The move comes as the Obama administration increasingly appears likely to reject the pipeline permit application before leaving office in January 2017.
Advertisement
Girling also noted that during the seven years of delays on the pipeline’s process, production hasn’t disipated and it’s being transported by less reliable railroads and trucks.
“We will issue a response, but we’re going to continue our review process”, Trudeau told reporters. But she did indicate that State may be inclined to reject TransCanada and finish the review. The State Department estimates that the pipeline will lead to the release of between 1 million and 27 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday that “there’s reason to suspect that there may be politics at play” in TransCanada’s request.
But environmental groups argued that TransCanada was simply playing for time – and the hopes that might come with a new president.
“The president has worked hard to try to ensure that the eventual determination is one that is focused on the merits of the application”, Earnest added.
President Obama vetoed a Republican bill approving the pipeline in February. “To the extent that Keystone is critical for the expansion plans, then that keeps a few of that oil from getting to market, and does have climate consequences”. They also express concern that pipeline leaks could potentially pollute underground aquifers that are a critical source of water to farmers on the Great Plains.
He strongly suggested that the review, which has been widely expected to result in a rejection of the pipeline as soon as this month, remained on track.
“This project remains very much in demand by our customers, ‘ Girling said”. If a presidential permit is authorized, it would take another two to two and a half years to build the 1,779-mile Keystone XL from Alberta and across three states to Steele City, Neb., where it meets up with other pipelines.
While TransCanada Corp. has been cooling its heels on its Keystone XL proposal for the past six years, the oil pipeline business has been booming in the United States. Until recently, it would have been unimaginable for the Calgary, Alberta-based company to ask for a delay.
Kerry recently said Trudeau’s election victory would not influence the eventual USA decision on the pipeline.
“It is clear President Obama was going to deny the permit”, Hoeven said.
In the past year a global rout has slashed oil prices by more than 60 percent, prompting drillers to curtail spending and rein in new projects. But the 2012 law that gave him the power to do so has been challenged by landowners in court, preventing the project from moving forward within the state. John Hoeven (R) and Heidi Heitkamp (D) of North Dakota, issued statements Monday saying the administration had effectively killed the project.
More than 97,000 people have signed the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, committing to risk arrest in peaceful, dignified civil disobedience, if President Obama’s administration moves toward approving the Keystone XL pipeline. The suspension of the application could allow the company time to lobby strong opposition in the USA against the pipeline.
The Keystone pipeline system brings oil from Canada to the United States.
While the newly elected federal Liberal government in Canada, to be sworn in Wednesday, has supported Keystone XL, the provincial left-leaning new Democratic government in Alberta has opposed the project.
Advertisement
The Controversy: Refiners on the Gulf Coast want the line to supply the heavy oil they need and supplant uncertain supplies from Mexico and Venezuela.
