TransCanada has applied to the U.S. government for a new permit to build its controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The Calgary-based company expects to begin construction in early 2013, with oil flowing in late 2014 or early 2015.
The line would run from Hardisty, Alta., to Steele City, Neb.
The application will include a new route through Nebraska that will skirt around the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region.
Earlier this year the Obama administration rejected the original $7.6-billion Alberta-to-Texas proposal in its entirety, not because of the pipeline's merits, but because of Republican manoeuvring to speed up the process.
TransCanada plans to go ahead first with the most urgently needed part of the pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to Texas refineries.
That part doesn't need a presidential permit because it doesn't cross an international border.
