Today, Congressman Lee Terry announced new legislation to speed up the construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The Congressman’s proposal ignores TransCanada’s bad actor status, flies in the face of last week’s Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality report that highlights specific environmental risks and ignores Governor Heineman’s own concerns regarding the Ogallala Aquifer.

Serious environmental and health concerns about tar sands and the pipeline route mean that TransCanada has run into road blocks at every step of their proposal process. Now, in order to game the system—with Congressman Lee Terry carrying the water—and build a cross-country pipeline behind our backs, TransCanada is trying to split up their proposal into piecemeal sections.

Here we go again Rep. Terry…maybe the 4th or 5th time is the charm with your failed attempts to get an irresponsible pipeline bill passed?

ACTION
You can take action by tweeting or sending a message on FB or calling Rep. Terry (202.225.4155). Let him know why he needs to protect our land and water and stop protecting his corporate big oil sponsors.

Reactions from Nebraskans on Rep. Terry’s Bill

“For Rep. Terry to say there is no controversy on environmental impacts for the northern route and to ignore the risks posed in the recent NDEQ report clearly shows where his loyalty lies, and it’s not with the citizens of Nebraska,” said Jane Wilson, a constituent of Congressman Terry. “If he spent his time representing the citizens of Nebraska as well as he does his Big Oil buddies, concerned citizens wouldn’t have to spend practically every waking moment trying to defend their land and water from foreign corporations who care little about the lives they have to trample across in their quest for profits. Mr. Terry needs to quit being a puppet for Big Oil.” 

“Rep. Terry’s bill should be co-sponsored by the Keystone Kops,” said Jane Kleeb, Director at Bold Nebraska. “In just a few days we will honor the 2-year anniversary of the largest tar sands spill in the United States. Just last week, two reports—one from the NTSB and one from Nebraska’s Department of Environmental Quality—raised red flags about the risks of tar sands to land and water. Despite all indications that tar sands are the wrong choice for the country, Rep. Terry keeps moving forward with this slapdash project. Until Rep. Terry shows a level of serious consideration on the risks versus ‘rewards’ of this type of pipeline, he might as well join the Keystone Kop gang.” 

“Nebraska Farmers Union represents a lot of landowners on the route of the pipeline, yet Congressman Terry has never even attempted to contact us in order to better understand what our members have been telling us in regards to the continued landowner abuses of TransCanada,” said John Hansen, President of Nebraska Farmers Union. “It seems like Rep. Terry is more concerned about making an oil pipeline company from Canada happy than his rural neighbors and Nebraska landowners.   Whether he wants to admit it or not, due process and property rights are important rights–and important enough to talk to landowners to get their perspective based on real experiences.”