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: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:26AM (1 child)
This was proposed right about the same time that more than fifty people died in the fire that resulted from a derailment in Quebec.
The port commission, which used to run mostly on autopilot, has been the focus of politics in Vancouver the last little while. A developer is building a one billion mixed retail, restaurant and residential development right on the river, close to the port, but will stop building if that depot is approved, as the trains will run right next to his real estate.
A year or so ago an oil train derailed in a park right on the Columbia River. Accident inspectors found that the railway company was not maintaining the tracks to their own standards.
What I cannot fathom is why anyone thinks its a good idea to load that oil into barges in Vancouver, then sail it down the Columbia river.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 21 2017, @12:36AM
He might pause for a bit. He might slightly change plans. He won't stop; that is a threat made for political theater.
For an example more familiar to soylentnews readers, we see similar nonsense all the time in telecom. An ISP claims that they will only upgrade if they get a monopoly. They threaten to stop building out fiber or cell towers or 4G if competition is allowed. When we cave, projects mysteriously take forever to complete and sometimes get cancelled. When we call their bluff, they upgrade. Typically there is a pause while we discuss regulatory changes, with lots of ads to let us know. After competition comes in, upgrades happen rapidly. For example, cities that got Google fiber usually got huge speed/price improvements from the company that just lost their monopoly.