EDITORIAL: Keystone moves on, slowly

OPINION:

Let the building begin. Well, almost.

The Keystone pipeline is inching slowly forward. After more than a decade of back-and-forth bickering between Republicans and Democrats, between business interests and radical environmentalists, the State Department of the Trump administration has finally given its permission, as required by law, to let the oil flow. TransCanada, the company that is building Keystone, praises the new president for clearing the stones, stumps and twigs remaining in the way.

And soon, let the jobs explosion begin. The estimated number of jobs to be generated by this pipeline, which runs from the Canadian province of Alberta through several states to refineries on the Gulf Coast, is more than 40,000. That’s enough to buy a lot of groceries.

There’s still one small kink to straighten. Nebraska still must put its signature on the deal. Keystone opponents have discovered a little-known agency, the Nebraska Public Service Commission, that must approve. The opponents are now seeking required permission to file legal briefs and formally cross-examine prospective plaintiffs. Nebraska law requires these prospective plaintiffs to prove “substantial legal interest” in any matter in which they wish to intervene.

There’s a scurry now to find someone with whom to sue. Certain Indian tribes are expected to tell the Nebraska agency that the pipeline will destroy their heritage by crossing the Ponca Trail of Tears. Environmentalists are expected to argue that the pipeline will damage water sources.

But these are twelfth-hour arguments. The biggest hurdle in the way of Keystone was Barack Obama, and he’s gone. The rest of the process, resisted as it is by the left and the farther left, can continue. The ghosts of Indians lingering on the Ponca Trail of Tears, like the splashing of the source of water along the trail of the lonesome pipeline, have been heard before. Lawyers have a talent for making work for other lawyers, but lawyers for TransCanada should be able to make quick and judicious work of the twelfth-hour appeals.