Keystone XL Pipeline

What is it

The Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed 1,980 mile-long project with the capacity to carry up to 900,000 barrels a day of dirty tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast -- with stops along the way in various other states.

The pipeline will provide a conduit for the dirty tar sands oil of northeastern Alberta to reach United States markets. Tar sands oil is the dirtiest kind of oil currently available on the market -- both because of its climate change impacts, and because of its local environmental impacts.

Where does it go

In Canada the pipeline will extend approximately 327 miles from Hardisty, Alberta southeast through Saskatchewan before entering the United States in Morgan, Montana, where it will continue on southeast for 836 miles through South Dakota and Nebraska. In Steele City, Nebraska the pipeline will connect to the 296-mile long Keystone Pipeline before resuming in Cushing Oklahoma, where it will continue on to its final destination at existing terminals in Nederland, Texas.

When would it be built

Assuming it is permitted the $7.2 Billion, 36-inch pipeline is a project of TransCanada partnered with ConocoPhillips. Construction is slated to begin in 2010 with the Texas and Oklahoma sections scheduled to be completed in 2011, while the segment running from Hardistry to Steele City will be finished in 2012.

For More Information

• Learn more about the permitting process.
• Learn about opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline.

View a map of the proposed project route at TransCanada's project website.

Read this AP article on Yahoo to learn more about the Keystone XL pipeline.