Landowners, environmental activists and other opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline met at a State Department hearing in Grand Island, Nebraska last Thursday. Their message was clear: the pipeline risk is not worth the projected reward. The opponents of TransCanada's pipeline believe the project would put Nebraska's water, land and climate at risk. Highlighting this risk, the Arkansas tar sands pipeline recently ruptured. The Keystone XL would be twice as wide and carry nearly nine times more tar sands on a daily basis than the pipeline that ruptured in Arkansas. The activists who showed up at this State Department meeting were not only from Nebraska, but from many other states such as Missouri, Kansas and Colorado. They all expressed similar concerns.
"TransCanada wants exclusive right across Nebraskans' land forever," said Brian Jorde, legal representative for Nebraska Easement Action Team. "Since forever is a fairly long time, we must fight for as many protections as possible—the abilities of farms and ranches to survive another generation depends on it!"
View the entire EcoWatch Keystone XL Pipeline article here.