Crapo: Administration Has No Excuse, Approve Keystone

Washington, D.C. - Today, the U.S. State Department released a final environmental analysis of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.  The report, like previous studies, shows that the pipeline would not cause a major expansion of production in the Canadian oil sands or contribute to increased greenhouse gas emissions.  Idaho Senator Mike Crapo has been a strong proponent of the project, pushing the administration to approve the pipeline for several years.?

"Achieving U.S. energy independence is a shared goal," Crapo said.  "The Keystone XL pipeline would be an economic boost, create jobs and will help reduce the U.S. reliance on foreign sources of oil, like those in the Middle East.  This pipeline, which has strong bipartisan support, has been delayed for far too long.  If the president is serious about an all-of-the-above energy strategy, as he indicated in his State of the Union Address earlier this week, he will approve this pipeline without further delay.  There are no more excuses."

In 2008, Canadian oil company TransCanada filed an application with the U.S. Department of State for the purpose of constructing and operating a pipeline to transport Canadian crude oil to facilities in the United States.  The Keystone XL project would be an extension of the existing Keystone pipeline that currently links Canadian sedimentary oil deposits in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.  TransCanada estimates that the pipeline would nearly double U.S. import capacity for Canadian oil sands crude while creating 20,000 direct jobs and spending $7 billion stimulating the economy.  The states along the pipeline would receive an estimated $5.2 billion in property taxes.