This past weekend, I had the pleasure of joining nearly 1,000 people in Lincoln, Nebraska who came together, once again, to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. On the eve of a week of hearings before the Public Service Commission, where that body will consider whether to approve TransCanada’s proposed route for the pipeline, hundreds of landowners, Native American government officials and community members, climate activists, ranchers, farmers, high school students, college students, faith leaders and more came together in a beautiful rally and march around the state capitol to “Give Keystone XL the Boot.”
Speakers at the rally included several Native American leaders, including Chairman Larry Wright Jr. of the Ponca Tribe, Chairman Harold Fraizer of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and Chairman Michael Wolf of the Omaha Tribe. Chairman Wright spoke about the unprecedented alliance of the five Nebraska tribes who recently came together to form the Nebraska Intertribal Alliance and to sign a declaration, unanimously opposed to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. He talked about how it feels to have a foreign entity come in and steal your land – something he and other speakers reminded the crowd had happened to his people, but that he doesn’t wish on his Nebraska brothers and sisters today. Landowner (and Sierra Club member) Art Tanderup brought tears to the crowds’ eyes, telling us about a conversation over lunch he had recently with tribal leaders on his land, which is currently threatened by the proposed route of the pipeline, and how those native friends had promised to help him defend his land from seizure by TransCanada, even though, as Art put it, his ancestors had so unfairly stolen their land before. He stressed that this is what love and kindness can look like – something we need to hold up in this world now more than ever.
Tribal youth led the march. Photo credit Shannon Graves
After the rousing speeches, the crowd marched around downtown Lincoln and in front of the Cornhusker Hotel, where the Public Service Commission began intervenor hearings this week. The five-member body of elected commissioners will hear from expert witnesses, and attorneys representing landowners, concerned citizens, tribes, and environmental organizations who have formally intervened in the proceedings against the project during a series of grueling hearings all week.
These quasi-judicial hearings are the culmination of a series of public hearings held along the proposed route of the pipeline over the past month and a half, where hundreds of concerned Nebraskans expressed their opposition to the project by more than a 2:1 margin. They talked about the risk of spills from the project and the devastation that would have on their land and the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides critical irrigation and drinking water for millions of people. They talked about the tribal treaty rights that would be violated by so many aspects of this project. They talked about the fierce opposition to the use of eminent domain by a foreign oil company to seize private property. They talked about the impacts of the tar sands on our climate, water, and land. They highlighted the fact that Nebraska is simply a crossroads for this dangerous project and would only bear the risk and no reward for this project (even the purported property tax revenue would be much less than TransCanada asserts due to loopholes and exemptions).
There are so many reasons that this project is not in Nebraska or the country’s interest, the PSC members only need to decide which side they’ll stand on – with the ranchers, farmers, and tribes of Nebraska, with our climate, air, land, and water, or with a foreign company fighting to seize private land and ship dangerous tar sands across their state?
There’s still time to add your voice and tell the PSC that Keystone XL is not in the best interest of Nebraska or the country. Send a message today: http://sc.org/kxl