News
GOP plan would allow rerouting
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
GOP plan would allow rerouting
By Joseph Morton
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
WASHINGTON — A Republican proposal to speed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would preserve ongoing efforts to route it around Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sand Hills.
GOP lawmakers have tucked the pipeline hurry-up into a broader piece of legislation that includes extension of a payroll tax cut, saying the country needs the pipeline jobs immediately.
But the measure specifically calls for federal officials to work with the State of Nebraska to reroute the pipeline away from the Sand Hills.
Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said the legislation makes clear Nebraska's right to alter the route and gives the state time to do so.
"It gets the pipeline going, creates the jobs, puts us on a path to energy security, but it protects the Nebraska compromise — it writes that into the law," Terry said Monday.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, touted the pipeline Saturday in his weekly address, saying the project has bipartisan support.
"You've heard President Obama say that the American people can't wait to take action on jobs," Boehner said. "Well, the Keystone energy project is the very definition of an idea that the American people can't wait for Washington to take action on."
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, on Fox News Sunday, also talked up the job impact of the "shovel-ready project."
"Three years of environmental studies have already been done. The secretary of state was ready to sign off on it. The president called it to the White House and delayed it for a year," he said. "This would create 22,000 jobs almost immediately, ready to go, with no money."
Pipeline opponents say that those job figures are inflated and that the pipeline needs further review. Environmental groups worry about the potential for leaks and the global impact the pipeline could have on greenhouse gas emissions.
The State Department suggested Monday that the GOP push for a deadline could backfire and derail the entire project.
"Should Congress impose an arbitrary deadline for the permit decision, its actions would not only compromise the process, it would prohibit the Department from acting consistently with National Environmental Policy Act requirements by not allowing sufficient time for the development of this information," the department said in a statement. "In the absence of properly completing the process, the Department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit for this project."
The State Department was set to decide on the pipeline by the end of this year, but it recently announced a delay until 2013, citing the need to examine routes around the Sand Hills.
Then the company building the pipeline, TransCanada, agreed to work on finding a way around the Sand Hills, a process that could be wrapped up in six months, according to the project's backers.
The language in the payroll tax cut bill would require the Obama administration to approve a pipeline permit within 60 days, unless the president determined that doing so was not in the national interest.
Once the permit was approved, TransCanada would be able to start construction on parts of the project outside Nebraska. The pipeline would run more than 1,700 miles, connecting the tar sands of Canada with refineries in Texas.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., reiterated Monday that he thinks the proposed deadline is not needed and is complicating efforts to get the extension of the payroll tax cut passed.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, said Monday that he supports the federal legislation because it would expedite the rerouting of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Nebraska demonstrated last week that it will do its part, he said, by hiring an engineering firm to help select a route that will avoid the Sand Hills and its groundwater supply.
"Yes, let's get moving," Heineman said. "We're talking about jobs."
World-Herald staff writer Joe Duggan contributed to this report.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20111213/NEWS01/712139891#gop-plan-would-allow-rerouting