THANK YOU to all the Pipeline Fighters and Water Protectors who joined the March to Give Keystone XL the Boot on Sunday, Aug. 6th in Lincoln — and everyone who made their voices heard at the four public hearings and in their written comments we delivered to the Nebraska Public Service Commission.

Together with our coalition partners, we submitted over 460,000 public comments urging the Nebraska Public Service Commission to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline because it’s not in the public interest. Under Nebraska’s laws, your comments will be considered as part of the official record to be considered by the PSC in making it’s decision, and Nebraskans thank you for your solidarity.

VIDEO: Jane Kleeb speaks at rally to deliver NoKXL comments to the PSC HQ in Lincoln on Thursday.

INTERVENOR HEARINGS

During the critical PSC intervenor hearings in Lincoln, Dave Domina and Brian Jorde — the attorneys for the Nebraska landowners who have for years been standing together to fight eminent domain and refusing to sell their land to TransCanada for KXL’s tarsands export pipeline — put TransCanada’s witnesses through the ringer with tough and thorough cross-examination. [1]

Our side’s attorneys — who also included Bold & Sierra Club Ken Winston, Nicole Frank and Sarah Houston, and attorneys Jennifer Baker for the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and Brad Jolly for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska — exposed concerns with TransCanada’s application such as:

• Nebraska farmers and ranchers testified that KXL threatens their fragile, highly permeable sandy soils, whom many have spent decades restoring to pristine conditions, and the water wells they depend on for their families, cattle and irrigation. [2]

• Tribal attorneys Baker and Jolly established that TransCanada did not properly consult with Yankton Sioux or Ponca, or survey the historic Ponca Trail of Tears and other burial and sacred sites that KXL would cross. [3]

• UNO Economics Professor Michael O’Hara testified that rural land values along the KXL route would fall by 15 percent, because of the risks of spills, deterrence to development, and expensive monitoring for contamination. [4]

• Bold and Sierra Club established that TransCanada’s route threatens endangered whooping cranes — just 400 exist in the world — in addition to at least one known bald eagle’s nest. [5]

• TransCanada was exposed for having hired an economist to submit and Economic / Jobs projection for KXL that he had originally prepared for the “Consumer Energy Alliance,” a fake consumer group created by Big Oil. [6]

On the first day of testimony, attorney Dave Domina tried to get a TransCanada witness to explain the company’s inarguably shady, “19-level” corporate structure clouding the ownership of Keystone XL, eventually having to refer the witness to an organizational map in the exhibits to try to pin down just who is responsible to Nebraska landowners in these bullying contracts they’re being asked to sign.

The “perpetual” (forever) easement contracts give ownership of Nebraskans’ farmland to a foreign corporation — or, maybe to some other foreign corporation in China or somewhere that TransCanada decides to sell that land to.

At the conclusion of the hearing on Thursday, Bold Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb stood with landowners and spoke about the next steps in the Public Service Commission’s review of Keystone XL.

VIDEO: Jane Kleeb and landowners speak at Keystone XL press conference after hearing concludes.

NEXT STEPS

The Public Service Commission will now review TransCanada’s permit application; all of the nearly half-million NoKXL written public comments submitted and transcripts from the four public hearings; and this week’s proceedings at the intervenor hearings in Lincoln.

Attorneys will submit their closing arguments as written briefs due on Sept. 15th; all sides will then file final “reply” briefs in response to the other parties’ closing briefs, due Sept. 25th. Then, the Public Service Commission will review the entire record, and render its decision no later than Nov. 23rd. [7]

The PSC could reject or approve TransCanada’s permit application, or put stipulations on approval of the application — like mandating that TransCanada place KXL near its first “Keystone 1” pipeline route through Nebraska, which avoids large parts of the Sandhills and the shallowest section of the Ogallala aquifer.

Which ever way the PSC rules, either side is then expected to appeal the PSC’s decision to the Nebraska Court of Appeals.

We can’t do the work we do without your support. Donate $25 now to help Bold stop Keystone XL.

Thanks for continuing to stand with us. 

Mark Hefflinger and the Bold Nebraska team

REFERENCES:

[1] “Attorney Grills Company Officials in Keystone XL Hearing,” Associated Press, 8/7/17.

[2] “Opponents question route choice during 2nd day of Keystone XL pipeline hearing,” Lincoln Journal Star, 8/8/17.

[3,5] “Sides spar on Keystone XL’s impact on whooping cranes, Native American artifacts,” Lincoln Journal Star, 8/9/17.

[4] “UNO professor tells PSC that Keystone XL pipeline would hurt land values along route,” Omaha World-Herald, 8/10/17.

[6] “First day of hearing puts TransCanada on the witness stand,” E&E News, 8/8/17.

[7] “Keystone XL hearing wraps up; opponents vow to ‘put our bodies on the line’ if pipeline approved,” Lincoln Journal Star, 8/10/17.