The Keystone XL pipeline may avoid the territory officially designated as the "Sand Hills," but Nebraska ranchers tell the governor that land nearby is equally sensitive.

The Keystone XL pipeline is promoted as a huge job creator. But most of the counties along the pipeline route have unemployment rates far below the national average.

Residents in Pavillion, Wyoming, have been saying for some time that gas exploration in the area had ruined their water. Now, the federal Environmental Protection Agency agrees.

Residents near Pavillion, Wyoming, have complained for years that hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract gas from shale formations, has tainted groundwater supplies. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has now found fracking compounds in the region's aquifer.