TransCanada: Clock ticking on Keystone XL

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Executives at TransCanada said they would continue working with U.S. officials on getting the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline eventually built.

The Obama administration announced Thursday it would delay a final decision on a permit for the pipeline until 2013, after the U.S. presidential election.

Russ Girling, president and CEO of TransCanada, said that although his company had already studied 14 different routes for the project, they would soon meet with the U.S. Department of State on additional options.

"We remain confident Keystone XL will ultimately be approved," said Girling. "This project is too important to the U.S. economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed."

Keystone XL will ship heavy crude oil from Canadian oil sands projects to the U.S. Gulf Coast where refineries have been processing heavy crude from Latin America for several years.

But the proposed 1,700-mile route has stirred up nationwide opposition in the United States, particularly in Nebraska where opponents say it poses too much of a threat to the Ogallala aquifer.

"Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood," Obama said.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a written statement the approval process should have been completed long ago. "Reviewing pipeline permits is usually a technical process," Lugar said, adding, "It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that delay of Keystone XL comes at a time when the White House was under tremendous political pressure."

Girling said TransCanada was prepared to make Keystone XL "the safest pipeline ever built" but urged the United States to make up its mind quickly so that oil shippers and refiners could make their long-term supply plans.

"If Keystone XL is continually delayed, these refiners may have to look for other ways of getting the oil they need," he said. "Oil sands producers face the same dilemma -- how to get their crude oil to the Gulf Coast."