One sentence in South Dakota law is causing TransCanada to ask the Public Utilities Commission to re-approve its siting permit for the path of its proposed Keystone XL Pipeline through the state.

The pipeline that would carry heavy tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast has been tied up in politics between President Obama and its mainly Republican supporters in Congress.

PUC Commissioner Chris Nelson said Wednesday that the law requires TransCanada to face the commission—and opponents—again--since they didn’t start building the project, regardless of the reasons.

“We’ve got a one sentence state law that says if you’ve got a siting permit and you don’t start construction within four years, you have to come back in and show the conditions on which it was issued have not changed,” Nelson said.

The preliminary hearing is Dec. 9 in Pierre, where the commission will have to work through some sticky issues.

“TransCanada has filed a motion to limit the discovery that’s involved in this process,” Nelson said. “A number of the interveners wanted to talk about wanting to bring a number of things in this case that TransCanada believes are really outside the purview of the case, things like climate change and what’s going on in Canada with the tar sands.”

The commission will also need to set a hearing schedule. There are 43 interveners certified by the PUC, several of whom are Nebraskans.

Nelson said that if the PUC denied reissuing the siting permit, it could stop or slow the project. He said TransCanada then would need to exhaust its appeals in South Dakota before proceeding or have to go around the state.

More From KYBB-FM / B102.7