The State Department will delay its decision on whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline until it has a clearer idea how legal challenges to the pipeline�s route through Nebraska will be settled, sources briefed on the matter said Friday.
The final decision may now be pushed back until after the congressional midterm elections in November.
An interagency review led by the State Department was scheduled to be completed in two weeks but has been extended, said the people briefed on the matter, who did not want to quoted by named until the matter was publicly announced.
The review is looking at whether the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would move crude oil from Alberta, in Canada, to the Gulf Coast, is in the national interest. Secretary of State John Kerry will make that decision, but President Obama will have final approval if any of the departments involved in the review disagree.
In February, a Nebraska district court blocked the governor�s decision to allow the pipeline to pass through the state, putting the pipeline�s route into question.
The decision has been appealed to the State Supreme Court, and a ruling there is unlikely to come before the end of the year.
TransCanada, the company hoping to build the pipeline, may also have to reapply for a permit to build it through Nebraska.
