UPDATE ON PROPOSED KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION

By TONI ELLINGTON

On February 12, 2015, a Nebraska state judge ordered TransCanada Corporation to stop condemnation proceedings against approximately 90 Nebraska residents living in the path of the company’s proposed Keystone Pipeline project.  According to District Judge Mark Kozisek of the Eighth District Court in Nebraska, the rights of the landowners required his ruling.  Judge Kozisek granted a temporary injunction to stop the company from taking land from property owners in the northern half of the state.

The residents claim that the state Public Service Commission must approve pipeline routes in Nebraska.  However, in 2013, the Nebraska legislature passed a bill allowing the Governor, then Dave Heineman, to bypass the Nebraska Public Service Commission on the project.  A state district court struck the law down as unconstitutional.  The matter then went before the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled 4-3 that the Governor did not have authority to bypass the Public Service Commission. This decision was not the final resolution of the issue, however, because under Nebraska law, five Supreme Court judges must agree in order to strike legislation down as unconstitutional.  This is the basis for the property owners’ claims that allowing TransCanada Corporation to acquire the property via condemnation actions would violate the state constitution.

In other news on the proposed Keystone Pipeline, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill approving the pipeline.  On February 13, 2015, Speaker of the House John Boehner signed the bill, sending it on to President Obama.  President Obama has threatened to veto the project, but the White House has said the President will wait to make a decision until after a review by the State Department has been completed.

For updates, stay tuned to this blog, or contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.