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In a small win, Nebraska regulators have denied TransCanada Corp's request to change the route of a Keystone XL pipeline passing through the state which was approved by the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) in November.
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The pipeline's current position is closer to an existing pipeline route down the eastern side of the midwestern state.
Ken Winston, a lawyer for environmental group the Sierra Club, told Reuters he saw the ruling as a win for pipeline opponents.
"The fact that they're having to consider an alternate route and that their motion was denied continues to make it more complicated for TransCanada, and any time it's more complicated, that's a victory for us," Winston said.
TransCanada had filed a motion to amend the route, but the commission overseeing the case voted unanimously against the motion.
Attorneys representing landowners opposed to the pipeline said they consider Tuesday's ruling a setback for the project.
"The PSC clearly recognizes that it voted on a route that was not in the TransCanada application as a route it wanted approved," said attorney David Domina.
"TransCanada knows it is now in a position where it cannot go forward without a tremendous risk of reversal on appeal."
The Keystone XL, which was proposed nearly ten years ago, would run 1,800 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada to Steele City in Nebraska and ships an estimated 590,000 barrel of crude oil per day.
The Trump administration gave the Canadian company a federal permit for the pipeline in March, reversing an Obama-era decision to block the project based on its negative impact on the environment.
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