The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline is reversing course in Nebraska and will drop its eminent domain lawsuits against landowners who don’t want the pipeline running through their property.
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Pipeline company TransCanada said it was filing an application with state regulators in Nebraska to build Keystone XL, ending a bid to challenge eminent domain.
The company said it will soon file an application with the Nebraska Public Service Commission to seek approval of its route.
“TransCanada is a desperate company in an ever-losing situation in Nebraska”, said Jane Kleeb, executive director of the group Bold Nebraska. “And we just felt like this was the process that would ultimately save time and reduce conflict with those who oppose the project and set a few pretty clear rules for the state”.
Opponents to the pipeline project cheered the announcement. “We believe that the PSC will not allow Keystone XL to be placed in the Sand Hills or over the Ogallala Aquifer but are confident President Obama will reject the pipeline before the PSC even has a chance to conduct a review”.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday he would probably keep assertively push benefits of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL supply, which actually United states.S. President Barack Obama is seen prone to forbid in the near future.
If approved, the TransCanada pipeline would move up to 830,000 barrels a day of oil sands crude through Nebraska.
TransCanada is pulling out of a lawsuit filed by Nebraska landowners. The suing property owners needed at least five high court votes to have the law struck down. State law LB 1161, passed in 2012, gave the governor authority over the Keystone XL route from Canada through the state instead of the Nebraska Public Service Commission.
“The vast majority of Nebraskans along the route have signed voluntary easements to get the project constructed”. Reviews by the commission generally take seven months to a year to complete, and its decisions can be appealed in the state’s district court system.
“TransCanada realizes that LB 1161 is unconstitutional”, added Art Tanderup, a farmer whose land is on the proposed pipeline route.
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“This is a victory for landowners standing up to prevent a foreign corporation from taking their land for corporate greed through eminent domain”, he said.
