Keystone Pileline approved by Nebraska

dan_s · Post by **dan_s** » Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:43 am

Nebraska Allows Keystone XL Pipeline. New York Times.
The nearly decade-long battle over Keystone XL has come to symbolize much more than what the disputed pipeline would actually be: a subterranean tube, 36 inches in diameter, carrying crude oil from Canada to Nebraska. So when state regulators here said Monday that the project could proceed, their decision was initially seen as a hard-won validation for President Trump and the American laborer. Karen Harbert, an official with the United States Chamber of Commerce, said she was “pleased that the project has cleared this final hurdle” but that TransCanada still needed to decide whether to move forward. “This industry is a very practical industry, and they have learned over time that it’s not necessarily in your best interest to take a big victory lap knowing that the path forward is still fraught with problems,” Ms. Harbert said. If TransCanada is “going to give the greenlight to this, they’ve got to make sure they’ve got a pathway there to actually build it and operate it.”

Keystone XL pipeline passes hurdle in Nebraska. Financial Times.
The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline to bring heavy crude from Canada to US refineries cleared a critical hurdle on Monday as state regulators in Nebraska approved the project, but it still faces challenges before construction can start. Nebraska’s Public Service Commission voted by three votes to two to allow the pipeline to pass through the state but insisted on an alternative route to the one proposed by TransCanada, the company leading the $8bn project. TransCanada first filed for federal government approval of Keystone XL in 2008. It was eventually rejected by President Barack Obama in 2015, but that decision was reversed by President Donald Trump in March. Karen Harbert, president of the Global Energy Institute of the US Chamber of Commerce, welcomed Nebraska’s decision, but said the project had “unfortunately become the poster child for the need to reform our permitting process”.