Time added to comment on pipeline

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two more weeks have been added to the comment period for a draft environmental impact statement on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline.

The U.S. State Department has been holding hearings on TransCanada’s plan to build the pipeline from the tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta, to oil refineries in Oklahoma and Texas.

The pipeline would have an initial capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, with 200,000 barrels going to a refinery in Cushing, Okla., and the remainder to refineries in Texas. Adding pumping capacity later could boost capacity to 900,000 barrels per day.

The project includes 1,380 miles of new pipeline in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas and would incorporate part of another TransCanada pipeline under construction across Kansas.

TransCanada already is building another pipeline through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska to deliver Canadian oil to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.

The comment period on the Keystone XL pipeline now will end on July 2 instead of June 16, a department official said.

The department also added two public meetings on the pipeline — one in Houston on June 18, and another in Washington, D.C., on June 29.

The U.S. State Department has to approve plans for the pipeline because it crosses an international border.

Tony Iallonardo, a National Wildlife Federation spokesman, said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may have influenced the decision and is a “sign that they’re listening.”

TransCanada spokesman Jim Prescott said the company is confident the State Department will eventually determine the pipeline is “in the national interest.”

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