WASHINGTON — Democrats made a bid Tuesday to stop TransCanada's ability to use eminent domain in building its Keystone XL pipeline.
The move came during a committee hearing on legislation sponsored by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., to force approval of the 1,700-mile pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., offered an amendment barring TransCanada from initiating or threatening to initiate eminent domain in order to obtain rights-of-way for the $7 billion project.
Nebraskan Randy Thompson, whose family owns land crossed by the originally proposed route, has testified that TransCanada has been an overly aggressive bully trying to push landowners around as it secures easements for the project.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said TransCanada has been threatening eminent domain to get the rights to people's land.
"This is an imperious approach," Waxman said.
Republicans countered that eminent domain procedures are laid out in state law, which would be overturned by Rush's amendment. They also said the amendment would allow a single landowner opposed to a pipeline to stop the project by refusing to negotiate with the company.
The amendment was defeated on a voice vote.
The committee also debated an amendment by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to require oil from the pipeline to stay in the United States.
Markey said the pipeline poses environmental hazards in the form of increased greenhouse gas emissions and oil spills but said the country should be assured of reaping the benefits of that oil.
Republicans said that most of the oil will remain in the country but that some could be refined into products such as diesel fuel and exported to Europe or other destinations.
They said that was good for the United States' trade balance and for the country's manufacturing base. A vote on Markey's amendment was postponed until later in the day.
Terry has offered his own amendment to address concerns raised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management that Terry's proposal would eliminate their role in the review process. The Corps reviews pipelines when they cross rivers, while the bureau negotiates rights-of-way when pipelines cross federal lands.
Terry's bill would transfer authority over the pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and require FERC to approve the project within 30 days.
Terry said his amendment makes it clear the only authority being handed to FERC is regarding the presidential permit.
The Obama administration rejected the project last month, saying it did not have enough time for the necessary review work before a Feb. 21 deadline that Republicans included in the payroll tax cut extension. Pipeline opponents point out that while TransCanada has agreed to move the pipeline out of the Sand Hills, it has yet to identify the new route.
Bold Nebraska, which opposes the pipeline, was set to unveil a new online campaign Tuesday aimed at highlighting what the group describes as "flip-flopping" on the pipeline issue by Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican.
Republicans say after more than three years of review, it's time to get construction started and that their proposals include exemptions for the ongoing process of finding a new Nebraska route.
It's unclear whether Terry's bill stands any chance of winning approval by the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats. House Republicans could try attaching it to the next payroll tax cut extension or an infrastructure bill.
Contact the writer:
202-630-4823, joe.morton@owh.com
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