Bill Clinton: 'Embrace' Keystone XL

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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday the United States should "embrace" the Keystone XL pipeline, blaming builder TransCanada on delays.

"One of the most amazing things to me about this Keystone pipeline deal is that they ever filed that route in the first place since they could've gone around the Nebraska Sandhills and avoided most of the dangers, no matter how imagined, to the Ogallala [aquifer] with a different route, which I presume we'll get now, because the extra cost of running is infinitesimal compared to the revenue that will be generated over a long period of time," Politico quoted Clinton as saying at an Energy Department conference in National Harbor, Md.

"So, I think we should embrace it and develop a stakeholder-driven system of high standards for doing the work."

TransCanada said it will start construction on the section of Keystone XL stretching from Oklahoma to the Texas coast and reapply for a new permit for the rest of the project, Politico said.