Just how many red flags do we need to stop the risks of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline? Tarsands is an extreme and dirty form of energy that should be left in the ground and certainly should not be piped across fertile farmland and our water.
Doctors, landowners and citizens are raising the red flags around the tarsands spill in Michigan, around property rights and around health impacts.
Debra Hense is a brave landowner who is standing up to Enbridge, a tarsands company that uses bullying tactics just like TransCanada. She took out a lawn chair and sat right where they wanted to cross her land. Enbridge wants another 25 feet easement to dig up and replace some old pipe on her property. Debra won a temporary restraining order, but not before Enbridge thought they could bully her with bulldozers on her land and tore down at least 50 trees. The court date is scheduled for Sept. 25th and Enbridge cannot come on to her land during this period.
You can watch an interview with Debra, click here.
Citizens started a blog to serve as a watchdog to what Enbridge and local politicians are up to, click here.
Nebraska landowners are joining NEAT to ensure they avoid any uncertain terms in a potential contract with TransCanada, click here.
There is something fundamentally wrong when citizens and landowners have to do all the standing up to these big, oil companies while our elected officials sit on the sidelines. It seems we have officially entered the territory where we as citizens have to pick up where the politicians can’t lift a finger to help protect property rights, water and land.
Texans are also standing up to protect their land. Julia Trigg Crawford and David Daniel are two brave landowners fighting every step of the way to ensure their land is protected and that TransCanada does not continue to trample on Americans’ property rights while putting water and our families health at-risk with their tarsands pipeline.
Julia Trigg appeared on CBC giving an update on her legal case and pushing back on TransCanada, once again, overstating their rights, click here.
NPR just did another story on the risks of tarsands featuring TX landowner David Daniel, listen here.
You can donate to help landowners like David by making a donation:
Doctors are now standing up in Michigan and Canada saying more studies need to be done on short and long term impacts of tarsands mining and spill effects on humans. The Canadian Medical Association announced they are pushing their government to conduct a study. Just a few years ago some doctors were mocked and even bullied so much that they had to stop treating First Nation communities with rare cancers feared to be tied to tarsands extraction.
Michigan doctors are speaking out about health concerns around the tarsands spill. Issues of family health were also briefly mentioned by Pres. Obama last year during his interview with an Omaha TV station. Click here to watch MI doctors speak out.
All of these red flags tell us that the common sense of 65% of Nebraskans who say the TransCanada pipeline should not be built thru the Sandhills or Ogallala Aquifer should be listened to instead of ignored by TransCanada and Gov. Heineman.
The next few months will show us if politicians are on the side of landowners and citizens or on the side of big oil companies. They actually do have a choice and so do we come November 6, 2012.
ACTION
Sign up to be a new energy voter, http://newenergyvoter.org
Send letters and come to events Bold and partner groups are holding over the next few months.
Support David in his fight againt the TransCanada pipeline, donate to the fund to help landowners in NE and TX, https://rally.org/neat/donate
