By Ayesha Rascoe
WASHINGTON |Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:13pm EDT
(Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislationthat would set a firm deadline for the Obama administration to decidethe fate of a proposed $7 billion pipeline that would transport Canadianoil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The House voted 279-147 infavor of the bill that would force the State Department to approve ordeny a permit for TransCanada's planned Keystone XL pipeline by November1.
Republican Congressman EdWhitfield said the bill would cut through the "endless delays" that haveheld up the pipeline for nearly three years.
"It's time to get moving on reducing energy prices," Whitfield said.
Supportersof the pipeline, which would eventually carry 700,000 barrels of crudeper day from Alberta to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, say the projectwould create jobs and boost U.S. energy security by providing a safesource of crude from a stable U.S. ally.
Despiteits passage in the House, the bill still faces an uphill battle tobecome law, with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House.
KeystoneXL, which requires approval from the State Department because itcrosses the Canada-U.S. border, has attracted strong opposition fromgreen groups that complain about the environmental impacts of thepipeline and the carbon-intensive nature of oil sands production.
Recentleaks from Exxon Mobil's Silvertip oil pipeline and TransCanada'sexisting Keystone pipeline have also raised concerns on pipeline safetyand whether oil sands crude is more corrosive than conventional crudeoil.
The House vote came on theone-year anniversary of a rupture on an Enbridge pipeline that spilledabout 19,500 barrels of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
TheWhite House came out against the legislation on Monday, calling it"unnecessary" because the State Department has already committed towrapping up the permitting process by the end of the year.
Thebill "could prevent the thorough consideration of complex issues whichcould have serious security, safety, environmental, and otherramifications," the White House said in a statement.
Followingcomplaints from the Environmental Protection Agency about its initialenvironmental analysis, the State Department completed a supplementalreview, delaying the pipeline project.
Still,the department reiterated its commitment to its year-end deadline lastweek, saying it will issue a final environmental review of the pipelinein August.
(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid and Lisa Shumaker)
https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/26/us-house-keystone-deadline-idUSTRE76P7GX20110726?feedType=RSS&feedName=GCA-GreenBusiness&rpc=43
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