U.S. opens special review on Keystone pipeline

The U.S. State Department’s inspector general will review the department’s evaluation of a proposed $7 billion pipeline to transport oil sands from western Canada to Texas, Reuters reports. The announcement came after 13 Democratic lawmakers and one independent expressed concern that a company the State Department hired to investigate the potential environmental impact of the project had financial ties to TransCanada, the proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline. The State Department’s "special review" could push the final decision on the line into 2012 or later.

Reuters