By Scott Harvey
– The $13 billion Keystone XL Pipeline that would run through portions of Northeast Texas cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle on Friday, and dealt a blow to environmental groups.
The U.S. State Department released its final Environmental Impact Statement for TransCanada's proposed pipeline, which would bring fossil fuel from the Canadian oil sands to the U.S.
State Department official Kerri-Ann Jones said the report concludes there would be "no significant impacts to most resources along the proposed pipeline corridor," according to a transcript of a press conference.
Protesters want President Barack Obama to deny a permit for the 1,700-mile pipeline that would take oil extracted from tar sands from Canada and carry it through a pipeline cutting across six states to refineries along the Gulf Coast.