TransCanada president: U.S. confidence in oil pipelines needs to be rebuilt

CALGARY, Alta. - A top official of TransCanada expressed concern on July 7 over a string of recent crude oil pipeline leaks and spills in the U.S., stressing the need to rebuild public confidence.

"Incidents in the past 18 months have shaken public confidence and threatened the social license of pipeline companies to do business," company President Russell Girling said at a TD Securities conference here.

"Things have happened that were not supposed to occur. As an industry, we need to work closer with regulators and peers to restore public confidence. This will come with us paying new costs in terms of fixing the operational facilities and assuming environmental stewardship."

His statement came as TransCanada's controversial application for its Keystone XL Pipeline project remained pending before the U.S. State Department, which must approve its license because it is a cross-border project.