Semester ends with plan to redirect Keystone pipeline

A Canadian pipeline company named TransCanada was likely unknown to most Nebraskans before this year, but the developments of the last semester have changed that picture in a big way.

After rallies in front of the White House and Nebraska Capitol, an advertisement that drew more than a few boos from Husker football fans and passionate, hours-long hearings in front of the U.S. State Department, the Nebraska Legislature and now Congress, TransCanada has become a household name.

This coming year, it's likely to stay that way.

Nebraska will join TransCanada and the State Department to find a new route for the company's controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline after immense pressure to reroute the project. Recently, Nebraskan members of Congress have also gotten in on the fray, with an eye on speeding up the process.

That oil pipeline is the reason for TransCanada's newfound local fame. Under its original plan, the pipeline would have passed through Nebraska's Sandhills on its way from Alberta, Canada to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

TransCanada took its first step to fame in 2008, when it first applied for a permit from the State Department for the pipeline's construction. An extensive federal review of pipeline safety and the route was started.

After that, unrest slowly began to grow in Nebraska concerning the pipeline's route, which would cut a diagonal across the state, including the Sandhills, and pass just west of Lincoln.

The Sandhills cover most of north-central Nebraska, stretching west to east from Scottsbluff to Norfolk, and is known for its delicate ecosystem and groundwater tables that even reach above ground in some places. That groundwater, in turn, is connected to the much larger Ogallala Aquifer that provides water to eight Midwestern states.

The value of both natural formations, many Nebraskans began to say, wasn't worth the risk of an oil spill, no matter how unlikely.

Opposition to the project kept growing, most significantly in the last several months. Nebraska farmers and ranchers formed an unlikely alliance with environmental and political groups such as Bold Nebraska and the Sierra Club, calling for a route change or denial of the project altogether.

More questions arose about the relationship between the pipeline company and the government department. Among other problems, critics charged that the department's assessment of the project's environmental impact included information supplied by TransCanada or a company TransCanada hired.

The State Department's decision was expected by the end of the year. Both TransCanada and the State Department denied any inappropriate relationship, though it is now the subject of an internal investigation.

Nebraska quickly became the loudest and most-urgent opponent to the project, and the State Department appeared to take notice. In September, department representatives held hearings in all six states along the route, including hearings in Lincoln and Atkinson, Neb., to receive testimony from anyone who showed up.

In Lincoln, the eight-hour hearing was dominated by emotional pipeline opponents. Some people railed against TransCanada's treatment of homeowners along the route, including the threat of imminent domain if they didn't allow TransCanada to develop on their land. Others spoke of the treasured Sandhills and Ogallala Aquifer, calling on the government to protect the state's natural resources against the possibility of a spill.

TransCanada and supportive unions responded that the pipeline would be the safest ever built and the risk from a spill would be minimal. The route crosses only a sliver of the aquifer, they pointed out, and any leak would move very slowly and be detected quickly. Thousands of jobs would be supported, they said, though the exact number was never clear.

Nebraska's government gradually moved into the fight. After persistent doubts over whether the state could affect the route, Gov. Dave Heineman called a special session of the state legislature in October to explore the problem.

The session began Oct. 31. Five bills were introduced that week that gave the state power over pipeline routes in one way or another, but the question of if the state even had the power to use any of them still hung over the state senators.

Meanwhile, the State Department announced it would delay its decision on the pipeline until 2013, after the general election, while it explored alternative routes around the Sandhills.

Then, in a stunning move, Nebraska state Sen. Mike Flood announced the first day of general debate that the State Department had confirmed Nebraska's authority, and TransCanada had agreed to move the route out of the Sandhills area.

His deal with the company was quickly hailed as a triumph of negotiation and was quickly approved by the legislature, along with future power to site pipelines through the state. It seemed like the long fight had finally come to an end.

Not yet, however. U.S. Congressional Republicans, including Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns and Rep. Lee Terry, introduced bills to force the Obama administration to make its permit decision before the general election in November. That bill has now been hitched to the extension of the payroll tax, which President Barack Obama supports. Obama has since threatened a veto, which the Democrat-controlled Senate likely wouldn't overcome.