President Obama Rejects Keystone Pipeline -

On November 6, President Obama announced his decision to deny TransCanada’s application for approval to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. This decision comes over seven years after TransCanada filed its application and after many significant events in 2015 that culminated in President Obama’s announcement. Although the application denial is a significant setback for the pipeline, it does not necessarily mean that the project will never be approved.

As reported in the February edition of this newsletter, the U.S. Congress passed a bill in January 2015 to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline, which would span nearly 1,200 miles from Canada to the United States, ran into a significant obstacle, however, when President Obama vetoed the bill in February 2015. He vetoed the bill because “this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest[.]” Supporters of the pipeline in Congress failed to collect enough votes to override the veto. President Obama’s veto did not terminate TransCanada’s application. Instead, it maintained the authority of President Obama—not Congress—to authorize the pipeline.