Nebraska landowners and environmentalists seeking to stop the Keystone XL pipeline today filed a court challenge to a law enacted by their state Legislature to fast-track approval of a new route for the $5.3 billion Canada-to-U.S. project.

The lawsuit filed in Nebraska's Supreme Court argues the pipeline statute violates the state constitution by giving Gov. Dave Heineman (R) the power to greenlight a final route for Keystone XL and attendant eminent domain authority for sponsor TransCanada Corp. without due process or judicial review.

Pipeline critics also contest the state law's shifting of jurisdiction over any new route from the Public Service Commission to the Department of Environmental Quality, whose chief is a Heineman appointee.

"I feel it is not in the best interest of Nebraska, nor the citizens of Nebraska, to have our legislators crafting special legislation to meet the specific demands of an individual corporation," said Randy Thompson, the rancher who aligned with environmentalists to help lead opposition to building the pipeline through the Ogallala Aquifer.

"I am also strongly opposed to the eminent domain provisions of this bill, which, as written, would allow a foreign corporation to condemn Nebraska properties prior to having a permit to construct their project within our borders."

Alberta-based TransCanada last year agreed to change the route of Keystone XL through Nebraska following a groundswell of green opposition that drew a postponement of its federal permit by President Obama (E&E Daily, Nov. 15, 2011).

But the new path focused on avoiding the state's Sandhills region, which overlays the aquifer, and some of the activists supporting today's court challenge charge the company and Nebraska officials with using a loose designation of the Sandhills in crafting the new route.

Soon after TransCanada agreed to pursue a route that avoided the Sandhills, Nebraska's unicameral Legislature passed a bill that gave the Public Service Commission authority to conduct public hearings and environmental analysis of the pipeline company's proposal. The measure signed by Heineman last month shifts that authority to DEQ leader Mike Linder, named as a defendant in today's suit alongside the governor and Don Stenberg, the state treasurer who recently lost a high-profile GOP primary bid to replace retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) (Greenwire, April 11).

Click here to read a copy of the Nebraska lawsuit.