Keystone XL foes question proposed route in Nebraska
WASHINGTON — In an Oval Office ceremony after pushing through the approval of TransCanada’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Donald Trump asked company chief executive Russ Girling when work would start. The answer wasn’t that simple.
TransCanada still needs to win the approval of state regulators. This week they got a taste of how difficult that could be as the state Public Service Commission kicked off public hearings in Nebraska, the state where opposition to the $8 billion pipeline project has been strongest.
Two days featuring TransCanada experts are to be followed by two days of experts who are opposed to the pipeline, claiming that the steel line would pose environmental dangers and arguing that there was no reason to force landowners to allow it to cross their property.
At the same time, TransCanada must find oil producers ready to fill the 830,000 barrel-a-day 36-inch diameter pipeline running from Canada’s oil sands to a pipeline nexus in southern Nebraska.
During the years of haggling between TransCanada and the Obama administration, many producers of Alberta’s thick bitumen quality oil have turned to other pipelines or rail cars. As oil prices have sagged, many companies have shelved expansion plans. Others, such as Royal Dutch Shell, which had been ready to commit to using the Keystone XL earlier, have sold their oil sands interests altogether.
Nebraska might be TransCanada’s biggest obstacle. The pipeline, first proposed more than eight years ago, has touched a populist nerve and aroused concerns that a leak could contaminate farm land and pasture, the delicate Sand Hills, or water supplies.
“We still have a bunch of family farmers on the land that their ancestors homesteaded,” said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and an organizer of opposition to the Keystone XL.”They have a deep emotional and cultural tie to the land and feel a responsibility that they must protect it.”
Many farmers and ranchers are angered by the idea of a foreign pipeline company using eminent domain, which the 2016 Republican Party platform criticized, to force them into letting large construction equipment plow a 50-foot-wide right of way to bury the pipeline about 4 feet below the surface.
Analysts said the regulatory process could still last another six months to a year.
On Tuesday, opponents of the pipeline questioned its proposed pathway through the state. But TransCanada defended its proposal, arguing that the company’s “preferred route” causes the least amount of disruption.