TransCanada Asks U.S. To Pause Keystone XL Review

(RTTNews) - TransCanada Corp. (TRP, TRP.TO) announced it has sent a letter to Secretary John Kerry of the U.S. State Department asking the Department to pause its review of the Presidential Permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline. The company believes there is sound precedent for making this request.

"We are asking State to pause its review of Keystone XL based on the fact that we have applied to the Nebraska Public Service Commission for approval of its preferred route in the state," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer.

"I note that when the status of the Nebraska pipeline route was challenged last year, the State Department found it appropriate to suspend its review until that dispute was resolved. We feel under the current circumstances a similar suspension would be appropriate," said Russ Girling.

Girling adds TransCanada made the decision to apply to the Nebraska Public Service Commission or PSC following legal challenges in the state over the constitutionality of the statute under which Governor Heineman approved the route in 2013.

It is anticipated that route approval by the PSC would take seven to 12 months to complete.

Keystone XL is an $8 billion infrastructure project that would carry U.S. Bakken crude and Canadian oil to U.S. refineries, pushing out the millions of barrels of foreign oil imported every day. According to the Department of State, the project would create over 40,000 jobs and inject millions of dollars of tax revenue into communities along the pipeline's route.