Backers of the Keystone XL Pipeline are not discouraged by the Nov. 18 Senate defeat of a bill to allow the project to proceed. They expect the Republican majority in the next Congress to vote for approval. Still, the controversial project has some hurdles to clear.
TransCanada Corp. proposed the 1,179-mile, $8-billion KXL project in 2005 to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta, to a connection in Nebraska with its existing Keystone Pipeline system, which delivers Canadian heavy oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast. In January 2014, the environmental impact statement for the project concluded that it probably would not significantly increase carbon emissions.