TransCanada Corporation proposed the project on February 9, 2005.
The application was filed in September 2008 and the National Energy Board of Canada started hearings in September 2009.[21]
On March 11, 2010 the Canadian National Energy Board approved the project.[9][22][23]
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission granted a permit on February 19, 2010
The final environmental impact report was released on August 26, 2011.
On November 10, 2011, the Department of State postponed a final decision.
On November 22, 2011, the Nebraska legislature passed unanimously two bills with the governor's signature that enacted a compromise agreed upon with the pipeline builder to move the route.
On November 30, 2011, a group of leading Republican senators introduced legislation aimed at forcing the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days.
In December 2011, Congress passed a bill giving the Obama Administration a 60-day deadline to make a decision on the application to build the Keystone XL Pipeline.
On January 18, 2012, President Obama rejected the application
On January 19, 2012, TransCanada announced it may shorten the initial path to remove the need for federal approval.[113] TransCanada said that work on that section of the pipeline could start in June 2012[114] and be on-line by the middle to late 2013
In April 2013, it was learned that the government of Alberta was investigating, as an alternative to the pipeline south through the United States, a shorter all-Canadian pipeline north to the Arctic coast, from where the oil would be taken by tanker ships through the Arctic Ocean to markets.