LINCOLN, Neb. ? Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman on Tuesday approved a new route for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline that avoids the state's environmentally sensitive Sandhills but passes over the Ogallala aquifer, a massive groundwater supply.
The Republican governor sent a letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saying he would allow the pipeline to proceed through his state.
Pipeline opponents have urged the president to deny a federal permit for the project, which is required because the Canada-to-Texas pipeline crosses an international border. Obama rejected the original proposal last year but later agreed to let construction begin on a southern leg starting in Cushing, Okla.
The project has faced some of its strongest resistance in Nebraska from a coalition of landowners and environmental groups that says it would contaminate the aquifer.
The company behind the pipeline, TransCanada, has agreed to keep the project out of the Sandhills, a region of erodible, grass-covered sand dunes. But Heineman said in his letter that the new, 195-mile route would cross a small part of the aquifer.
The pipeline's critics remain firmly opposed.
"Gov. Heineman just performed one of the biggest flip-flops that we've seen in Nebraska political history," said Jane Kleeb, executive director of the group Bold Nebraska.
TransCanada's pipeline is designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The company also has proposed connecting it to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.
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