TransCanada, after suffering a blow from Nebraska landowners and the Domina Law Group, is trying their best to pretend the basic fact of not having a legal route in Nebraska is no big deal. In fact, it’s a huge deal. Attorney General Jon Bruning and Governor Heineman, siding with a foreign oil corporation, are appealing the decision that invalidated TransCanada’s route, however the appeal does not magically mean the route is valid until their “hail mary” case is heard by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
(Susan Luebbe (left), Susan Dunavan, and Randy Thompson (center), plaintiffs in the Thompson v. Heineman lawsuit, stand together with their attorneys, Brian Jorde (left) and David Domina, on the steps of the Lancaster County Courthouse. Photo by Mary Anne Andrei / Bold Nebraska.)
“Under the Court’s ruling, TransCanada has no approved route in Nebraska. TransCanada is not authorized to condemn the property against Nebraska landowners. The pipeline project is at standstill in this State.”
We detail what the huge win for property rights and our water means in the memo below. Our legal team, headed by Dave Domina, is ready to make our case (again) to the Nebraska Supreme Court. We believe the high court will agree with Judge Stacy’s ruling that Governor Heineman and the Nebraska Legislature violated our state constitution by taking away power to review the pipeline route from the PSC giving it rather to the DEQ and giving TransCanada eminent domain powers before they had all their permits in place.
