Daines Applauds TransCananda Commitment to Keystone XL Pipeline

U.S. SENATE — Senator Steve Daines today applauded TransCanada’s announced 20-year commercial commitments to transport at least 500,000 barrels of oil daily through the recently-approved Keystone XL pipeline.

“This long-overdue project will inject millions of dollars in tax revenue to our rural communities and create thousands of jobs,” said Daines. “With permitting now in final stages of approval, I’m excited that after years of unnecessary political delays, construction of Keystone XL is moving forward.”

As Chairman of the Senate Western Caucus, Daines has been a leading Senate advocate of the Keystone XL pipeline’s construction, which President Donald Trump authorized last year.

The Keystone XL pipeline is a much-needed lifeline to many rural Montana communities, entering the United States through Phillips County, traveling about 284 miles across eastern Montana to South Dakota.

The Obama administration unconscionably vetoed this project, creating uncertainty that would have created about 800 jobs in Montana, help keep electricity prices affordable for families, and generate more than $80 million in Montana property taxes, more than $16 million of which would be distributed to Montana’s schools and university system. 

Background:  

On March 24, 2017, President Trump authorized construction of Keystone XL pipeline.

On January 24 2017, Daines praised Trump’s action to start moving forward construction of the pipeline

In Daines’ letter to Trump on December 6, 2016, Daines urged him to take immediate action in starting the process to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

On November 6 2015, former President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada’s application to build the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline.

Daines was original cosponsor of S. 1, the bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, that was vetoed on February 24, 2015.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Daines co-sponsored the Northern Route Approval Act, bipartisan legislation that also would permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

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