From InsideClimate News:
President-elect Donald Trump has signaled his plan to move quickly to re-start the Keystone XL pipeline as part of his goal to revive a fossil-fueled future. But his administration would be heading quickly into the same legal and political thicket where the Canada-to-Texas tar sands oil pipeline project was stuck for seven years.
If anything, Keystone’s path forward may be more difficult, because economic pressure for Canadian producers to get the pipeline built has eased. While TransCanada’s Keystone was stuck in limbo, producers found other routes to get oil to the U.S. Gulf coast and Midwest, and on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved two pipelines to export tar sands oil to global markets.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the resolve of about 100 Nebraska landowners who have refused to agree to TransCanada’s right-of-way across their properties. “For us and for a good number of the resisters, this is a fourth- and fifth- generation land holding,” said Jeanne Crumly, whose family owns a ranch and farm in Page, 40 miles south of the South Dakota border. “It’s not a possession. It’s an inheritance. And it comes with responsibilities.”