A bill that would let Nebraska resume its environmental study of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline won first-round approval from lawmakers Thursday, while critics warned that the state was exposing itself to a legal challenge.
Lawmakers voted 35-2 on the measure that would allow the stalled review to proceed. President Barack Obama rejected a federal permit for the project in January, but pipeline developer TransCanada has said it will reapply.
Malcolm Sen. Ken Haar, an outspoken pipeline opponent, said the bill would open the state to a court challenge. Haar said the bill qualified as unconstitutional special legislation that could apply only to TransCanada. He said TransCanada was "a victim of its own machinations" by pressuring Congress to try to force the president's approval.
If you don't understand this, what the senator is saying is that at some point down the road, he will take this to the Supreme Court of Nebraska, arguing that it is unconstitutional to hold a special legislative session to discuss one issue. So, Nebraska will go down the long road of studying this proposal, spending millions of dollars in the process, going through each painstaking step, knowing that it will be all taken to court anyway. The silver lining in this cloud: it's Nebraskan taxpayers' money.
You think this is about the aquifer? This has nothing to do with the aquifer. This is about faux-environmentalists who will stop at nothing to stop the Keystone XL 2.0.
Approval to get the pipeline through Nebraska will be tied up in court "forever," and TransCanada cannot proceed without this, unless they want to skirt Nebraska completely. Forget about going to the west of Nebraska: Colorado will be even worse.
Nope, Obama killed the Keystone XL 1.0, giving unprecedented moral support to faux-environmentalists intent on stopping any more oil activity in Nebraska. This is becoming an international joke, a sad commentary on American industry today. Meanwhile the faux-environmentalists will ensure that thousands of unnecessary trucks and unit trains will continue carrying oil south from the Bakken.
