Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester wrote a letter to TransCanada CEO Russ Girling Monday encouraging his company to break ground on the Montana portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.
TransCanada announced earlier in the day that it would begin work on the segment of the Keystone between Cushing, Okla., and the Gulf of Mexico even though it is still waiting for federal approval to build the entire pipeline, since it crosses the U.S border into the Alberta tar sands.
President Barack Obama rejected the Calgary-based company’s larger project, arguing that uncertainty over Nebraska’s portion of the route did not allow enough time for a comprehensive review.
But TransCanada doesn’t need federal approval to cross state lines and the senators encouraged the company to move forward on the section of pipeline that crosses Montana. In a letter to Girling, the senators wrote:
We applaud TransCanada’s decision today to move forward on initial segments of the Keystone XL pipeline in the southern part of the United States. As you begin this process, we encourage you to carefully consider the opportunity to bring Montana oil online as soon as possible as well.
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