TransCanada Changes Keystone XL Pipeline Route
The developer of the Keystone XL international pipeline has identified a new corridor that goes around the environmentally sensitive area where the Ogallala Aquifer provides drinking water for millions of people in Nebraska and several other midwestern states.
A TransCanada spokesman says only that it has developed a new corridor, but they're not ready to release details yet. He says that will come in due time.
If it's ever built, the Keystone XL pipeline will carry crude oil from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. The planned route through Texas will take it across the western edge of Angelina County.
Landowners in Angelina and other Texas counties on the proposed route are already protesting TransCanada's plans to use powers of eminent domain to get an easement through their land.
Environmental groups are also against the pipeline. The crude oil it will carry comes from Canadian tar sands, and they say it's so dirty it will be prohibitively expensive to refine into usable oil.
It's clear that TransCanada wants to sell its oil. If it can't sell to American refiners, there's speculation that it will build a pipeline to the Canadian west coast and sell its oil to China instead. Not many people think that's a good thing. Stay tuned.
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