The Nebraska Public Service Commission has approved the passage of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion through the state, but the project still faces seemingly insurmountable legal and financial hurdles.
The approval was the last major regulatory hoop that the 9-year-old Keystone XL expansion project faced, but approval was given for a costlier version of the plan that would involve adding another pumping station and transmission lines to serve 5 additional miles of pipeline.
TransCanada is still assessing the impact of the additional miles, but President Trump is apparently “pleased” with the decision. According to one of the deputy press secretaries at the White House, “We look forward to seeing another promise fulfilled.”
Environmental groups, however, are seeing the project from a broad perspective of continued fossil fuel usage and the global warming problem.
With oil prices at nearly half of what they were when Keystone XL was originally proposed in 2008, there’s also the question of commercial viability that’s crept in during that time.
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