Keystone XL Pipeline Construction (Oklahoma To Texas)

The Canadian pipeline company  began construction of the southern leg of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on August 9.  The Canadian pipeline company is installing segments near Livingston, Texas.  The southern section of the pipeline received government approval in July.

 The pipeline is designed to eventually carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands of northern Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Construction is expected to unfold over at least the next year, and probably longer.

TransCanada hopes to construct a pipeline from the Canadian border to Texas. But President Obama in January rejected the company’s application for an international permit to build the entire structure, saying it needed further study -- particularly of any route through the sensitive Sandhills of Nebraska, which lie atop a massive agricultural aquifer.

TransCanada has agreed to reroute the northern portion of the pipeline in Nebraska and has launched a new application. In the meantime, the company, with Obama’s endorsement, has moved to begin construction of the southern half, from Oklahoma to Texas. This portion does not require an international permit.

TransCanada responded by working on a relatively small detour to avoid Nebraska’s sensitive Sand Hills region. The Nebraska legislature approved of a billto allow the state to move forward with a new Keystone XL route, on a 44-5 vote that Gov. Dave Heineman promptly signed into law. The last major objection to Keystone XL has been resolved. That construction was imminent became clear in late July, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the last of three key permits needed to build the southern section.

Even without the northern section, company officials have said putting the southern section in place will help alleviate a bottleneck of crude oil at the giant terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma.

If the U.S. State Department approves the revised permit application for the northern segment, that construction could begin in early 2013. (L.A. Times, 8/16/2012)