WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2020) The Trump administration has issued a formal approval for construction work to begin on the Keystone XL oil pipeline across Federal land in the US state of Montana, the Department of the Interior said in a press release.
"Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt today signed a Record of Decision that allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to offer a... grant to TC Energy... allowing for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline across 44 miles of federally managed lands in Montana," the release said on Wednesday.
The Bureau of Land Management's decision followed an environmental review, tribal consultations and public input over several years, the Interior Department noted.
"[T]his pipeline will provide jobs and opportunity and ensure reliable and affordable energy supplies are safely transported to power our nation's economy," Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management Casey Hammond said in the release.
The heavy crude oil-carrying pipeline consists of 1,209 miles of new 36-inch-diameter pipeline, 327 miles of pipeline in Canada and 882 miles in the United States from the Saskatchewan border through Montana and South Dakota to a terminal in Steele City, Nebraska, according to the release.
