A last kick at the KXL

Activists prepare for Nebraska hearing

Western Business Columnist Pipeline activists get to take one final kick at Keystone XL Wednesday as the Nebraska Public Service Commission starts the public portion of its review into the project’s contentious route through the state.

It’s one of two imminent tests of the clout of the anti pipeline movement in the post- Obama era. The other is the British Columbia election next week. A defeat of Liberal Christy Clark May 9 by the left- leaning NDP could mean big t rouble for the TransMountain oil pipeline expansion. It’s a close race and the NDP, led by John Horgan, has promised to “use every tool in our toolbox” to stop the Kinder Morgan project.

In Nebraska, Keystone XL proponent TransCanada Corp. needs to get a route approved before it can move ahead with construction of the oilsands pipeline from Hardisty, Alta., to Steele City, Neb., where it would meet with the already constructed southern portion of KXL.

It’s the last hurdle for the $ 8- billion project, which received a presidential permit from U. S. President Donald Trump in March that reversed Barack Obama’s previous rejection, and has secured all other approvals from authorities in Canada and the U. S.

A large crowd of activists is expected to participate in Wednesday’s daylong public meeting in York, Neb. Among them are Bold Nebraska and the Sierra Club’s Nebraska chapter, which chartered buses to transport opponents f rom Omaha, Lincoln and the Atkinson areas of the state.

“We’re tr y i ng to ge t people amped up about this,” Graham Jordison, a Lincoln- based community organizer with the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign, told the Lincoln Star Journal this week. “This is one of our last chances to make our voices heard.”