Nebraska Court Decision to Delay Keystone XL

Suddenly, the move in Colorado for the northeasternmost five counties to secede from Colorado could become relevant. The problem in Nebraska has always been that Keystone provides very little for Nebraska beyond a few construction jobs. A new route for Keystone, laborious as it would be to get it through the approval process, from South Dakota into Wyoming and bypassing Nebraska entirely would be an alternative, but for the fact that Colorado is a relatively liberal state, (even if such a route would also tie into the Niobrara Shale and Wattenberg Basins) in SE Wyoming and NE Colorado). But if the Northeast counties of Colorado can secede, which might just be possible if a) the Republicans win control of both Houses of the Colorado Legislature and b) the Republicans keep the US House of Representatives and gain six Senate seats) an alternative alignment for Keystone suddenly becomes feasible again. And because of the vagarieites of water use in the area, it might be feasible to get approval also for several Wyoming counties that are chronically whort of water and the also water short Nebraska panhandle counties to become part of this Niobrara state as well, since such a state could use the downstream fkow of the South Platte River from Denver to bring water to places such as the Lodgepole Creek watershed (Cheyuenne WY and Sidney NB and perhaps even as far as the North Platte (Torrington WY and Scottsbluff NB and perhaps even the upper Niobrara Basin (Lusk WY and CHadron NB). Wyoming might well approve such a measure (which would create another reliably Republican "red " state, even though it would mean moving the state capital from Cheyenne (perhaps to more centrally located Casper or even Lander WY), since Cheyenne has no water with which to grow as it stands now and Wyoming cannot afford to build a water pipeline from the Green River and perhaps even a diversion of Wyoming's allocation of the Snake River into the Green River. And Nebraska might well decide that it is well rid of it's western counties, particularly if it means another "red" state. Lots of possibilities here, as the two parties jockey for permament governing majorities. THere is nothing sacred about having only 50 states if one party gets the chance for a permament majority by increasing the m,umber of "safe" states for it.