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Nebraska regulators approved an alternative route Monday for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. It was the last major regulatory hurdle facing project operator TransCanada Corp., though opponents say another round of federal approval may now be needed.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission's ruling was on the Nebraska route TransCanada has proposed to complete the $8 billion, 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) pipeline to deliver oil from Alberta, Canada, to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The proposed Keystone XL route would cross parts of Montana, South Dakota and most of Nebraska to Steele City, Nebraska.
The long-delayed project was rejected by President Barack Obama in 2015, citing concerns about carbon pollution. President Donald Trump revived it in March, approving a permit.
[...] The five-member Nebraska Public Service Commission was forbidden by law from factoring pipeline safety or the risk of spills into its decision because pipeline safety is a federal responsibility. So, it couldn't take into account a spill of 210,000 gallons (790,000 liters) of oil on the existing Keystone pipeline in South Dakota announced on Thursday.
Also at Alternative Keystone XL route gets approved in Nebraska
(Score: 4, Disagree) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:22AM (14 children)
Or is that not a thing anymore.
If I had eight billion dollars, I'd sooner bet it on a single spin of the wheel in Vegas than blow it on a pipeline whose construction cost will never be repaid.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:23AM (8 children)
That's obviously why you aren't in charge of anything important. If the pipe didn't make somebody money, they wouldn't build it.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:27AM (3 children)
I expect whoever is paying for that pipe thinks that Donal Trump will be elected to a second term.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday November 21 2017, @08:41PM (2 children)
In 2015 I said to the American people: I own over $250,000 in TransCanada Pipelines stock, but not over $500,000. The ticker symbol is TRP, I had to buy that one. You know I had to buy it, for the same reason you, I assume, own M.D.C. Holdings. And it's doing amazingly today (they both are). It's not amazing, the Nebraska thing is great news. For me, for you, for TransCanada, for M.D.C. Holdings, for 🇨🇦, for 🇺🇸. America First!
I ABSOLUTELY will be elected to a second term. That's a 100% certainty. Noah from the future said so. He's not a smart guy, to be perfectly honest he's a dummy. SEVERELY handicapped in the head. Mentally he's not all there. But he comes from the future so he knows things other people don't. I knew I would win in 2020. But some people doubted it. Just like they doubted I would win in 2016. Not any more. youtu.be/ag8E-p4v_24 [youtu.be] #TRUMP2020 [twitter.com] #WINNING [twitter.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday November 21 2017, @11:06PM (1 child)
I've been stressing over a woman who may be married. Her ring isn't always there, and sometimes she wears it on her right hand.
You gave me a belly laugh. I needed that.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday November 21 2017, @11:27PM
So you're gonna be worth a lot. You're telling me you've got a girlfriend, do you get a prenuptial agreement? You get married, and then for some reason over the next couple of years you get divorced and then she sues you for $10 billion and she hits the jackpot. In New York, she would get a big chunk of what you have. A prenup is an ugly instrument, but you'd better have one. If I didn't have mine, I would not own all these beautiful buildings. I'm notoriously cheap with these things, OK, because I think if she made $1 million, that would be very good. Vagina is expensive. But don't overspend. Always, always get the prenup. With women that's the biggest thing to remember.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:48AM (3 children)
Oh, it's making money for a lot of people:
What's not clear is whether the pipeline will, in the end, make any money for oil producers and distributors.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 21 2017, @01:44AM (2 children)
I wish we lived in a world where those four realized they could still make money without oil. Perhaps instead of paying for an oil pipeline, subsidize residential solar.
But no. We have to have oil. Because that helps keep people riled up and divided against each other.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Tuesday November 21 2017, @10:10AM (1 child)
You do realize that oil is used for many other things than just powering cars and electricity production, right?
Even if you go all "residential solar" for your power and you drive an electric car, we all still need oil for a bazillion other things. Production can be modified to produce, for example, less of the fractions used to produce gasoline but increase production of fractions used for other purposes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday November 21 2017, @11:09PM
Just one word.
"Plastics".
Enough said.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday November 21 2017, @01:49AM (3 children)
We don't and we do. Specifically, there's no shortage of crude oil in the ground, nor a shortage of drillers willing and able to extract said oil. What there is a shortage of is refining capacity, because among other things a lot of the refineries down in Texas have been wrecked by hurricanes.
There are basically 2 reasons the environmentalists are protesting pipelines:
1. All pipelines leak and spill sooner or later, and that does not good things to wherever it leaks or spills. These can and do screw up local water supplies, for instance (this is part of what the #noDAPL folks at Standing Rock were worried about). This usually turns into jockeying over where the pipeline's route actually goes.
2. Burning oil increases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide leads to increases in global average temperature. Therefor, the environmentally responsible thing to do is to leave that oil right in the ground, and making pipelines more expensive makes pumping that oil less cost-effective. This issue is far bigger than just oil, and this is what a lot of the KeystoneXL protesters are concerned about.
All of which doesn't matter, because both of the major political parties in the US have made it abundantly clear they will stomp on environmentalists and punch as many hippies as necessary to give the oil companies exactly what they want.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday November 21 2017, @06:54PM (2 children)
All of which doesn't matter, because both of the major political parties in the US have made it abundantly clear they will stomp on environmentalists and punch as many hippies as necessary to give the oil companies exactly what they want.
Your false equivalency gets so tiring.
One party blocked this very pipeline. The other allowed it.
That's not the same. In fact, most people would consider it to be the exact opposite.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday November 21 2017, @09:29PM
You look at the countries with the biggest oil production, the big three are Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States 🇺🇸. And in the United States, look at the states with the biggest production, the big three are Texas, North Dakota and California. That's right, California, a blue state (we're working on that) and supposedly very green, has a HUGE oil industry. They drill in their cities, they do fracking, which they've been doing for a long time. Before anybody heard of it. They do what it takes to get that oil out. They have Crazy Jerry Brown, he's not so crazy. He knows the oil must flow. He goes to Bonn, he was just in Bonn holding a rally. So he's giving his speech and some alt-left protester, some so-called Indian or Native American, tries to shout him down, "keep it in the ground," this LOSER shouts. Meaning the oil. And Jerry Brown comes back with, "let's put you in the ground." I call him Crazy Jerry because he's crazy in a lot of ways. But he had a great answer, that was a very strong answer. I think maybe there's a little bit of Hitler in him. He's no Hitler but I think there's a little bit of the Hitler spirit in him. What is it about Germany and great speeches? Ivanka gave an amazing speech in Berlin. And everybody loves me in Warsaw. Which isn't in Germany, but it used to be.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 22 2017, @12:06AM
My experience is that the Republicans just do things like this, while the Democrats are generally two-faced about it. As in, the pattern from Democrats is talking up a great game while their actions show something very different.
For instance, with regards to the DAPL, the Obama administration did absolutely nothing. It's not like they didn't know that the police department and private security guards were unlawfully turning dogs on journalists and shooting at them with rubber bullets and firehoses - that stuff was first on Youtube and later on CNN. It's not like they couldn't have been saying something about it in their daily news briefings. It's not like they couldn't have sent US Marshals in to protect the protesters. It's not like they couldn't have sent medical aid to the protesters who were getting hit with flash grenades. And instead they were unwilling to actually do anything until the (illegal as it turns out) pipeline was fait accompli and acted like "Oh well, there was nothing we could do."
They aren't exactly equivalent, but the results aren't all that different either.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Whoever on Tuesday November 21 2017, @06:38AM
That kind of thinking is probably why life has been hard for you.