Pipeline project to deliver jobs, cash (first of 2 projects)

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10613508

Published Sunday April 19, 2009
Pipeline project to deliver jobs, cash
BY HENRY J. CORDES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

During these troubled economic times, Nebraska is about to see a boost from a half-billion-dollar construction project, one that will employ hundreds of local union workers.



But these jobs have nothing to do with the president's economic stimulus.

And they aren't green jobs.

No, they're all about the lifeblood of the nation's old industrial economy: oil.

Work will begin next month on the Nebraska portion of the Keystone Pipeline, an ambitious $5.2 billion, 2,148-mile conduit that will carry a half million barrels of crude a day from Canada to refineries in the United States.

The 215-mile Nebraska portion alone will cost $490 million to build, crossing the state north-south from Cedar County near Yankton, S.D., to Steele City near the Kansas border. The partnership between pipeline company TransCanada and oil giant ConocoPhillips will employ up to 900 construction workers within the state, about half of them hired locally.

The Keystone is essentially a full-employment act for the statewide union of heavy equipment operators. It means about six months of paychecks for 150 members, more than enough work to employ the 125 currently idled in a down economy.

FULL story at link.