From the Lincoln Journal Star:
An unlikely gang of compatriots — urban environmentalists, ranchers in cowboy hats, preachers, politicians and an Omaha tribe schoolteacher — filled a small bar in Lincoln’s Railyard earlier this month for an impromptu celebration.
They hugged, exchanged handshakes and high-fives. After nearly a decade of rallies, letter writing, concerts, cookie baking and testimony, they had won.
President Barack Obama had rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Nebraska is usually dismissed on the national stage as flyover country,” Rev. Kim Morrow of the Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light said that Nov. 6 night.
“But what we have found is that like the story of David and Goliath, the fight against the Keystone pipeline has shown the world (that) the people who love their land possess the five smooth stones to slay the giant.”
Obama didn’t mention Nebraska in his seven-minute explanation for denying the cross-border permit for the project, but in the nearly decade-long odyssey that led up to the announcement, events often pivoted around the Cornhusker State.