The State Department said Tuesday that even though TransCanada has asked the Obama administration to “pause” its review of the Keystone XL pipeline, State is continuing its review at this point.
“TransCanada has not withdrawn their permit application,” said State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.
“In their letter to Secretary [John] Kerry, they requested a pause in the review process,” she told reporters. “We have received their letter to Secretary Kerry, we’re in the process of sending a response.”
“Our review process is ongoing, so at this stage, we’ve received the letter, we will issue a response, but we’re going to our review process,” she added.
Trudeau refused to say explicitly whether that meant State would ultimately accept or reject TransCanada’s request for a “pause,” and didn’t say exactly when State would reply to the company’s request. But she did indicate that State may be inclined to reject TransCanada and finish the review.
“We’d like to finish this review process as swiftly as possible, we have a commitment to do that and we’re going to continue our review,” she said.
TransCanada on Monday asked for the pause, which would further delay a review process that has taken about seven years, and has become highly politicized. The company told Kerry that it would instead try to win approval of the project in Nebraska.
