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A senior House Democrat who supports the Keystone XL oil pipeline predicted Thursday that the project will be left on the cutting room floor in House-Senate negotiations over transportation legislation.

“My guess is that it would not be in the final product,” said Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

he comments are the latest sign that backers of the pipeline will face hurdles winning its inclusion in the bill to reauthorize popular road and infrastructure programs.

The House version of the transportation programs funding bill includes language that approves construction of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.The Senate plan omits it, and bicameral talks are under way to craft a final bill before the current transportation programs authorization expires at the end of June.

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