Keystone revival takes step forward
TransCanada reapplies in U.S.
TransCanada Corp. on Thursday refiled an application to move ahead with its Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. state of Nebraska, kicking off an approval process that is likely to be met with intense scrutiny.
The company filed its application with the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC), a state where environmental groups and residents have fiercely opposed the project.
TransCanada said during a conference call Thursday that the review process for the US$8-billion project would take at least a year to complete.
“I would not anticipate we would be ready for construction until well into 2018,” said Paul Miller, the executive vicepresident of TransCanada’s liquids division.
The company said that Keystone XL could be completed, at the earliest, after 2020. TransCanada withdrew its application to the state in late 2015 after the project was rejected. However, local opposition groups have already promised to hamper the regulatory process for Keystone XL.
Nebraska has proved to be the biggest hang-up for the proposal. A Nebraska Supreme Court decision approved the proposal in 2015, but Nebraskan landowners retaliated with lawsuits against TransCanada. In late 2015, then U.S. president Barack Obama officially rejected Keystone XL on the grounds that it would unduly increase current GHG emissions levels. But the project was swiftly revived by U.S. President Donald Trump in January.
Local opposition to the project mostly focused around concerns over potential damages to the Ogallala Aquifer, a vital freshwater source in the western reaches of Nebraska. TransCanada, for its part, responded by proposing an alternative route that would cut around the ecologically sensitive Sandhills regions, which encapsulates the aquifer.
In its application filed Thursday, the company laid out three possible pipeline routes through the state. It also assessed whether the pipeline could be run through an existing utility corridor, a method sometimes used to avoid harming untouched terrain.