WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is threatening to push legislation that will speed up the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, writes The Hill, “unless the Obama administration agrees to set a firm deadline for deciding the fate of the project.”

Landrieu’s threat follows an April 10 letter she and 10 senators sent to President Obama asking him to make a final decision on the pipeline. Landrieu and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) led the effort, highlighting the repeated delays in the approval process over the last several years. The senators asked the president to decide no later than May 31, 2014.

“This process has been exhaustive in its time, breadth, and scope. It has already taken much longer than anyone can reasonably justify … We are writing to request that you use your executive authority to implement an explicit timeline for Secretary of State John Kerry to make a national interest determination on the Keystone XL pipeline permit application. At the expiration of the current 90-day comment and consultation period for certain federal agencies, there should be a date certain no later than 15 days after that date for Secretary Kerry to provide you with his national interest determination recommendation,” the senators wrote.

On Thursday last week, the White House responded to questions about Keystone, saying that President Obama remains undecided. The Hill reports that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney “attempted to sideline any noise that President Obama would establish a hard deadline for his decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Carey told reporters that the administration’s position hasn’t changed, “which is that it needs to run its appropriate course without interference from the White House or Congress.” He continued that actions taken by Republicans in Congress have already delayed that process.