Keystone XL Pipeline General Overview
The Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed 1,179-mile (1,897 km), 36-inch-diameter crude oil pipeline beginning in Hardisty, Alberta and extending south to Steele City, Nebraska. This pipeline is a critical infrastructure project for the energy security of the United States and for strengthening the American economy. Along with transporting crude oil from Canada, the Keystone XL pipeline will also support the significant growth of crude oil production in the United States from producers such as Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and North Dakota. This pipeline will allow American oil producers more access to the large refining markets found in the American Midwest and along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
In May 2012, TransCanada filed a new application for a Presidential Permit with the U.S. Department of State, a requirement for building any cross-border pipeline. More recently, a Supplemental Environmental Report was submitted to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality on September 5, 2012 detailing a preferred alternative route for Keystone XL in Nebraska. This revised route was created to minimize disturbance of land, water resources and special areas in the state. With the re-route in Nebraska currently underway, and an anticipated decision on the Presidential Permit in the first quarter of 2013, Keystone XL has a projected in-service date of 2015.
The pipeline will have capacity to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast and Midwest refineries, reducing American dependence on oil from Venezuela and the Middle East by up to 40 percent.
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