TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline could begin carrying oil as soon as 2017 after the most controversial North American energy project in decades cleared a legal hurdle and Congressional Republicans advanced legislation to force its approval.

The six-year review process for the $8 billion line to bring crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries could be over in two months, Russ Girling, chief executive officer of Calgary-based TransCanada, told reporters in a briefing today.

“The issues in Nebraska should be behind us and we would hope we could get on with an approval in a very short timeframe,” Girling said. “Our customers continue to press us to get this done as soon as possible.”

North American energy producers waiting for Keystone XL have been using rail and other means to ship expanding crude supplies from Canada and the Bakken Shale. Environmentalists have attacked the project, saying it poses a risk of spills and are using it as a weapon to try to slow the growth of oil-sands projects, which use a process that produces more greenhouse gases than conventional production.

TransCanada rose 1.3% to C$55.66 at 1:10 p.m. Jan. 9 in Toronto, after earlier climbing as much as 3.4%, the biggest intraday increase since Dec. 17. Keystone XL accounts for 17% of the company’s $46 billion of planned project spending in the next five years.

While Keystone XL makes up less of TransCanada’s growth than when it was proposed in 2008, it’s still needed to feed the company’s planned 10% annual dividend increase over the next five years, said Steven Paget, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital Corp. in Calgary.

“TransCanada has invested a considerable amount of time and energy into the line,” Paget said.

The pipeline has become a proxy for debates about global warming, jobs and energy security. Republicans who now control both houses of Congress have vowed to make approval of the pipeline one of their first pieces of legislation this year, a move the Obama administration opposes.

The House today approved a measure that would force a presidential permit for Keystone XL, albeit without the two- thirds vote margin that would be necessary to override a presidential veto. A Senate committee voted yesterday to advance a Keystone XL bill.

Obama has said his decision on the project will be based on whether it significantly worsens climate change. The State Department said in April it would delay the presidential permit review while awaiting a ruling on a Nebraska court case. The state’s highest court today upheld the Republican governor’s approval of Keystone XL’s path in the state.

Moving past the Nebraska holdup is “modestly positive” for TransCanada because it removes a barrier for approval, Robert Kwan, an analyst at RBC Dominion Securities Inc. in Vancouver, wrote in a note.

TransCanada was about two-thirds of the way through a 90- day comment period for the State Department’s review when it was halted, Girling said. The company needs two years to build the line after its approval.

“We’d hope that review process can pick up where it left off,” Girling said. A global oil price crash has only increased the need for the pipeline, which would be the least expensive way for producers to transport their crude, he said.

The State Department will resume its work on the project, said Jen Psaki, a department spokeswoman. She didn’t offer a schedule for completing the review, in which eight agencies will weigh in on the project.

Obama first rejected the pipeline in 2012 over opposition to its path in Nebraska. TransCanada then split up the project and built the southern portion, refiling for approval of the northern leg with an alternate route. That portion requires U.S. consent because it crosses the border.

The now 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) Keystone XL line, starting in Hardisty, Alberta, would transport 830,000 barrels a day to an existing network in Steele City, Nebraska, that feeds the Gulf Coast.

Oil-sands developers, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc., have found other ways to move rising volumes of heavy crude while awaiting Keystone XL.

Canadian crude exports by rail more than tripled to a record 182,000 barrels a day in the third quarter from two years earlier, according to Canada’s National Energy Board. Reversal and expansion of the Seaway pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to Houston will almost double the amount of heavy Canadian crude that can enter the region starting this month, according to ARC Financial Corp.

Canada, the top crude supplier to the U.S., has boosted supplies to more than 3 million barrels a day, making up 43% of American imports.