Keystone Pipeline: Senator Hoeven Co-sponsoring Bill - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Keystone Pipeline: Senator Hoeven Co-sponsoring Bill

Senator John Hoeven seems less-than-optimistic that President Obama will approve the Keystone XL Pipeline anytime soon... based on nearly five years of delay and a recent conversation with the president.

Senator Hoeven says he met with President Obama Thursday and asked for his definitive timeline on making a decision to approve the pipeline. Hoeven says the President told him he "thinks he will decide this year."

"So even if he does make a decision sometime this year, after almost five years, what's that going to be, is it going to be another delay, another hurdle we have to jump through? And this is the problem--we can be energy independent in 3-5 years, without the federal government spending money, we just have to empower the private enterprise, we have to cut through these regulatory barriers and regulation and delay," said the Senator.

That's why on Thursday Senator Hoeven and Senator Max Baucus of Montana (D) introduced bipartisan legislation that would enable Congress to give the project the green light.

Hoeven says the legislation has strong support from both parties. He says the Keystone will move 830,000 barrels of oil a day, including 100,000 of North Dakota and Montana light sweet crude to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

It will create tens of thousand of jobs and reduce the country's dependence on foreign energy.