The US Senate has rejected a bill to accelerate the approval the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, after the House of Representatives adopted the bill on 13 November 2014. The Obama administration has been supporting the project for six years, but the highly controversial project has been delayed. Republicans plan to reintroduce the bill after taking control of the two houses of the Congress in January 2015.
A law allowing the construction of the project was overturned by a Nebraska court in February 2014. The Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed 1,897 km crude oil pipeline beginning in Hardisty, Alberta (Canada), and extending south to Steele City, Nebraska (United States). A Nebraska law was passed in 2012 to allow the state governor to approve the pipeline route through Nebraska despite landowners' denial; the route was approved in January 2013, paving the way for a commissioning of the pipeline in 2015. Some of the landowners filed a lawsuit, claiming that this decision should have been made by the Public Service Commission, and received support from the court. The Nebraska commission is now assessing whether or not to approve or deny a pipeline route application.
Source: Transcanada