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TC Energy terminated its project along the proposed 1,200-mile Keystone XL route, last Wednesday.

The company suspended construction in January after President Biden revoked a presidential permit to cross the US - Canada border.

Approximately 300 miles of the $8 billion project was completed.

The pipeline would have carried tarsands from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast in Texas.

Pipeline opponents in the Cornhusker state expressed concerns that any leak along the route would damage the Ogallala Aquifer.

“On behalf of our Ponca Nation we welcome this long overdue news and thank all who worked so tirelessly to educate and fight to prevent this from

coming to fruition. It’s a great day for mother earth,” Larry Wright Jr., chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, said in a statement.

The Canadian-based company still owns easements along Nebraska’s route. The company does not have to abandon the easements since the state approved the pipeline.

In November 2017, the Public Service Commission approved the project.

According to BOLD Nebraska, the organization, along with the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, sent a letter of PSC members, Monday, asking for them to rescind the project.

According to BOLD Nebraska attorney Ken Winston, “Our letter sets out a strong legal and factual basis for the PSC to rescind its permit approving a route for the KXL pipeline.”

Brad Jolly, an attorney for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska wrote, “The continued existence of a route which triggers the right of a private company to take land for a pipeline that cannot and will not be built is a cloud on both private and public lands across Nebraska, including important cultural, historic, agricultural and environmental lands. The approved route creates a permanent commitment of lands for a project that no longer exists - a commitment in favor of a company with a record of bad faith behavior.”

Two Nebraska legislators - senators Eliot Bostar and Adam Morfeld - communicated with the PSC in May and urged them to protect Nebraska landowners.

Morfeld’s letter to PSC commissioners expressed concerns about TC Energy’s “condemnation actions against Nebraskans across this state.

‘“Those condemnation actions would result in taking Nebraska land forever for a project that cannot be built and is subjecting Nebraska landowners and citizens to ongoing costs and uncertainty,” Morfeld said.