TransCanada deadline to accept Keystone XL easement deals today

The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline has a message for Nebraska landowners resisting the project: the sweet financial offers are going, going, gone.

TransCanada Corp. says today is the deadline for holdout landowners to sign easement deals allowing the pipeline onto their property and any deals they make in the future will be less generous.

That announcement comes as the pipeline battle enters a new phase.

Until now, offers to landowners have been skyrocketing, but the effort to entice landowners into agreements may now be taking a back seat to other concerns.

The Obama administration has delayed making a decision on whether to approve the project while a Nebraska court decides whether resistant landowners should be forced to allow the pipeline through their property.

About one-fifth of Nebraskans who live on the route are holding out and, while the company says it still wants to reach deals with them, it won't be offering the same sums any longer.