BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – State regulators in North Dakota say they support a controversial pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada Corp.’s proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline has drawn opposition from people who fear it will harm the environment. The U.S. State Department is considering whether to approve the project. Hearings are being held this week in the six states the pipeline route would cross. North Dakota is not one of them, but Montana is. North Dakota’s Industrial Commission says the pipeline could carry Williston Basin oil to downstream markets. The group also says in its letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it’s important the pipeline “be constructed and operated in a manner that will protect the citizens of the United States.”