“What the President does is irrelevant to what we’re doing here in Nebraska. He could say ‘yes’ tomorrow and our challenges would still go on.” – Brian Jorde
Brian Jorde and Nebraska landowners sat down with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz to discuss big oil, KXL, and the fate of Nebraska. They discussed that if KXL was constructed on its proposed route and an accident were to occur, it would essentially be a David versus Goliath fight – little landowner versus a big oil corporation with a ton of lawyers and deep pockets. If the landowner was responsible for the cleanup costs, they could lose everything.
The Keystone XL would transport crude oil from the tar sands region in Canada to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast. This type of oil is some of the dirtiest there is, and poses a serious risk of contamination if it were to spill on Nebraskans’ land. It could contaminate valuable water sources used by ranchers and farmers, for one, like the Ogallala Aquifer which the current route would cross.
TransCanada claims that KXL would utilize the latest and greatest in pipeline technology, mitigating the risk of spills and other accidents, but as one landowner said in the segment, “Everything a human builds can be broken.”
For years, TransCanada has been offering easement agreements to Nebraska landowners, and some of them appear tempting. One landowner says he was offered $307,000 if he agreed to let the oil giant run the pipeline through his property, but what TransCanada seems unable to wrap their heads around is that the Nebraska landowner holdouts can’t be bought.
Other landowners opposed to the pipeline chimed in to comment on how to get “red state Nebraska” to understand the issue from their point of view. It’s not by discussing the negative environmental impact on Canadian forests and it won’t come through arguing about the harm the pipeline could have on the climate. The way you get to Republican Nebraskans is by emphasizing the fact that a foreign company is taking private land for their own profit. This pipeline is not “for Nebraskans” as some have claimed.