Company plans Keystone XL oil pipeline work next year

LINCOLN, Neb. — The developer of the Keystone XL oil pipeline plans to start construction next year, after a U.S. State Department review ordered by a federal judge concluded that major environmental damage from a leak is unlikely and could quickly be mitigated, a company spokesman said Monday.

The company has already started preparing pipe yards, transporting pipe and mowing parts of the project’s right-of-way in Montana and South Dakota, but Transcanada said in court documents it doesn’t plan start construction in Nebraska in the first half of 2019.

The report issued Friday from the Trump administration’s State Department drew criticism from environmental groups, who say they’ll continue to fight the project.

“The Trump administration sees no problem with building the Keystone XL — in other news, the grass is still green and the sky is still blue,” said Kelly Martin, a campaign director for the Sierra Club.

The updated, 338-page report was released a little more than a month after a federal judge in Montana ordered the State Department to conduct a more thorough review of the pipeline’s proposed path after Nebraska state regulators changed the route.

The original environmental impact study was issued in 2014, before Nebraska regulators approved a longer “mainline alternative” route that veered away from the company’s preferred path. President Donald Trump approved a federal permit for the project in March 2017, reversing former President Barack Obama’s decision to reject it amid concerns over greenhouse admissions.

The report said the $8 billion, 1,184-mile pipeline would have a “negligible to moderate” environmental impact.

Environmentalists, Native American tribes and a coalition of landowners have staved off construction. In addition to the federal lawsuit in Montana aimed at halting the project, opponents have a pending lawsuit before the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Canada to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would connect with the original Keystone pipeline that runs down to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.