TransCanada requests State Department pause review of Keystone XL pipeline

The project has had little support from the Obama administration in the past.

The United States says it will carry on with its review of the controversial cross-border Keystone XL oil pipeline project despite a request from builder TransCanada for a pause in the process.

Girling says it was the right thing to do so that any changes that are made to the pipeline’s route are incorporated into a final decision in Washington.

“Advocates on both sides of this issue have politicized this particular infrastructure project”, Earnest said, adding that “there’s probably no infrastructure project in the history of the United States that’s been as politicized as this one”.

Obama has said he expects to issue his final decision on Keystone before he leaves office in January 2017, and TransCanada evidently is concerned that he will reject the pipeline, given his growing skepticism about its purported value. “Our focus isn’t on the political machinations of what this president may or may not do or who may be in office a year from now”.

Asked if TransCanada was asking for a delay because of concerns Obama may block the pipeline, TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper said the company was not going to speculate on what the decision may be or when it may come.

The State Department, which decides whether to approve such cross-border enterprises, said that on November 2 it received a letter from TransCanada.

“The costly delay has prevented the company from proceeding on a new pipeline that would have brought oil from Canada and the Bakken to US refineries and jobs and revenue to local communities”, said Hoeven.

“I don’t see any political upside for the Obama administration in accepting the request for delay, especially with all the Democratic candidates coming out against Keystone”, Matthew Hoffman, a political science professor who studies environmental governance at the University of Toronto, said. He said it was important to consider what was motivating TransCanada’s request.

A few suggest that falling oil prices may be influencing TransCanada’s decisions.

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.

The president has increasingly signaled the $8 billion pipeline may not be approved.

Environmental groups say the pipeline will also increase the likelihood of disastrous oil spill accidents, escalate water waste and pollution, and hasten deforestation. The State Department does not have to grant TransCanada’s request for a pause in the review and instead can continue the process.

But if Democrats take the White House, the story would likely be different.

The Court Case: Opposition in Nebraska has been one of several major hurdles facing the Keystone XL project.

“It isn’t a distraction – it’s a fundamental litmus test of your commitment to battle climate change”, Sanders tweeted.

In Canada, however, federal support of the project remains strong. He said the strategy was practical for the government of Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also a Keystone supporter. “It’s time for the current umpire, President Obama, to reject this project once and for all”, environmental activist Bill McKibben, co-founder of the group 350.org, told the AP news agency. Our leaders are being laggards.