Washington (Platts)--8Feb2013/426 pm EST/2126 GMT

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that he would act on TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal "in the near term" after a "fair, transparent and accountable" review.

Kerry made the comments to reporters after meeting privately with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, his first foreign visitor after taking over leadership of the State Department from Hillary Clinton this week.

"Secretary Clinton has put in place a very open and transparent process, which I am committed to seeing through," Kerry said. "I can guarantee you that it will be fair, transparent and accountable, and we hope that we will be able to be in a position to make an announcement in the near term.

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"I don't want to pin down precisely when, but I assure you in the near term," he continued.

Kerry said he would not go into the merits of the project before then.

"I pay great respect ... to the important energy relationship with Canada and the importance of the overall relationship," he said.

Baird said the two talked about the importance of basing the Keystone XL decision on science and facts.

"When it comes to the environment, I think we have like-minded objectives," he said.

Baird said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama have a shared goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. He added that like the US, Canada has set ambitious targets for lowering emissions for cars and light trucks and started phasing out dirty coal-fired electricity generation.

"I think we all share the need for a growing economy to create jobs, we share the desire on energy security in North America and we also share the objective of protecting our environment for future generations," Baird said. "Those will be areas where we're going to continue to work together."

Kerry said during his confirmation hearing last month that he would try to conclude the State Department's review of Keystone XL by the end of March.

But a State Department spokeswomen called that timing unlikely.

"In November 2011, when we announced consideration of an alternate route through Nebraska, our best estimate on timing was that we would complete the review process in the first quarter of 2013," spokeswoman Imani Esparza said. "We do not anticipate concluding the review before the end of the first quarter of 2013."

--Meghan Gordon, meghan_gordon@platts.com
--Edited by Jason Lindquist, jason_lindquist@platts.com

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