Pipeline Opponents Say Alternative Route Opens Door to Legal Challenges

Nov. 20, 2017, 6:44 p.m. ·

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The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted 3-2 to approve an alternative route for Keystone XL through Nebraska. (Photo by Grant Gerlock, NET News)

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The Keystone XL oil pipeline took a step toward being built Monday when a government commission in Nebraska approved a route for the project. But according to pipeline opponents, the decision may also clear the way for future legal challenges.


TransCanada already has one pipeline in Nebraska carrying oil from Alberta, Canada to refiners in Illinois: the Keystone pipeline. But the company wants to build a bigger line, Keystone XL, to carry more than 800,000 barrels a day all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Back in March, the Trump administration gave Keystone XL the green light, but Nebraska still needed to decide whether to approve the route.

Monday, the Nebraska Public Service Commission approved a route, but not the one TransCanada wanted. Instead, the PSC voted 3-2 to choose the “Mainline Alternative Route.”

Like the preferred route, it enters Nebraska in Keya Peha County and winds along the edge of the Sandhills, but instead of turning south near the city of Neligh, the Mainline Alternative keeps tracking east until it meets up with the path of the first Keystone pipeline in Stanton County near Norfolk. From there, Keystone and Keystone XL would run nearly parallel to Steele City, Nebraska at the Kansas border.

TransCanada has something it has not had before after Monday’s decision: a federal permit and an approved route through Nebraska at the same time. But pipeline opponents say the new route may help them delay or block the project in court.

More on Keystone XL from NET News:


Randy Thompson (center) stands with Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska as pipeline opponents rally after the Public Service Commission decision. (Photo by Grant Gerlock, NET News)

“This is a new route on the table," says anti-pipeline activist Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska. "The federal government has never reviewed it and we are absolutely resolute in our position that we will stop this pipeline from ever being built.”

Kleeb says the new route may need to go through additional public hearings in Nebraska. Landowner attorney Brian Jorde says the alternative route may also require additional environmental review at the federal level.

“There’s an argument that a supplemental environmental impact statement would be required and that would happen at the federal level,” Jorde says. “So there’s federal and state law questions that are in play.”

In a statement, TransCanada did not say whether it will or will not go ahead with the project.

"As a result of today's decision, we will conduct a careful review of the Public Service Commission's ruling while assessing how the decision would impact the cost and schedule of the project," says Russ Girling, TransCanada's chief executive officer.

The company has been putting out the call for customers who would ship oil on Keystone XL and indicated on a recent investor call the response has been positive.

The plan has received an economic boost from a recent uptick in oil prices, says energy analyst Zachary Rogers of the consulting group Wood Mackenzie. At the same time, TransCanada has shelved plans for another pipeline in Canada called Energy East.

“What potentially could happen from that is that there might have been producers who were signed up for that line that, since the pipeline has been cancelled, they could be incentivized to switch over to commitments on the Keystone lines,” Rogers says.

And with higher oil prices and political upheaval in Venezuela, refineries on the Gulf Coast may indeed be more interested in buying heavy crude from Canada.

The decision in Nebraska comes as cleanup continues on TransCanada’s first Keystone pipeline. Last week it was reported the pipe accidentally spilled 210,000 gallons of oil on a South Dakota prairie.

In Nebraska, Keystone XL could be built alongside the Keystone pipeline for about 100 miles. According to Nebraska law, though, the commission could not consider that fact before making Monday's decision.

For Art Tanderup, who lives along the proposed pipeline route in north central Nebraska, safety remains a concern.

“(Keystone XL) is still going through the most porous soil in Nebraska,” Tanderup says. “And then we see, (TransCanada's) safest pipelines aren’t near as safe as they say they are.”

TransCanada says it will announce its decision on whether to move ahead on the new pipeline as soon as mid-December.