LINCOLN – State lawmakers have a role to play, and should take an aggressive one in protecting the state’s water and landowners from potential problems associated with pipelines.
That was the message delivered Wednesday as more than 100 people demonstrated on the steps of the Nebraska State Capitol in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL crude-oil pipeline, which would cross a portion of the fragile and groundwater-rich Sand Hills.
The U.S. Department of State is deciding whether to approve the pipeline because it would cross an international border in carrying tar-sand oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
State officials, including Gov. Dave Heineman, have insisted that the state is powerless to affect the project since it is being reviewed by a federal agency.
But speakers at Wednesday’s rally said that was incorrect.
“This is not just a federal issue. We’re here to tell them they do have a role,” said Jane Kleeb, a rally organizer and founder of the BOLD Nebraska website.
She said that other states, namely Montana, South Dakota and Kansas, have enacted state laws that require routing of pipelines around environmentally sensitive areas and protect landowners.
Kleeb, whose husband Scott ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2008 and for the 3rd District House seat in 2006, said that at least two state lawmakers are looking at introducing legislation this year.
She said, for instance, that the state should enact laws to prevent pipeline developer TransCanada, Inc., from threatening the use of eminent domain until their project is federally permitted, and to clarify that landowners have no liability for pipeline leaks.
A TransCanada official have said they are making every attempt to negotiate easements without resorting to eminent domain, and that current state law allows them to use that power prior to gaining a federal permit.
Company spokesman Terry Cunha said that 98 percent of landowners along an existing pipeline that crosses eastern Nebraska agreed to contracts without going to court.
Wayne Frost of the Nebraska Farmer’s Union, which opposes the pipeline, said that he has talked to landowners in the St. Paul/Greeley area who were “pressured” recently by teams of TransCanada officials into signing contracts. Frost said they were told to sign now or risk getting 25- to 50-percent less for easements if they went to court through the eminent domain process.
Cunha said TransCanada is offering above market rates and that going to court would likely result in a lower payment but that information “would never be used as a threat.“
“We want to build long-lasting relationships with these landowners,” he said.
This summer, U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., criticized the company for a threatening letter it sent to landowners. Johanns later asked the company to consider rerouting the pipeline to avoid passing over the Ogallala Aquifer. U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has also raised concerns.
Heineman, in October, wrote a letter stating that he shared Nebraska’s concerns that a “safe route” be picked.
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