As prepared for delivery
Introductory Comments, KXL Nebraska Call
John Kerekes, API Central Region Director
Tuesday, Dec 4, 2012
Good Morning. It is a pleasure to be with you on today’s call. API has been actively engaged in the KXL debate for over four years – starting with the original Keystone pipeline route to Wood River, Illinois, and we have worked with local and state organizations as the Nebraska legislature considered the pipeline over the last year. We were part of the State Department's hearings in Atkinson and Lincoln last year, as well as DEQ/TransCanada “open houses” held in Central City and Albion earlier this year. We will be in Albion later today.
The Nebraska Dept. of Environmental Quality has completed an open and thorough review over the past year of the KXL project, a project API strongly endorses as vital to our nation’s energy security and job creation efforts. Nebraskans and the country can have great confidence in the agency’s work, and should also have confidence in the agency’s Draft Evaluation Report, issued on October 30.
The agency went to extraordinary lengths to gather and analyze all of the pertinent information regarding this significant project, openly shared their work with the citizens of Nebraska, and have welcomed any further comment from the public before submitting a Final Report to Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman. TransCanada has twice moved the route of the pipeline to respond to public concerns and build in greater protection for the environment.
With today’s final public hearing, the DEQ can conclude deliberations on this project, the Governor can make his decision within the next 30 days – which we believe will be supportive of the pipeline – and that decision will be transmitted to the U.S. Dept. of State and the White House. This will conclude the longest pipeline application deliberation in history, which, with Nebraska’s expected support we believe, will result in final approval for the project to commence.
As I said, this pipeline application has been the most studied in history. It is now time to wrap this study up, hold this final hearing, issue a report to the Governor, then let the Governor communicate to the federal government the decision on behalf of the State of Nebraska. Then, let’s get the pipeline approved in Washington and – in the words of our labor allies – “let’s get to work”!