(IBD) Nebraska Environmental Report Finds Keystone XL Pipeline Safe To Bring Jobs, Revenue, Growth

[Daniel John Sobieski]

Energy: The further review the administration said was needed is done,  with a Nebraska environmental agency saying it's safe to build the pipeline that  will bring oil, jobs and revenue from our friendly northern neighbor.

After kicking the Canadian oil barrel down the road, the Obama administration  may soon be forced to approve the Keystone XL pipeline or come up with another  excuse to block it after a report from the Nebraska Department of Environmental  Quality declared it would have "minimal environmental impacts" on the state and  its sensitive aquifers.

Friday's report triggered a 30-day deadline for Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman,  a Republican, to make a final recommendation to the U.S. government on whether  to go forward with the pipeline. Keystone XL will still need final approval from  the State Department because its northern portion crosses an international  boundary.

The $5.3 billion northern segment will run 850 miles from Hardisty, Alberta,  to Steele City, Neb., carrying up to 700,000 barrels of crude a day initially  and up to 830,000 barrels a day after planned pumping upgrades.

TransCanada, the Canadian company behind the project, has already started  construction on the $2.3 billion southern segment, calling it the Gulf Coast  Project, which will run from Cushing, Okla., to Nederland, Texas.

The revised pipeline route, altered from the original, curves east of  Nebraska's ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region but would still cross the  Ogallala Aquifer, a source of drinking water and irrigation.

Environmentalists say the pipeline would endanger the Ogallala aquifer in  Nebraska and other states along the route. They ignore the fact that 50,000  existing miles of pipeline already crisscross the U.S., including Nebraska.

Before President Obama, to placate his environmentalist supporters in his  re-election bid, pushed the pipeline decision to 2013, the State Department had  already concluded a three-year study that found the pipeline to not be an  environmental threat.

Read More At IBD:  http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010813-639797-nebraska-key...