But in May, TransCanada, the Canadian company trying to build the pipeline, proposed a new route.
In Friday trading, TransCanada Corp shares are currently up about 0.1% on the day.
For investors, it would be bad news for shareholders of TransCanada Corp. and oil sands companies.
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TransCanada, the company building the pipeline, did not immediately respond to CNN calls for comment Monday.
TransCanada says the line has been dissected and analyzed for more than five years.
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The projects will be developed and constructed by Canadian Solar Solutions, and TransCanada will purchase the projects after their completion.
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The foreign company behind the pipeline, TransCanada, itself admits that the pipeline is key to getting tar sands to the world market.
Canada is understandably disappointed, with TransCanada (NYSE: TRP) the hardest hit.
TransCanada ( TRP) is a recommendation of The Canada Report newsletter.
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TransCanada Corp shares are currently trading down about 1.4% on the day.
TransCanada Corp shares are currently trading off about 0.6% on the day.
Since then the private developer, TransCanada, proposed a new route.
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TransCanada's 3, 000km main line has carried Alberta's gas to Ontario and Montreal for more than 50 years, but now runs at less than half of capacity.
The Obama administration rejected the initial proposal from the Canadian energy company TransCanada, saying it needed more time to gauge the potential environmental impact of the project.
It includes encouraging the construction of pipelines domestically like the one that the company TransCanada announced it intends to build from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico.
When TransCanada screened an ad in favour of the pipeline during a match of the beloved local American football team, the University of Nebraska's Cornhuskers, the crowd booed.
The state's Republican governor, Dave Heineman, has written to Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, asking her to refuse the necessary permit unless TransCanada modifies the pipeline's route.
Separately, Canadian oil company TransCanada has proposed building a 1, 700-mile (2, 735km) pipeline called Keystone XL to carry crude from Alberta, Canada's tar sands region to refineries in Texas.
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However, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling has concerns of his own.
After all, TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, says it will create 20, 000 jobs (albeit temporary ones in construction for the most part) and dramatically improve America's energy security.
If the question is one of safety, then the federal government should by all means force TransCanada to build Keystone XL to the higher standards than any pipeline before.
Now, though, TransCanada has redrawn its pathway and submitted a new application for consideration to the U.S. Department of State, which must approve all international deals like this.
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Under the agreement, Canadian Solar will provider TransCanada with 9 fully operational utility scale solar projects in Ontario that are expected to come into service between late 2012 and mid-2013.
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TransCanada filed its application in 2008, and State determined in 2010 and then again last year that the project would have "no significant impacts" on the environment, following exhaustive studies.
Separately, in August, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former GOP vice presidential candidate, signed a bill allowing TransCanada Alaska to build a 1, 715-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope's Prudhoe Bay to Alberta, Canada.
Just two days before McCain announced Palin as his running mate, she signed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, awarding a license to Calgary-based TransCanada to begin work on a natural gas pipeline from the northern part of the state to the contiguous United States.
We can create tens of thousands of new American jobs by encouraging the development of America's vast energy resources and supporting truly shovel-ready projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, which would create an estimated 20, 000 jobs, according to TransCanada, while boosting domestic energy production.
Longer term limitations also depend upon whether pipeline projects that are located exclusively in Canada proceed (such as the proposed Northern Gateway, the Trans Mountain expansion, and the TransCanada proposal to ship crude oil east to Ontario on a converted natural gas pipeline).
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