Brian Jorde, a Nebraska trial attorney from Domina Law Group, was recently featured in an Omaha World Herald article discussing the Keystone XL pipeline alternative route. There is an alternative route, said Jorde, which would add only about 50 miles to the pipeline in order to avoid the Sand Hills region of Nebraska. There is another route that would add approximately 100 miles in the region that crosses South Dakota while taking 50 miles of pipeline away from Nebraska.
A TransCanada rep called Jorde's proposal a mere ploy to stall the project even longer than it's already been stalled. TransCanada also stated that changing the route in this way would require them to obtain a new environmental analysis, a process which could take years to complete and potentially kill the project altogether. In response, Jorde said that since South Dakota has already given TransCanada the right to eminent domain, adding pipeline in that state would probably cause fewer delays than the original plan.
Omaha World Herald report
Journal Star report