There are many perspectives on where - or even if the pipeline should be built.
Here in Nebraska there are many voices - but there are also strong opinions in Canada where that pipe - and the oil running through it - would originate.
10/11's Owen Jensen visited a community dependent on oil sands for money, jobs, and its very identity. Oil is to Alberta what agriculture is to Nebraska.
Fort McMurray Alberta, a long way from Lincoln, Nebraska. A place cold, remote and tucked away in Northern Alberta. This is the epicenter of the oil sands industry.
Oil companies dot the landscape, this massive upgrade facility belongs to Syncrude, they have been here for years mining.
We flew in for a closer look and we soon discovered it is truly an oil town in every sense of the word. If you meet someone who lives there, there's a good chance they work in the oil sands business.
From an economic and cultural standpoint, oil here is like agriculture in Nebraska.
"The oil sands are a dominant employer in the workforce we have here fully," said Mayor Melissa Blake of Fort McMurray.
Fifty-percent of the citizens in this region are working either directly or as a contractor to the oil sands. Anybody else in the community largely is here because they are able to support the force that,s part of that industry.
"It means everything...it revolves around every life here," said Augustina Frempong a Fort McMurray resident.
Every family member is involved in some way in the oil sands. While the industry has provided jobs and hundreds of millions in tax revenue, so too have come the growing pains of this once tiny outpost.
Even though average household income is a staggering $177,000 the cost of housing even more staggering. "The average single family home selling price is about $720,000," said Mayor Blake.
Just go back to that bus stop and it's clear they don't want to
hear about any pipeline controversy or criticism of the oil sands.
"They give my mom a job they mean a lot; they do a lot for us," said Frempong.
