Lawsuit by Nebraska Landowners May Decide Keystone Pipeline’s Fate

For all the angst and anger over the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington, the project’s fate may lie here in Nebraska, where disgruntled landowners are challenging a state law that officials used to approve the pipeline’s path through their property. After the U.S. Senate rejected a measure to approve the project Tuesday, Republicans who will control the chamber in January said it would be one of the first items on their agenda next year. A more immediate hurdle, though, is the Nebraska suit, which encompasses much of the legal and emotional core of the battle over Keystone. “I worry that members don’t know there is a pending lawsuit that could take this whole thing back to square one in Nebraska,” said Heather Zichal, an energy consultant who was a top energy and climate adviser in the White House until about a year ago. The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks on the case. If the court upholds the law, the Obama administration would have a clear path to decide on the project, which has been under federal review for more than six years. Another potential ruling could require the company building the pipeline, Calgary-based TransCanada , to submit its proposed route through a new review process set by a 2011 state law, delaying the project up to a year. In a third, less likely outcome, the court could cast the project into an indefinite legal limbo by compelling the Nebraska legislature to revisit a couple of laws it has passed since 2011 in response to the growing scrutiny of the pipeline in the Cornhusker State...more (subscription)