The U.S. State Department has said that next month it would post its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline.
The U.S. State Department has said that next month it would post its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline.
Federal agencies will then have 90 days to comment on the EIS before the State Department makes its determination by year-end on whether to issue a Presidential permit so that the project can proceed, according to a report by The Hill.
One of the key issues that the EIS is assessing is pipeline safety.
“Pipeline safety is something that has concerned us from the very start of the process, and I think rightly so,” said David Clune, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. “This is an important issue and something we’ve spent a lot of time examining.”
The Keystone XL pipeline would bring crude oil from Alberta, Canada to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.