of the Keystone XL project shows that it is needed to expand tar sands development and production, and if the project is delayed or cancelled, a few tar sands won’t get to market, preventing a few carbon from being burned. “In order to allow time for certainty regarding the Nebraska route, TransCanada requests that the State Department pause in its review of the Presidential Permit application for Keystone XL”.
President Obama vetoed a Republican bill approving the pipeline in February.
While the company has found reliable resistance in Nebraska, the request for delay has been widely interpreted as a strategic reaction to what TransCanada saw to be thinning political support for the project.
The Keystone pipeline system brings oil from Canada to the United States. But Republicans insist that it will create jobs and enhance USA energy security.
Last week, Houston-based pipeline company Enterprise Product Partners said it would have US$7.8 billion of major capital projects ready by the end of 2017.
Environmental activists, including top Democratic donors, have spent heavily in hopes of defeating the project, which they say would drastically increase emissions blamed for global warming.
Meanwhile, other export pipeline proposals including TransCanada’s Energy East and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway look no closer to getting approved. Now TransCanada has requested a more formal pause for perhaps as long as year or more, ostensibly to settle a question about the path of the pipeline.
After enduring seven years of delay and regulatory chicanery, the folks at Transcanada had evidently concluded that President Obama would soon decide that the pipeline is not in the national interest due to his climate concerns.
“After almost seven years of trying to force the President’s hand to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada is now desperately trying to block President Obama from even making a decision at all”, Elijah Zarlin, director of the CREDO Climate Campaigns, said in a statement.
TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling has said access to the Gulf of Mexico is too important for the company to back down from its planned route, assuming it still has the support of the U.S. shipping industry, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Keystone XL pipeline would run through Baker, Montana, where American-produced Bakken light crude oil from the Williston Basin of Montana and North Dakota would be added.
Trudeau will be sworn in Wednesday as the 23rd prime minister and his newly appointed cabinet can expect to begin fielding pipeline calls nearly immediately.
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Keystone XL lost one of its staunchest supporters when Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s conservative party was defeated in last month’s parliamentary elections. TransCanada’s decision to seek a suspension of its permit to build the pipeline spurred speculation.
