US review gives boost to Keystone pipeline

Demonstrators carry a replica of a pipeline during a march against the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington, February 17, 2013.The TransCanada Corp pipeline would link the oil sands of northern Alberta, the world's third largest crude resource, to refineries and ports in Texas. Environmentalists say approval of the pipeline will encourage more development in the oil sands, where extraction is carbon intensive, leading to greater greenhouse gas emissions.

Keystone pipeline: State Department to open public comment on environmental assessment

The Keystone XL oil pipeline got a boost on Friday when the US State Department said the project would not likely change the rate at which Canada's oil sands are developed, discounting fears it would be responsible for additional greenhouse gas emissions.

The report is far from the last word on Keystone. The environmental assessment must be finalized after the public comment, Reuters reported.

Then federal agencies will have 90 days to work with the State Department to determine whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

TransCanada's proposed project is "unlikely to have a substantial impact" on development of Alberta's oil sands, the world's third-richest oil deposit, the Department said in a long-awaited report of more than 2000 pages.

It said the pipeline would result in "no substantial change in global greenhouse gas emissions."

The…

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