Posted on 05/04/2012 1:08:55 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
WASHINGTON — TransCanada Corp. on Friday reapplied to the U.S. State Department for a presidential permit to build the controversial Keystone XL oilsands pipeline, immediately triggering a new fight with opponents over the scope of a coming environmental impact study into the project.
In an interview with Postmedia News, TransCanada executive Alex Pourbaix said the Calgary-based company expects the Obama administration’s review of Keystone XL to be limited to the new rerouted portion of the pipeline through Nebraska.
“Certainly our expectation is that the only required new review would be on the actual reroute itself . . . What we are talking, in the scheme of things, (is) a relatively modest reroute,” said Pourbaix, president of TransCanada’s pipeline division.
“As we look at it, we don’t see anything material that was not reviewed in the original application, other than the specific reroute in Nebraska.”
TransCanada submitted its new application for a presidential permit just two weeks after it proposed several new routes for Keystone XL that avoid the ecologically fragile Sand Hills region of Nebraska....
Because the $5.3-billion pipeline’s planned U.S. route remains unchanged through Montana and South Dakota — which already approved Keystone XL — no new environmental study needs to be done there, TransCanada says.
The company has split the original southern portion of the pipeline — from Steele City, Nebraska, to Port Arthur, Texas — into a separate project that does not require new approval and already has Obama’s support.
But U.S. green groups are already raising objections to TransCanada’s push for a limited review of the pipeline. They argue that the earlier State Department study was flawed because it was conducted by a third-party contractor who had worked with TransCanada in the past.....
(Excerpt) Read more at business.financialpost.com ...
What stalling excuse will it be this time??
Lady Bugs
North Dakota Brakken Strata contains more oil then Saudi Arabia. Why aren’t we tapping these reserves.
I just laughed every time they said “Evironmentaly sensitive Nebraska”...like hahahahahahahaha. In the event of a spill, how much oil would dump on the ground anyway? And in the flattest part of the country, where would it go? Can’t they isolate sections of pipe, anyway? So are they worried a few thousand gallons of oil would permanently make a black spot on the soil that would despoil the view from 35 kilofeet permanently?
My prediction: ObaMao cannot come up with another quick environmental excuse this time, no matter how flimsy, so they will just demand a new environmental study which they can drag out until the November election.
Actually, Nebraska is a key environmental state in terms of water supply to much of the west due to the Ogallala Aquifer and the Platte and North Platte drainage basins, which are major tributaries of the Missouri River.
It is also nowhere near the flattest state in the union. North Dakota and Kansas both have it beat in that category.
That being said, even a major pipeline blowout could be contained within a matter of hours with minimal environmental impact.
There has not been a major break in the Alaska pipeline (which is far less accessible) with technology from the 1970's used to construct it.
The engineers who design these things generally know a hell of a lot more than the government bureaucrats who regulate them.
“”TransCanada Corp. on Friday reapplied to the U.S. State Department for a presidential permit”””
Why don’t they just call it what it is, a DICTATOR permit.
Maybe Canada should wait until Jan/2013 to ask again.
You could make a case for ANY State being ‘environmentally sensitive’. It’s like ‘climate change’. It’s always true and it happens everywhere.
Maybe so, but it costs the same on the open (spelled cartel) market.
“In an interview with Postmedia News, TransCanada executive Alex Pourbaix said the Calgary-based company expects the Obama administration’s review of Keystone XL to be limited to the new rerouted portion of the pipeline through Nebraska.”
He don’t know Barry very well.
That he’s a communist idiot that gets support from conservatives now....
Whats more, everyone involved knows it.
We are......but right now Obama’s crony W.Buffet is making bugo-bucks shipping oil with his BN railroad line....
big reason why Obama is delaying the pipeline as long as he can.
Problem is with WTCrude around 100.00——Bakken Oil Co are only getting 70 plus or minus, due to the cost of shipping via truck and then rail.....
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