TransCanada to Seek Approval for Building Keystone in Pieces

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-06/transcanada-to-seek-approval-for-building-keystone-in-pieces-2-.html

TransCanada plans to submit within weeks a new permit application for its $7.6 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline that won’t include either a new route through Nebraska or a segment from Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The U.S. State Department, which rejected a proposal in January over concerns about the pipeline’s path through environmentally sensitive parts of Nebraska, told the Calgary- based company that it may make a decision on a new application by March 2013, according to TransCanada President of Energy and Oil Pipelines Alex Pourbaix.

The company plans to begin construction by June on a pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Texas refineries that was originally part of the Keystone XL proposal, Pourbaix said in an interview at CERAWeek, a Houston conference held by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. That segment may be completed in the second half of next year, he said.

“This is the most exhaustively reviewed pipeline in the history of the United States (UNG),” Pourbaix said. “All that work has been done over the past two or three years. It would be very, very surprising to us if the vast majority of that record was not adopted verbatim into the new permit.”

[leftyohiolib]

1. the way to hell is paved in baby steps