TransCanada Asks Nebraska to Reconsider Keystone XL Ruling

(Bloomberg) -- TransCanada Corp. asked Nebraska regulators to reconsider their Keystone XL approval, allowing it to file an amended application for the project in light of the panel’s last-minute decision to alter the pipeline route in the state.

The company is asking the state’s Public Service Commission to let it address questions that were raised by the state’s Nov. 20 decision, Terry Cunha, a spokesman for Calgary-based TransCanada, said in an emailed statement. TransCanada isn’t seeking to have the commission alter its approval of the alternate path for the conduit, he said.

The commission ruled in favor of TransCanada’s project on a three-to-two vote last week, but the approval was for a different route through the state than the company had sought. While the decision seemed to remove a key hurdle to construction of the $8 billion, 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) conduit, foes have said they believe it will let them challenge the project because the new route wasn’t vetted at the same level as the original.

Landowners opposed to the pipeline, which has been on the drawing boards since 2008, followed TransCanada’s filing with their own request for oral arguments on the company’s motion. The public service commission had no mechanism for approving the alternate route, according to the landowners’ filing.

Even with Nebraska’s decision in hand, TransCanada still must formally decide whether to build the line, which would send crude from Hardisty, Alberta, through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it will connect to pipelines leading to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

The company continues to review last week’s ruling and how it will affect the cost and schedule for the project, Cunha said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Jim Efstathiou Jr.

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