TransCanada says it will reroute planned oil pipeline to avoid sensitive area of Nebraska
Posted November 14, 2011 6:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LINCOLN, Neb. – Officials with TransCanada say the Canadian energy giant will move its planned oil pipeline out of the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area of Nebraska.
The company announced the decision Monday at a news conference at the Nebraska state legislature.
The decision follows the U.S. government’s announcement last week that it would delay a decision on a federal permit for the project for more than a year.
The delay would give regulators more time to study new potential routes that avoid the Sandhills areas of Nebraska and the Ogallala aquifer, a vast underground water supply.
The proposed pipeline would carry crude oil from the northern Alberta oilsands to U.S. refineries along the Texas Gulf coast.
The delay threatened to kill the project and led the Canadian government and other pipeline supporters to say Canada will seek to seek new markets in Asia for Canadian oil exports.
