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TransCanada used local land agents to secure easements and was more flexible about routing before building the Keystone One pipeline that traverses eastern Nebraska, but took a different tact on Keystone XL.
This time around, the company created a public relations mess with hardball tactics like flying a helicopter over the cattle herd of one holdout landowner, spooking the cows into running through a fence, Hansen said. Or calling a widow a dozen times a day and telling her if she didnt sign the easement, her land would be condemned and shed get nothing a claim which wasnt true.
Its been a completely different modus operandi, Hansen said. Their tactics were awful.
Despite six-figure easement offers, those tactics have only hardened the resolve of some landowners who will never let the pipeline be built on their land unless theyre in jail, he said.
One landowner asked why he would want to go into business with someone for 50 years who tries to get them (to sign) by browbeating, bullying and lying, Hansen said.
Hansen was surprised to see so many lawmakers sign the Keystone XL letter not long after a judge threw out the pipeline siting law they hastily passed in the waning hours of the 2012 session. They should have been red-faced for not doing their jobs rather than signing a letter of support, he said.
Grassroots opposition to Keystone XL has been harnessed, organized and led by Bold Nebraska, whose executive director, Jane Kleeb, said she hasnt seen a poll showing most Nebraskans support the pipeline if it still crosses the Sandhills and aquifer.
Nebraska has been a Keystone XL obstacle, but support is strong |
Yes support has been strong, but get this:
Do most Nebraskans favor the project? Depends on how you frame the question, Hansen said.
So why would that matter? Go back to the presidential elections:
Its route riled Nebraskans who fear water contamination and resent the ability of a corporation especially a foreign one to wield the right of eminent domain.
Get this:
SPALDING, NEB. Bob Bernt, a bear of a man, a rancher and a lifelong Republican, had about 25 people over recently for a pork-and-beans cookout.
I was really impressed with that, Bernt said of Obamas decision in January. He showed more backbone that I thought he had.
At the same time, Obama must tread carefully in an election year in which Democrats as well as Republicans are seduced by the promise of jobs even if it may be an illusion.
This widespread belief may be the result of an ad blitz by Republicans and the American Petroleum Institute, which have used inflated numbers for the jobs that the pipeline project would create.
TransCanada has said in interviews and regulatory filings that the construction of the pipeline would require 13,000 job years meaning 6,500 people working two years plus create about 7,000 jobs among companies supplying pipe, valves, software, pumps and other goods needed during construction. Those figures fall far short of the figures often cited by House Republicans and an industry consulting firm in support of the project.
Long term, however, the pipeline would create few direct U.S. jobs. The pipeline will be monitored from TransCanadas computerized control room in Calgary, and pump stations and pipelines require little attention or maintenance, with technicians visiting once or twice a week.
Keystone XL pipeline crosses political boundaries in Nebraska and beyond - The Washington Post
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See? It's not so cut and dried. The jobs are an illusion. It's still foreign oil. Republicans don't like a foreign company wielding "imminent domain" in our heartland.
This time around, the company created a public relations mess with hardball tactics like flying a helicopter over the cattle herd of one holdout landowner, spooking the cows into running through a fence, Hansen said. Or calling a widow a dozen times a day and telling her if she didnt sign the easement, her land would be condemned and shed get nothing a claim which wasnt true.
Its been a completely different modus operandi, Hansen said. Their tactics were awful.
Despite six-figure easement offers, those tactics have only hardened the resolve of some landowners who will never let the pipeline be built on their land unless theyre in jail, he said.
One landowner asked why he would want to go into business with someone for 50 years who tries to get them (to sign) by browbeating, bullying and lying, Hansen said.
Hansen was surprised to see so many lawmakers sign the Keystone XL letter not long after a judge threw out the pipeline siting law they hastily passed in the waning hours of the 2012 session. They should have been red-faced for not doing their jobs rather than signing a letter of support, he said.
Grassroots opposition to Keystone XL has been harnessed, organized and led by Bold Nebraska, whose executive director, Jane Kleeb, said she hasnt seen a poll showing most Nebraskans support the pipeline if it still crosses the Sandhills and aquifer.
Nebraska has been a Keystone XL obstacle, but support is strong |
Yes support has been strong, but get this:
Do most Nebraskans favor the project? Depends on how you frame the question, Hansen said.
So why would that matter? Go back to the presidential elections:
Its route riled Nebraskans who fear water contamination and resent the ability of a corporation especially a foreign one to wield the right of eminent domain.
Get this:
SPALDING, NEB. Bob Bernt, a bear of a man, a rancher and a lifelong Republican, had about 25 people over recently for a pork-and-beans cookout.
I was really impressed with that, Bernt said of Obamas decision in January. He showed more backbone that I thought he had.
At the same time, Obama must tread carefully in an election year in which Democrats as well as Republicans are seduced by the promise of jobs even if it may be an illusion.
This widespread belief may be the result of an ad blitz by Republicans and the American Petroleum Institute, which have used inflated numbers for the jobs that the pipeline project would create.
TransCanada has said in interviews and regulatory filings that the construction of the pipeline would require 13,000 job years meaning 6,500 people working two years plus create about 7,000 jobs among companies supplying pipe, valves, software, pumps and other goods needed during construction. Those figures fall far short of the figures often cited by House Republicans and an industry consulting firm in support of the project.
Long term, however, the pipeline would create few direct U.S. jobs. The pipeline will be monitored from TransCanadas computerized control room in Calgary, and pump stations and pipelines require little attention or maintenance, with technicians visiting once or twice a week.
Keystone XL pipeline crosses political boundaries in Nebraska and beyond - The Washington Post
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See? It's not so cut and dried. The jobs are an illusion. It's still foreign oil. Republicans don't like a foreign company wielding "imminent domain" in our heartland.
