OPINION: Pipe down

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February 19, 2012

For something as long and straight as the Keystone XL has attempted to be, the project took a couple of twists and turns in recent weeks.

After the Obama administration decided to postpone the project’s approval, using Nebraska’s concerns about the threat of oil spills to the Ogallala Aquifer to delay a decision until after the next election, the project’s developers announced plans to expand its investment. The pipeline will carry more oil, be more expensive to build and won’t be completed until 2015, developer TransCanada Inc. indicated last week. It now plans to spend an additional $600 million to increase the capacity of the Keystone XL to 830,000 barrels of oil a day and add a 50-mile lateral pipeline to serve refineries in Houston. The 36-inch pipeline had been projected to pump 700,000 barrels a day when the proposal was launched…