Today a Nebraska commission handed TransCanada the final permit it needed to build its long-contested Keystone XL pipeline, a decision which did not consider the company’s previous safety violations. The decision to approve the international pipeline comes despite a major oil spill just a few days earlier from the company’s Keystone l line in South Dakota. Pipeline opponents vowed to appeal the approval, which was for a different, slightly longer and more expensive route through Nebraska than the one TransCanada preferred. While not a complete victory for the company, Ken Winston , a lawyer representing environmental groups against the pipeline, explained that the alternative route presents the same kind of environmental problems as the preferred one. He pointed out that TransCanada brought up many problems with the alternative route, which he plans to mention in his appeal. A few days into the presidency, Trump reversed President Obama’s Keystone XL […]