TransCanada anticipated it would take seven to 12 months to get route approval from Nebraska authorities.
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“We’re not required to pause it based on an applicant’s request; there’s no legal basis to do that”, Kirby said, noting that “a lot of interagency work has gone into this to date”.
TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper said the company respects State’s decision, and it will continue to advocate for Keystone to administration officials.
It’s now unclear whether the State Department will agree to the request, which critics characterized an attempt to circumvent the White House until after the 2016 election.
They also say they would like to reach a final decision before President Obama leaves office in 2016.
Jack Cushman is a writer for InsideClimate News and author of “Keystone and Beyond: Tar Sands and the National Interest in the Era of Climate Change”.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday the Obama administration wants to “shield” the review process “from the political debate”. In January 2012, President Obama rejected the company’s initial application citing concerns over the pipeline’s potentially negative impact on Nebraska’s Sand Hills region. Critics oppose the concept of tapping the Alberta oil sands, saying it requires huge amounts of energy and water and increases greenhouse gas emissions. His potential Democratic successors have all expressed opposition. 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, Nebraska, where it meets up with other pipelines.
TransCanada head Russ Girling said the request had nothing to do with politics. They argue that pipelines are a safer method of transporting oil than trains, pointing to recent derailments on both sides of the border, including a 2013 disaster in Canada that killed 47 people.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts reiterated his support for Keystone in a statement issued by his spokesman Taylor Gage.
The Keystone Steele City pumping station, into which the planned Keystone XL pipeline is to connect to, is seen in Steele City, Neb., Tuesday, November 3, 2015. 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. Likewise, Obama’s administration, after seven years of delay, seemed to discover a newfound sense of urgency when faced with the prospect of letting the next president make the call. The pipeline was expected to bring about 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to U.S. refineries.
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Sanders, appearing at a rally at the U.S. Capitol sponsored by climate activists, said rejecting the pipeline would signal to the rest of the world that the United States was serious about addressing climate change. Harper was frustrated by Obama’s reluctance to approve the pipeline and the issue damaged U.S-Canada relations. Supporters maintain it will create jobs and reduce USA reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
