TransCanada, the company behind the disputed Keystone XL pipeline, submitted a new application for the project to the State Department on Friday, as expected. The company will route the pipeline around the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska, and the revised proposal starts a fresh clock on the environmental review process.

The State Department, which reviews pipeline projects that cross national borders, will probably need at least until the first quarter of 2013 to finish reviewing the new application — pushing a final decision on the project beyond the presidential election.

Keystone XL, designed to carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to the refineries of the Gulf of Mexico, became a political flash point late last year. Seeking to force its approval, Congress mandated that President Obama make a decision by mid-February, but he chose to reject the project in January, citing the lack of time to complete an environmental review. At the time, Mr. Obama said his decision was not a final judgment on the pipeline.