CALGARY, Alberta, June 3 (UPI) -- TransCanada Corp. said it has gone beyond what's required for crude oil pipelines in the United States as it lobbies for its Keystone XL line.
TransCanada is pushing for a $13.3 billion extension to its Keystone Express oil pipeline that would travel from Canada to Texas. The project is scrutinized by regulators and environmentalists who worry about the potential for spills and uncertainty about the safety of transiting oil from tar sands in Canada.
The company has made 57 changes to its original plans. Alex Pourbaix, the company's top pipeline executive, told Bloomberg News those modifications should be sufficient.
"We have already gone far beyond the requirements of any other crude-oil pipeline in the U.S.," he said. "Those 57 conditions really do represent the additional gives that we've been willing to give to landowners and stakeholders with respect to that pipeline."
A group of 34 U.S. Senate Democrats, in a letter to the U.S. State Department, called for an examination of potential emissions, the need for additional capacity and the potential for pipeline degradation associated with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, among other things.
There have already been 11 spills in the existing route, including a leak in Kansas earlier this week.
