Cost of Keystone XL has jumped nearly 50% during six years of delays

TransCanada Corp. president and CEO Russ Girling won’t say whether he thinks a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate after Tuesday’s midterm elections will mean an accelerated approval for the often-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. But he does know what six years of Presidential indecision have cost the controversial project. Mr. Girling said the delays have inflated the estimated cost of KXL to $8-billion — up from an initial estimate of $5.4-billion — thanks to an increasingly tight market for pipelines in North America. TransCanada has long signalled that the longer it’s forced to wait for a permit, the more expensive the pipeline would become. But this is the first time the company has given a specific cost impact. “I think we enjoy a majority of support in both the House and the Senate and the project is in the national interest,” Mr. Girling said on a third-quarter earnings call. “Suffice it to say that we’re supportive of any process that can help advance a decision on the project, given that the environmental review is completed and that at this point in time, we’re just sitting waiting for someone to say, ‘Go.’” TransCanada first applied to build the oil pipeline between Hardisty, Alta. and Cushing, Okla. six years ago, but the construction of the pipeline has been delayed multiple times as it waits for U.S. presidential approval. Mr. Obama has the authority to approve the pipeline because it crosses the Canada/U.S. border...more 

A fifty percent increase in the cost of a project due to government delays.  Now think of all the permits, permissions, licenses, etc. required by all forms of government and you start to get a feel for how much the regulatory state is costing us.