You are a pipeline activist. Because your friends will probably ask you questions about the pipeline at the July 4 BBQs, we thought we should give you an update on where things stand with TransCanada’s risky pipeline and how you can help continue to take action.
Here are 10 updates that will make excellent “beer cooler” conversations this weekend:
1. The State Department listened to you and is scheduling a meeting in Nebraska to hear from landowners and citizens. The meeting will likely take place in Lincoln around August 15th. Watch BoldNebraska.org for more details.
2. Randy Thompson is a landowner who is standing up to TransCanada. He is refusing to sign their “contract” to seize his land. We started an “I Stand with Randy” campaign to show our support of not only Randy but all landowners and citizens who are standing up to TransCanada and their risky tarsands pipeline. You can buy a t-shirt to show your support. You can also pick up a yard sign at the Bold office (new signs available in 2 weeks).
3. Building the American Dream is not a pipe dream and neither is stopping the pipeline. MoveOn and other groups have started a “Rebuild the American Dream” project. We are excited about this and want folks to use the house meetings MoveOn is asking people to host–on July 16 or 17–to talk about energy and the pipeline. We cannot rebuild the American Dream without getting serious about energy and the environment. We encourage you to hold a house meeting with your friends.
4. We even have an agenda item for your “Rebuild the American Dream” house meeting–plan an “I Stand with Randy” event. Aug. 5-7, all across Nebraska, we are asking folks to hold an event to show their support of Randy and to educate others about what’s at stake if we let this pipeline come through our land and water. We will even circle Gov. Heineman’s mansion on Aug. 5 at 9pm. So join us and bring a flashlight!
5. If you are ready to take your activism to an even higher level, national celebrities and leaders want you to join them in front of the White House in Aug. and Sept. to tell President Obama that he needs to stand with Randy and stand by the promise he made to a clean energy economy by denying the TransCanada’s permit to build this risky pipeline.
6. In the second week of July, we will unveil a new report and some other very exciting news. We cannot tell you more than that right now, but watch BoldNebraska.org or our Facebook page for the announcements.
7. York County is doing a great job of not only holding public meetings on the pipeline, but their paper is also doing an excellent job covering the meetings. We applaud the York County Commissioners and encourage you to read the articles.
8. Rep. Terry introduced an awful and reckless bill that would put a Nov. 1 deadling on the pipeline permit decision even if Sec. Clinton and states along the pipeline route need more time to finish studies on safety and routing. If you see him around town, tell him how disappointed you are in his reckless bill. If you want a two pager of facts on the bill, click here.
9. TransCanada continues to lie to small towns and landowners about the “benefits” of the pipeline. A great site to look at for info is Dirty Oil Sands. Remember, the oil is NOT guaranteed for the United States and only 10-12% of the jobs will go to Nebraskans (which means about 120 jobs for about 3 months compared to 7,000+ long-term ethanol jobs in our state).
10. TransCanada and their allies like to say their pipeline is no big deal since thousands of pipelines already cross the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. This is simply not true. While Nebraska has many water and natural gas pipelines, we are not an oil state. The oil pipelines we do have are small and carry traditional crude oil. TransCanada’s pipeline is a large-scale project that carries the dirtiest form of oil, tarsands, that contains chemicals like Benzene. Their pipeline also pumps this oil at very high temperatures and high pressure. Their oil is 16 times more corrosive than traditional oil which means more spills, and this is proven by TransCanada’s first Keystone pipeline that has already had 12 spills in 12 months (when they’ve told citizens that there would only be 1 spill every 7 years).
