TransCanada Submits New Application for Keystone Project TransCanada, the company behind the disputed Keystone XL pipeline, submitted a new application for the project to the State Department on Friday, as expected. The company will route the pipeline around the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska, and the revised proposal starts a fresh clock on the environmental review process. The State Department, which reviews pipeline projects that cross national borders, will probably need at least until the first quarter of 2013 to finish reviewing the new application - pushing a final decision on the project beyond the presidential election. Keystone XL, designed to carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to the refineries of the Gulf of Mexico, became a political flash point late last year. Seeking to force its approval, Congress mandated that President Obama make a decision by mid-February, but he chose to reject the project in January, citing the lack of time to complete an environmental review. At the time, Mr. Obama said his decision was not a final judgment on the pipeline. The company's revised application includes a number of possible routes that would run about 850 miles from the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb., and TransCanada officials have said they will avoid the Sand Hills region of the state, which was the focus of passionate political and environmental opposition. TransCanada is already in the process of seeking permits from the Army Corps of Engineers for a southern leg of the pipeline - from Cushing, Okla., through Texas - which does not require State Department approval. "The department is committed to conducting a rigorous, transparent and thorough review," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement. We will cooperate with the State of Nebraska, as well as other relevant state and federal agencies, throughout the process. Nebraska has stated that their own review of the new route will take six to nine months. According to department estimates, the $7 billion project could generate 6,000 jobs. The State Department also said it planned to take a more prominent role in overseeing the project's environmental assessment, something its inspector general had cited as a departmental weakness in a recent report. That report said the State Department had not sufficiently considered concerns about Keystone XL's original route and needed to strengthen its oversight of independent contractors, who typically conduct environmental impact reviews for major federal projects. Russell K. Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive, said Friday in a statement that three years of environmental review already conducted on the project should allow "our cross-border permit to be processed expeditiously and a decision made once a new route in Nebraska is determined." Mr. Girling also said the project would "reduce the United States" dependence on foreign oil and support job growth by putting thousands of Americans to work." Some of those opposed to the project have not been swayed by the route adjustment and are concerned that it may still cross a portion of the Sand Hills. "Landowners and all the citizens that we are working with still have fundamental concerns about this pipeline," said Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, which opposes Keystone XL. The new route is no better than the old route. The new route is going through different watersheds. It is still crossing major rivers. There is no safer route when it comes to tar sands.