Can Some Nebraska Farmers Kill the Keystone XL Pipeline?

The controversial project faces its last regulatory hurdle in Lincoln, but the landowners fighting it expect years of court battles to come.

By Jillian Goodman
August 14, 2017, 10:14 AM EDT

“When I first started this, it was about my house,” said Shannon Graves, who owns a hardware store in Polk, Neb.—population roughly 300—and lives less than 100 yards from the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline. “I just wanted to protect my home.”

That was six years ago. Now, Graves said, “what was once just my home is now my world that I’m standing to protect.”

So last week she headed to Lincoln, the state capital, for hearings to determine whether the pipeline would serve Nebraskans’ public interest, the final regulatory hurdle for the long-contentious project.

After years of protest by environmentalists, the Obama administration in 2015 rejected TransCanada’s proposal for the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would deliver crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico. In January, President Donald Trump resurrected the project with a presidential memo and executive order.

more...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-14/can-some-nebraska-farmers-kill-the-keystone-xl-pipeline