Transcript of State Dept Briefing on Keystone Pipeline
STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING
JANUARY 22, 2013
SPEAKER: STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON VICTORIA NULAND
NULAND: All right, everybody. Happy Tuesday.
I hope everybody enjoyed the long inaugural-Martin Luther
King weekend. I have nothing at the top. Let’s go to what’s on
your mind.
QUESTION: Can we start with…
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Let’s go with Keystone, if you don’t mind, just
to get it out of the way.
As you know, Nebraska has effectively, you know, given a
nod to the proposed route. Do you guys have now a judgment on
it?
NULAND: Well, we did receive a letter from the governor of
Nebraska approving the route through the state of Nebraska. We
will obviously take that letter and the Nebraska environmental
report into consideration as we continue our federal review
process.
I think we said last year that we expected that this
process was going to take us through the first quarter of 2013.
So just to reiterate that we don’t anticipate being able to
conclude our own review before the end of the first quarter of
this year.
QUESTION: Do you expect to have a decision by the end of
the first quarter?
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NULAND: Beyond saying that we don’t expect to be ready
before the end of the first quarter, I think we need to let our
folks continue to do the work that they’re doing. Obviously,
Nebraska just finished. As I said, we have to take that work
and crunch it into our own work.
QUESTION: But you’re not ruling out that it could slide
into the second quarter?
NULAND: Again, let’s just stick with where I am right now,
that we certainly don’t see it before the end of the first
quarter, OK.
QUESTION: And does this (inaudible) change the — the
timeline in any way? Does this make it more complicated to make
a decision?
NULAND: Well, we were waiting for Nebraska to make its
decision. Our — our processes move in parallel. We’ve been
doing our own work. But had Nebraska changed the route or done
something else, that certainly would have been complicating.
I think we obviously want to take the Nebraska
environmental study, we want to compare it with the work that
we’ve done. So — but, you know, I think we are still where we
said we were, which was that we don’t anticipate completing
before the end of the first quarter. OK?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) think you did by saying, you know, if
they go in (inaudible). Could you see where (inaudible) efforts
converge with the state effort (inaudible)?
NULAND: Well, as you know, we had to do a new review of
the environmental impact of this in light of some of the
comments that we received. So we took the first review that
we’d done, we are expanding it, and looking at it.
The state of Nebraska has itself done an environmental
impact study, so that can inform the updating of our federal one
now. And that is a necessary part of this interagency process
that the State Department leads on behalf of the president
before a license can be issued.
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