The twists and turns of the Keystone Pipeline in 2011

We found a good look back at the Keystone XL pipeline’s twists and turns – politically, that is – in a recent edition of the Omaha World-Herald.

Reporter Paul Hammel recounts that when the Nebraska Sierra Club first asked state politicos in early 2011 to hold a special legislative session seeking to reroute the $7 billion project, the club’s officials were laughed at. Gov. Dave Heineman told them “such a session would be a $10,000-a-day waste of time and money,” the story said.

But a long, hot summer of local resistance, coupled with a federal delay, brought on the block of a project once thought to be easily approved. By fall, the governor had switched gears.

Heineman, prompted by an outcry over a potential threat to the Ogallala Aquifer beneath the state's unspoiled Sand Hills, made an abrupt about-face and called lawmakers back to Lincoln.

After a series of fortuitous developments, including a federal delay in reviewing the project, Nebraska lawmakers passed two bills regulating crude-oil pipelines. The state also got what most people wanted: an agreement to reroute the 36-inch, 29 million-gallon-a-day crude-oil pipeline around the Sand Hills.

"It was a Nebraska miracle," said State Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm, who first proposed the idea of a special session.

The transition of the pipeline from a back-burner concern of a small band of environmentalists to a red-hot controversy was one of the major Nebraska stories of 2011.

The issue pitted big oil against a determined group of ranchers and a well-organized opposition, rounded up by Bold Nebraska's Jane Kleeb and others.

It raised awareness about the shallow groundwater and fragile soils of the sparsely settled Sand Hills, where cattle outnumber people by a long stretch.

It was a battle of engineering versus common sense, construction jobs versus an expensive and environmentally costly form of synthetic crude oil from Canadian tar sands, and oil that could be obtained from a North American ally instead of unstable dictators and Middle Eastern sheiks.

The story has some killer quotes – “You don’t mess with Sand Hills ranchers” – and some good comment from the appropriately named Legislative Speaker, Sen. Mike Flood, who said of Nebraskans, “Water is connected to our soul.”

Our coverage this year has included many stories from our partners at NET Radio, including reports from Harvest's Clay Masterson.

And the issue isn't over, of course. Just this month, the U.S. House of Representatives sought to revive it, as Harvest's Jeremy Bernfield reported.

Stay tuned to Harvest Public Media in 2012 to watch our continued coverage of this controversial topic.