Government Finds New Ways to Delay Domestic Energy Production
18th August 2012
Despite nearly four years of environmental study and two separate permit applications, TransCanada has been unable to lay a single foot of pipe for the Keystone XL project in the United States. The delay in this project has spanned the publication of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a Final Environmental Impact Statement, no fewer than five national comment periods and the input of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Now, as the State Department closes the latest of these public comment periods – this one asking Americans what the scope of its newest environmental review of the project should be – we are about to start this entire process all over again. The delays and forced route changes that TransCanada has been forced to endure have added more than a billion dollars to the cost of the project, suspended tens of thousands of high paying jobs, delayed relief at the pump for millions of American drivers and prevented the project from pumping more than $20 billion into the U.S. economy.
Your tax dollars at work.