Even with Denali done, the $32-billion to $41-billion Alaska Pipeline Project funded by TransCanada and Exxon Mobil—running on a nearly identical line with Denali—is still in the works. Terry Cunha, project spokesperson, says their project isn’t impacted by the Denali decision, “none whatsoever.”

TransCanada is currently in “ongoing discussions with potential customers” and is moving forward toward filing its application to FERC in October 2012.

An Imperial Oil-proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project, which strings a natural gas pipeline from the upper-reaches of the Northwest Territories, Canada, 745 miles south (completely in Canada) into the tip of Northern Alberta, is in a separate basin from Denali and the TransCanada project, but the challenges there are no different.

Pius Rolheiser, Imperial Oil spokesperson, says they must also prove “competitive on a supply-cost basis with other sources of supply in the North American market, including shale gas, LNG, Alaska gas and other potential sources.”