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U.S. to seek further comment on controversial oilsands pipeline extension
News Articles | Montreal Gazette | March 16, 2011
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OTTAWA — The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it will request another round of public comment on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal.
The public hearings on the 3,200-kilometre pipeline will likely take place in mid-April, U.S. officials said in a statement.
The pipeline started carrying bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to a hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, last month. A third phase of the project would extend the pipeline to Nederland, Texas, to connect the oilsands to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.
The State Department has the authority to grant a presidential permit because the pipeline would cross an international border.
According to the statement from the State Department, the public will have 45 days to comment on the supplemental draft environmental impact statement.
The State Department will issue a final statement, and seek further public comment before it makes a determination on “whether issuances of this permit is in the U.S. national interest.”
Officials said they expect to make that decision before the end of the year.
There have already been more than 20 public comment meetings along the pipeline’s route in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as in Washington, D.C., officials said.
The Keystone XL project has been in limbo since last July, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised concerns about greenhouse gas emissions associated with oilsands production and safety contingencies in the event of a spill along the pipeline’s route.
Environmental advocates celebrated the Tuesday announcement of the upcoming public hearings.
“We welcome the fact that the State Department has agreed to do a supplemental environmental impact statement of the proposed Keystone XL tarsands pipeline. This is a victory for the public given the many concerns that have been voiced regarding the environmental, health and safety impacts of the pipeline,” Liz Barratt-Brown, lawyer for Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a news release.
Barratt-Brown said her organization is concerned with increased greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, and human health and safety.
Meanwhile, an official from American Petroleum Institute, which represents more than 470 oil and natural gas companies, called the development “unwelcome news.”
“This much-studied and much-needed pipeline would provide a critical link to our largest energy supplier, Canada, and its vast resources of nearby and available crude oil,” said Jack Gerard, API president and CEO said in a news release. “It is past time for the administration to approve this important infrastructure investment.”
On March 3, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions from the Senate appropriations committee about whether she backs the controversial pipeline.
“I am generally supportive of receiving more oil from Canada. I am absolutely supportive of us doing more in energy efficiency and renewables and looking for clean ways to use our own resources as wel
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/seek+further+comment+controversial+oilsands+pipeline+extension/4445292/story.html#ixzz1Gn4sqJoU
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, pipeline, state department
