but they were concerned because of the, you know, the sandhills and the like. once they demanded a different route and then there was an effort to work out a different route, the congress, of course, through an amendment to the payroll tax cut, said, no, you have to make a decision right now. and legally there was no a alternative but to deny the permit that we did not recommend to the president that the answer be no. but that the presidential permit for the project be denied at that time because there would have been, i think, at a con sefrktive estimate, several hundred lawsuits if there had been any other decision made. which would have pushed the -- you know, the decision, whatever it might be, far into the future. >> so are you prepared to do it now, then? >> we have no pending application now. there's no pending application. >> if you had an application, would you approve it now? has all of the other scenarios been -- >> no. congressman we would have to go through the process. because it would be a new application. now, what transcanada is doing is announ

thompson, the route that transcanada propose wod have gone through nebraska's sandhills. even if a new proposed route would avoid the sandhills, won't it still go through the ogala section? >> we don't know whether they're proposing a new route. that's a problem. from what i've heard and what initial proposals they were talking about it would still cross it. >> what is the risk if that happens? if there's a spill? >> absolutely there's a risk if that happens. >> what would happen to the water table? >> well, if i could quickly explain. our water table is so high that pipeline would actually be merged or submerged directly in the water in many places. >> wow. >> so if any type of leak, it's going to go into our wear the supply. >> wow. and what would the impact of that be? >> well, it could be from small to tremendous. i mean you got all kinds of small communities and like myself, i have livestock watering wells, i have irrigation wells that will be close to the pipeline. they become contaminated, that property is become virtually useless. >> and how do you feel about that

but our governor asked transcanada to move it off the sandhills, so that letter and testimony is on the old route. that's what's causing the confusion here. there is no new route because the permit has been denied and nobody knows if they're supposed to move forward and determine a new route. that's why we have written in here the specifics about entering into a memorandum of understanding and carving out specifically nebraska from this, so that they can proceed to determine a route at which then the pipeline company will sit down and negotiate and then use nebraska law if necessary. >> well, reclaiming my time, i appreciate that. when does nebraska come up with its route? >> well, when the president denied the permit for this pipeline, according to the governor's office they were within a week to ten days of announcing a new site and beginning the environmental. they have not announced the site because they don't know if they're moving forward or not. so it could be any time, but they need to know which agency they work with. under the past application, the state department said they w

and we looked at routes that avoided the sandhills. we looked at routes that took short little jogs and made different changes. the environmental impact statement did not identify any of those alternative routes. >> we're leaving this keystone xl hearing from last month to return to the capitol for the second panel in today's keystone hearing. we're expecting remarks today from the representative of transcanada corporation among others. >> -- come back and ask questions. since they're not here, i am going to recognize mr. billboard for three minutes to say whatever he wanted to say about the corps of engineer or whatever the issue was. >> thank you, pletsch. and mr. chairman, i appreciate you giving me the time. it is frustrating that you think you have an agreement and i think some of these questions are important. i will raise them even with the army corps here. i have a little experience in 404 permit. i was actually cited or given my miranda rights for a potential violation of the 404 permit because i was involved in damming up sewa

and even with their voluntary agreement to move the pipeline out of the sandhills, we remain very skeptical. many nebraskans, including myself, view transcanada as an overly aggressive company who thought they could come in and intimidate and bully their way across our state. and having witnessed transcanada's actions during the application process has made us worry on what they would do if they were empowered by a premature permit. and i fear that an early permit would place a tremendous amount of pressure on the state of nebraska to hurry through its review process. transcanada has been granted plenty of free passes and now they seek yet another. they want their political allies to free them from the tangled mess that they themselves helped to create. perhaps it's time for the free passes to come to an end. if the keystone xl truly has america, then it should be able to withstand a rigorous and comprehensive review that it deserves and has not gotten. if this type line is built, thousands of us in the heart lands will have to live and work next to it for the rest of our lives. and probabl

. >> reporter: the sandhill cranes are early birds returning to lincoln county, nebraska, a month aheade is confused. scientists are reluctant to pin any one weather event on climate change, but they say there is no question that our warming world is shifting our odds away from a traditional winter as we have known it. i'm anne thompson in central park. back to you. >> anne thompson, thank you. up next, it may not be that cold today but we'll pretend it is. we have three soups delicious for any time of year. first, this is "today" on nbc. >> announcer: today's kitchen is brought to you by ro-tel and velveeta, together their queso dip makes any get-together better. >> this morning in today's kitchen, what's on the menu? hearty winter soups. >> david myers is chef and founder of a restaurant in los angeles. david, good morning. >> good morning, guys. i have a french onion soup for you today. how do you feel about it? >> it smells amazing. >> i love it. >> it's not expensive and you can make it any time of year. >> this is one of the first soups i learned to make. it's so easy. it's great

route as we originally applied for, with the exception of a reroute around the sensitive areas of the sandhillsnebraska. and as i said, we'll be able to use the environmental review from that process as well. you know, we've acquired approximately 90% of the right of way for that route. so i wouldn't expect to see very many changes in that reapplication from the previous application. >> all right. well, we're glad you're going to reapply. let me just ask you. prime minister harper was over in china there was a memorandum of understanding. i actually read it. your consul general in new york city was kind enough to give it to me a couple of weeks ago. if you're still going to build north-south, can you build east-west at the same time? i'm asking you and your company transcanada. does one rule out the other, or can both fly at the same time? >> the oil sands is going to grow by probably 2 to 3 million barrels a day over the coming decade or two. as well we've seen significant growth in the williston basin both in montana and north dakota. that growth and production is going to require a pipeline

he said he would not approve the pipeline through the ecologically fragile sandhills area in nebraska, but the state department would consider an alternative route. nebraska is taking the time to find an alternative route, and the president is making sure he has all the information he needs to make the right decision. if mr. terry really wants to let the experts at ferc do their job, he may wish to take this legislation back to the drawing board. as currently drafted this bill simply turns ferc into a yes man for this project. the tar sands pipeline is a bad idea and so is this bill. yield back the time. >> gentleman yields back. members wishing to speak on the amendment in the nature of a substitute. seeing none, there are any bipartisan amendments to this substitute? seeing none, are there any amendments to the substitute members are wishing to offer? gentleman from illinois. >> i have an amendment. >> if the clerk will read the title of the amendment. >> amendment offered by mr. rush of illinois, amendment in the nature of a substitute. >> the amendment will be considered as read a

. >> reporter: the sandhill cranes are early birds, returning to lincoln county, nebraska, a month aheadf schedule. so, yes, even nature is confused. now scientists are unwilling to win any one weather event on climate change but they say there is no question that our warming world is shifting the odds against a traditional winters as we have known them. >> anne thompson in central park where it will hit 60-something today. >> mr. roker is in washington, d.c. with more on the weather. good morning. >> hey, guys. we are looking at unusually warm weather as you noted in ann's piece. in fact, we are talking about a la nina year. that means warmer than usual winters and we are seeing that. the jet stream does take a little bit of a dip down to the south. but the cold air up in canada really not moving. so that means we've got scattered record highs in the midatlantic states. northeast, above normal temperatures. through the south. minneapolis will be 19 degrees above normal. in d.c. approaching 70. it will be 25 degrees above normal. albany with a high of 50. 20 degrees above normal. dallas,

the western sandhill sandhills f nebraska included something called the ogallala aquifer. now, the ogallala aquifer, obviously very important for water supply and for irrigation. that's here in western nebraska. so that concern has been raised. so we put forward legislation that addresses that issue. we put forward legislation that follows the lead of the state of nebraska and says, we will reroute the pipeline in nebras nebraska. for example, rerouting it over here where there's already the existing keystone pipeline. but in the legislation that we've put forward, we say we will reroute the pipeline in nebraska, that issue will be fully addressed, and we do not set a time line on doing it. and we expressly provide that we work with the state of nebraska to do it. nebraska had a special session in november. after their special session, where we all agreed to do the rerouting, they came out, the state of nebraska, their legislature and their governor and their senators support the project. they say, yes, we need to move forward with the project. as you can see, there are ma