"The appropriately deliberate approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline took another big step last week when the State Department said the project is not likely to cause significant environmental problems.

The environmental impact statement, a thousand-page report almost three years in the making, says TransCanada's 1,700-mile pipeline would have no major impact on natural resources along its path. Those natural resources include wildlife, agriculture, groundwater, rivers, air quality, greenhouse gases and communities.

If completed, the $7 billion project would transport up to 830,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil from tar sands in northern Alberta across Eastern Montana on its way to Texas. The 3-foot-diameter pipeline would enter Montana north of Malta near the Morgan border station. It would cross into South Dakota after passing near Baker, where an onramp would allow oil produced in this region to enter the pipeline. Then it would travel through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma before arriving at refineries in Texas."

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Editorial: Keystone XL approval process still seeking comments (The Billings Gazette 8/30)