Canada-US pipeline on hold amid oil's recent woes
By JAMES MacPHERSON and JOSH FUNK
BISMARCK, N.D.
A company waiting for the U.S. government to approve the last leg of its multibillion-dollar oil pipeline network between Canada and the United State may be running into public concerns stemming from recent oil disasters.
Some experts conclude the so-called Keystone XL pipeline is a victim of guilt by association amid the negative publicity of the Gulf Coast oil rig explosion and other spills.
The climate was different three years ago when the project's first leg cruised to approval at a time the public was clamoring for the government to do something about record gas prices.
TransCanada hoped to be laying pipe by year's end for the latest leg of the system. Now those hopes have dimmed with little official explanation.
