The Canadian government might be feeling a little snubbed but, in Nebraska, some landowners are delighted at news the Keystone XL pipeline could face further delay.
The landowners are at the epicentre of the battle over the project.
A group representing the one-third of Nebraskan landowners on the pipeline path who won’t sign away their property rights met this weekend.
They discussed strategy for stopping the project and extracting better conditions should the TransCanada project go through.
Some were also heartened by news that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had slapped down a Canadian demand for a decision soon.
Kerry declared that there would be no fast-tracking the decision, and that all due steps would be taken.
This was after Canada’s foreign affairs minister, John Baird, used a three-day trip to Washington to plead for a decision in time for the 2014 construction season.
Polls suggest many Nebraskans support the project to build a pipeline from Alberta to Texas.
However, its opponents have been tenacious and are pushing back against the plan on multiple fronts.
One of those fronts is a legal battle against a state bill that would give the governor the right to force the project through.
At the meeting of about 70 landowners this weekend in this Nebraska community, several people said they had lost faith in their state government and are now hoping they will either win in court, or manage to persuade the Obama administration to block the final piece of the pipeline.