TORONTO – The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline submitted on Thursday a new presidential permit application to the U.S. Department of State for approval.
The project would move 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The application by TransCanada comes after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order earlier this week to expedite the project.
Trump directed the State Department and other agencies to make a decision within 60 days of a final application. He also declared that a 2014 environmental study satisfies required reviews under environmental and endangered species laws.
But Trump has also made a new requirement for the pipeline to be made with American steel and fabricated in the United States.
“We’re gonna make that pipe right here,” Trump said to Republicans in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada made no mention of using American materials in a statement Thursday but stressed the project would create thousands of American jobs.
“KXL will benefit American workers, their families and the communities they live in as well as the U.S. economy,” the company said. A spokesman for TransCanada declined to release the application.
Asked about possible buy American requirements, TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said they know the U.S. Secretary of Commerce will come up with a plan to implement Trump’s executive order.
“We will need time to review and analyze the plan when it is released to determine its impact to KXL,” Cunha said in an email.
Former President Barack Obama rejected Keystone XL in 2015, saying it would undercut efforts to cinch a global climate change deal in his environmental agenda.
That didn’t go over well in Canada which needs infrastructure to export its growing oil sands production. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world and is the United States’ largest supplier of foreign oil. Ninety-seven percent of Canada’s oil exports go to the U.S.
Keystone XL would carry more than one-fifth of the oil Canada exports to the United States.
ROB GILLIES
