Suspend application review, Keystone builder urges U.S.

TORONTO — TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has asked the U.S. State Department to pause its review of the project.

TransCanada said Monday that it had sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry requesting that the State Department suspend its review of the pipeline application. The pipeline company said such a suspension would be appropriate while it works with Nebraska authorities for approval of its preferred route through the state, which is facing legal challenges in state courts.

TransCanada expected that it would take seven to 12 months to get route approval from Nebraska authorities.

The move comes as President Barack Obama’s administration was widely expected to reject the application.

“We have just received TransCanada’s letter to Secretary Kerry and are reviewing it. In the meantime, consideration under the executive order continues,” State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

The White House declined to comment, referring all questions to the State Department.

The State Department review is mandated as part of the application process because the pipeline crosses an international border. The State Department does not have to grant TransCanada’s request for a pause in the review process and instead can continue the review process.

Ahead of TransCanada’s announcement Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama intended to make a decision on the pipeline before his presidency ends in January 2017, although he declined to elaborate on the timeline. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her main challengers for the Democratic presidential nomination are already on record as opposing it. All of the leading Republican presidential candidates support it.

Some pipeline opponents contend that TransCanada hopes to delay the review process in hopes that a more sympathetic Republican administration will move into the White House in 2017.

TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper denied that the request for a pause in the review has anything to do with an expected rejection of the pipeline application by the Obama administration but acknowledged that company personnel “have been hearing since February the same rumors that a denial or a decision is imminent.”

For seven years, the fate of the 1,179-mile pipeline has languished amid debates over climate change and the intensive process of extracting Alberta’s oil and U.S. energy security.

The Canada-to-Texas pipeline has long been a flash point in the U.S. debate over climate change. Critics oppose the concept of tapping the Alberta oil sands, saying it requires huge amounts of energy and water and increases greenhouse gas emissions. They also express concern that pipeline leaks could pollute underground aquifers that are a critical source of water to farmers on the Great Plains. The pipeline would carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

“The route in Nebraska has been uncertain for years; the only difference now is Trans Canada knows they are about to have their permit rejected so they are scrambling,” said Jane Kleeb, executive director of the group Bold Nebraska, which opposes the pipeline project. “President Obama can end all of this uncertainty with a stroke of a pen. It is time to reject and give farmers, ranchers and tribal nations peace of mind that their land and water is protected from this risky pipeline.”

Pipeline supporters maintain it will create jobs and boost energy independence. They also said pipelines are a safer method of transporting oil than trains, pointing to recent cases of oil train derailments.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts reiterated his support for Keystone in a statement issued by his spokesman Taylor Gage.

“The Governor has been clear … that it will be the safest pipeline built yet in our state, and that it will bring good-paying jobs and property tax revenue to Nebraska’s counties,” it said.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said it was “unfortunate” that TransCanada “has been forced to delay the project further.”

He said it’s “clear” that Obama intends to deny the pipeline permit, which Hoeven claimed would have “a chilling effect on the willingness of other companies to invest in important energy infrastructure projects in the United States.”

Delays in approving the pipeline have caused friction between the U.S. and the outgoing Canadian Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Although incoming Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will be sworn in Wednesday, supports Keystone, he said relations with the U.S. should not hinge on the project.

Canada needs infrastructure in place to export its growing oil sands production. Canada relies on the U.S. for 97 percent of its energy exports. Alberta has the world’s third largest oil reserves, with 170 billion barrels of proven reserves.