KEYSTONE/OIL/PIPELINES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The fight seemed over. Plans to bury an oil pipeline in the Nebraska dirt, through hilly grazing land near the Elkhorn River and flat expanses of corn farther south, had been halted. Farmers and ranchers who spent years opposing the project moved on with their lives.
But suddenly the pipeline from Canada to Nebraska, known as Keystone XL, is back on the table. As President Trump promised on the campaign trail, he has cleared the way for the project, which his predecessor had blocked.
Republican politicians, many union members and some landowners are cheering the pipeline as a way to create jobs and bring more North American oil to market…
State-level permits and easements along the three-state pipeline route are in place in Montana and South Dakota. That leaves Nebraska — where voters overwhelmingly favored Mr. Trump, but where a coalition delayed the pipeline for years during President Barack Obama’s administration — as the best chance to block construction. Nebraska regulators will hear public comment on the project at a 10-hour meeting on Wednesday [4-26-17].
If Ms. Crumly [a local land owner] and her allies prevail, several dozen rural landowners will have triumphed over a transnational energy company and the wishes of their president and governor. If they fail, oil will flow through the Crumly property, in a grassy strip between where cows wander and corn grows.”
-Mich Smith, “Risen From the Grave, Keystone XL Pipeline Again Divides Nebraska,” The New York Times online, April 17, 2017