Keystone XL Pipeline Safest In U.S.

Friday, a U.S. House subcommittee focused in on the proposed pipeline that would bring Canadian oil through KELOLAND.

Some lawmakers say they're disappointed that the White House is delaying construction until after the election. Others disagree.

"It's in all of our minds. It's certainly on the minds of our witnesses today, people in this country need jobs particularly in the hard-hit construction industries. But with this project we'll be paying a very high price, over a very long time for some short term benefits. Instead we should be focusing on good, clean energy jobs that are going to last." California Representative Henry Waxman said.

Officials with TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, say there's no reason for concern.

“This pipeline will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have 21,000 data points along the entire route of the pipeline that are linked to satellites which feed data to our control center every five seconds. If any of these sensors detect a drop in pressure, the control center will remotely close valves, isolating the line and shutting it down within minutes,” Alex Pourbiax with Transcanada said.

Because of those measures, he says the Keystone XL pipeline would be the safest one ever constructed in the U.S.

It would be the second TransCanada pipeline built in South Dakota.