TransCanada pitches new Keystone XL route in Nebraska

The process to select a new route for TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline project around ecologically sensitive lands in Nebraska is underway. The Calgary company submitted a report including a preferred corridor and a number of potential routes for the oil line around the state’s Sandhills region to the Department of Environmental Quality conducting the review in Nebraska on Wednesday, TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard confirmed. Howard said the proposed corridor extends east and then south about 160 kilometres from the main pipeline path around the Sandhills region, which contains the vast Ogallala aquifer. The Nebraska department is expected to post all documents related to the submission and process online on Thursday, he said. A new Nebraska route lets TransCanada refile for a presidential approval to build the cross-border line with the U.S. State Department, though Howard wouldn’t say when the company expects that to happen...more