Kansas City, Mo. ? A federal agency on Wednesday delayed approval of a draft environmental impact statement on TransCanada’s $12 billion Keystone pipeline, which will move oil from Canada through several northern and Midwestern states.

The U.S. Department of State added two weeks to the public comment period for the Keystone pipeline’s impact statement, pushing the end of the period to July 2 instead of June 16, a State Department official said.

The department also added two public meetings on the Keystone pipeline — one in Houston on June 18, and another in Washington, D.C., on June 29.

The federal register notice on the delay and the additional hearings would likely be published Monday or Tuesday. The Department of State has to approve plans for the pipeline because it crosses an international border.

Tony Iallonardo, spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation, which issued a report critical of the pipeline on Wednesday, said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may have influenced the decision.

TransCanada spokesman Jim Prescott said the company is confident the Department of State will determine the pipeline is “in the national interest.”

“It is clear that the Department of State is making every effort to be as inclusive as possible to allow stakeholders an opportunity to offer comment,” Prescott said in an e-mail.

The National Wildlife Federation’s report on the multi-phased project said the pipeline could threaten various natural resources, including the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies water to several Midwestern states.

Prescott said the entire pipeline system “will meet or exceed all standards, all regulations.”

The Keystone project includes a 1,073-mile pipeline that moves oil from Alberta, Canada, to a refinery in Wood River, Ill. TransCanada says the company hopes to eventually move 435,000 barrels of oil through the pipeline daily.