The Undecided

The State De­part­ment an­nounced Monday it is ex­tend­ing its re­view of a con­tro­ver­sial pipeline that would ex­pand U.S. im­ports of pet­ro­leum from Ca­na­dian oil sands. The delay comes amid grow­ing con­cern from both the ad­min­is­tra­tion and con­gres­sion­al Demo­crats that the prac­tice of ex­tract­ing oil from sand is an en­vir­on­ment­ally dam­aging prac­tice that emits green­house gases. The State De­part­ment ex­ten­ded its dead­line for com­ments from fed­er­al agen­cies from Septem­ber to mid-Decem­ber. The pub­lic com­ment peri­od ended at the be­gin­ning of Ju­ly. A fi­nal en­vir­on­ment­al im­pact state­ment for the pro­ject is ex­pec­ted some­time after Dec. 15. Tran­sCanada needs U.S. ap­prov­al to con­struct its pipeline — called Key­stone XL — from Al­berta, Canada, to Texas.