O’NEILL, Neb. (AP) — A judge has scheduled an Oct. 19 trial date on a Holt County lawsuit aimed at keeping TransCanada Corp. from seizing land to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
District Judge Mark Kozisek set the date during a hearing on Monday in O’Neill.
In January TransCanada filed legal papers in nine Nebraska counties to invoke eminent domain for the land that’s needed to construct, operate and maintain the pipeline. It would go from Canada through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Pipeline opponents also want to overturn a state law that allowed then-Gov. Dave Heineman to approve the pipeline’s route through the state in 2013.