Calgary-Alberta-based TransCanada Corp. announced Friday that it has reapplied for a permit to build the portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that stretches from the Canadian border to Steele City, Nebraska. After being denied the permit earlier this year, TransCanada said it would build the portion of the pipeline that goes from Cushing, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas while it waits for the rest of the pipeline to be approved.
The new application proposes a route with an alternative path though Nebraska, but uses the same paths through Montana and South Dakota. Environmentalists did not want the original pipeline path approved on the basis that it would pass through the sensitive Nebraska Sandhills. TransCanada's new proposal has the pipeline running through the eastern portion of the state. Department of Environmental Quality hearings will begin next week.