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“These are unambiguously good news stories, but the carpet has been pulled out on people too many times. This is Charlie Brown and the football story.

“Will you actually get to kick the ball this time?”

It’s easy to become skeptical because of the incessant delays.

Photo by Nati Harnik / AP

After I wrote earlier this week that politicians should hold off on holding a ticker-tape parade for Trans Mountain, one reader told me to prepare to swallow some humble pie once the line is built, albeit using more colourful language than can appear in this newspaper.

“Give some credit when due. The sky is NOT always falling!”

That’s true. Some headwayis being made to solve Canada’s pipeline paralysis.

The pipeline company formerly known as TransCanada Corp. could soon give the green light to the US$8-billion Keystone XL project and begin construction south of the border.

But we can’t ignore the fact the project was first proposed back in 2008 and — as TransCanada’s former executive vice-president Dennis McConaghy pointed out Friday — it was initially supposed to be operating in2012.

As well, the average time since regulatory filings were made on these three pipeline projects now averages more than 7.5 years, with completion still several years out for some of them, according to Birn.

Photo by Andrew Burton / Getty Images files

However, Keystone XL is one step closer to proceeding, as the company moves like a minesweeper to clear the field of legal problems that could sidetrack progress.

After an appeal was heard last year, the Nebraska court affirmed an earlier decision from the Public Service Commission that approved the pipeline’s route through the state.