The Keystone XL pipeline won’t be required to use American-made steel to earn construction approval from the Trump administration, the White House said Friday, despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims. The president’s executive order mandating the use of U.S. steel is “specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.
“Since this one is already current, under construction, the steel is already literally sitting there, it would be hard to go back,” she said. That’s welcome news to TransCanada Corp. as its moves forward with the $8 billion project. The pipeline would span 1,179 miles (1,897 kilometers) from Alberta through three states -- Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska -- before connecting to an existing network feeding crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The line would carry as much as 830,000 barrels of oil a day, including some from North Dakota’s Bakken shale.
