The Trump administration has rejected a proposal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that President Donald Trump had sought for the Gulf Coast, but has made no commitments to reconsider its fate.
The administration said in a statement that the pipeline would be rejected “based on the facts and circumstances of this case.”
The decision by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was announced Tuesday afternoon.
The State Department has said it will continue to review all of the pipeline’s conditions, and will take further action if necessary, including withdrawing the project from consideration.
In a statement, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said that the decision was based on the “facts and circumstances” of the case.
“Given the decision to reject the Keystone Pipeline, I will be reviewing all the facts, conditions and opportunities to expedite the approval process,” Zinke added.
The rejection was an immediate blow to the Trump administration’s effort to build the 1,100-mile Keystone XL project, which had been stalled in the courts.
The project would have carried crude oil from Canada to refineries in Texas and Louisiana and have been built in the United States by Canadian oil company TransCanada.
The decision comes just months after Trump said he would veto a bill that would have delayed the project’s construction.
The White House said the decision would have no impact on the Keystone pipeline.
The pipeline, which would have crossed the border to carry the same crude oil it does today, would have shipped about half of its estimated 12 million barrels of oil daily to U.S. refineries.
