The Obama administration is turning down a request from TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL oil pipeline, to pause its review of the project. The refusal means that President Obama will make a decision on the pipeline before leaving office and not leave it up to his successor.
“We’ve told TransCanada that the review process will continue,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday, the day the State Department formally told TransCanada Corp. about the rejection.
“There’s no legal requirement to do that and a lot of interagency work has gone into this to date, to include interagency review and coordination, as well as significant review and coordination here,” Kirby said. “The secretary believes that it’s most appropriate to keep that process in place.”
A TransCanada spokesman said the company respects the State Department’s decision and it will continue to advocate for Keystone to administration officials.
On Monday, TransCanada petitioned for State to hold off on its review process which has taken seven years so far. The company and supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline have been frustrated by the drawn out review process.
The company said it wanted to pause the federal review process and wait until Nebraska regulators finished considering the pipeline’s route, a process that would have almost certainly pushed the federal decision into the next president’s term – a potential win for TransCanada if a Republican is elected.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the request “unusual” Tuesday and said that Obama would make a decision by the end of his term.
All Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election have promised to approve the pipeline, and all Democrats oppose it.
“We’ve told TransCanada that the review process will continue,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday, the day the State Department formally told TransCanada Corp. about the rejection.
“There’s no legal requirement to do that and a lot of interagency work has gone into this to date, to include interagency review and coordination, as well as significant review and coordination here,” Kirby said. “The secretary believes that it’s most appropriate to keep that process in place.”
A TransCanada spokesman said the company respects the State Department’s decision and it will continue to advocate for Keystone to administration officials.
On Monday, TransCanada petitioned for State to hold off on its review process which has taken seven years so far. The company and supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline have been frustrated by the drawn out review process.
The company said it wanted to pause the federal review process and wait until Nebraska regulators finished considering the pipeline’s route, a process that would have almost certainly pushed the federal decision into the next president’s term – a potential win for TransCanada if a Republican is elected.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the request “unusual” Tuesday and said that Obama would make a decision by the end of his term.
All Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election have promised to approve the pipeline, and all Democrats oppose it.