TransCanada CEO: ‘High Probability’ Keystone XL Pipeline Will Be Built

Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Russ Girling, head of the company proposing the Keystone XL Pipeline, expressed confidence Sunday that the project would soon be under way.

“There is a very high probability this pipeline gets built,” Girling said on ABC News’ This Week. “The need for transportation continues to grow, and the place where these producers want to put those barrels is into the Gulf Coast of the U.S. So, our shippers have not wavered one bit in the past six years.”

If built, the 1,700-mile pipeline would pump about 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta, Canada, and connect to an existing pipeline in Nebraska that runs to refineries on Texas’ Gulf Coast.

Legislation authorizing Keystone has been in the works since 2008. On Friday, the House voted 252-161 in favor of building the pipeline.

The legislation is now expected to come up for a vote Tuesday on the Senate floor, where it faces a much slimmer margin of approval. At last count, 59 senators were expected to vote in favor of the pipeline. That’s one senator shy of the 60 votes needed for a filibuster-proof majority to send the bill to President Obama’s desk.

Even if Keystone does pass the Senate, the president does not seem eager to sign the bill. He had this to say about the proposed project this week.

“Understand what this project is,” Obama said while traveling in Burma on Friday. “It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. It doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.”

Girling said the project would create a $3.5 billion increase in the U.S. GDP. A review from the State Department found the project would result in 42,000 temporary U.S. jobs during the pipeline’s two-year construction, though only 50 jobs would be permanent.

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