SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. Three pipeline related bills were heard by the legislature’s Natural Resources Committee on February 9, 2011. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in Congressional District 3 Green Notes.
Lincoln area: Congressional District 1
THERE IS NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE . . . Monday, February 14, 2011, UN-L economics professor Hank Van den Berg, UN-L associate professor of accounting Linda Ruchala, former UN-L physics professor Dan Schlitt, and Terry Werner, executive director of the Nebraska Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, will hold a 1:00pm news conference on the outdoor west plaza of the state capitol building in Lincoln to explain how the federal deficit could be reduced by cutting the military budget in half. The Pentagon, rather than programs like education, Medicare, Social Security and aid to state governments, should be the primary target of spending cuts. According to Van den Berg, “With the US spending more on the military than the rest of the nations of the world combined, Congress can easily cut the military budget in half without harming our national security. In fact, ending wasteful military spending will make us stronger economically.” For more information about the news conference, contact Nebraskans for Peace State Coordinator Tim Rinne by phone at 402.475.7616.
VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY . . . Every Monday, from noon to 1:00pm, Nebraskans for abolition of the death penalty meet in front of the governor’s mansion when weather is good, 1425 H Street, Lincoln. In winter, the vigil is inside the capitol, near the Information Desk. The lunch-hour presence reminds the governor of a constituency that does not want state killings. Weekly vigils have taken place year-round since July, 1991. All abolitionists are welcome to participate for a few minutes, or the hour. For information about Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, click here.
LPS WANTS INPUT ON STRATEGIC PLAN . . . Lincoln Public Schools administration staff are developing a Strategic Plan for the future. They hosted a public Community Forum on February 5th, and there will be a General Meeting for input from students on Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:00 to 7:30pm, at LPS District Offices, 5901 O Street, in the Board Room.
WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES SEMINARS . . . A 14-lecture series of seminars at UN-L focused on urban stormwater runoff, gobal climate change, and related environmental issues continues Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 3:30 TO 4:30pm, in the first-floor auditorium of Hardin Hall, on the northeast corner of North 33rd and Holdrege Streets, Lincoln. For more information, contact the UN-L Water Center, 402.472.3305. Click here for a schedule of the lectures. View most lectures online after the have been presented here.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN READ-IN . . . Wednesday, February 16, 2011, at noon, Lincoln City Libraries and Doane College will co-host the 6th Annual African-American Read-in at Bennett Martin Public Library, 136 South 14th Street. Community members, including Lela Shanks, will read excerpts from works by or about African-Americans. The free event, open to the public, will begin with a tribute to human rights advocate Leola Bullock.
PANEL ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN . . . The question “Who is an American?” will be explored during a panel discussion presented by the Institute for Ethnic Studies Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 12:30 to 2:00pm, Bailey Library in Andrews Hall at UN-L. Panelists include Miguel Ceballos, assistant professor of sociology and ethnic studies; Ariana Vigil, assistant professor of English and ethnic studies; and Sergio Wals, assistant professor of political science and ethnic studies.
PAUL A. OLSON SEMINAR . . . Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 3:30pm, the Paul A. Olson Seminar in Great Plains Studies will present Thomas C. Gannon, Associate Professor of English and Ethnic Studies, UN-L, speaking on “Avians and Indians: Feathered Folk on the Plains” at the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q Street, Lincoln. The lecture is free and open to the public. Phone Kim Weide, 472.3964, for more information.
LINCOLN PEACE VIGILS . . . Lincoln peace vigils continue at the Federal Building, 15th and O streets, every Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. Contact Mark at 402.499.6672 or e-mail mark [at] weddleton [dot] com for more information.
DOCUMENTARY ON PEACEMAKING AT NWU . . . “Refusing to be Enemies: The Zeitouna Story,” will be screened on Wednesday, January 16, 2011, 7:00pm, at Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Olin B Lecture Hall, one block east of 50th Street and St. Paul Avenue, Lincoln. The 58-minute film profiles a group of 12 women peacemakers calling themselves Zeitouna. The documentary’s director, Laurie White, will attend the screening, as will Zeitouna’s fellow co-founder Manya Arond-Thomas. The screening is free and open to the public. View a 3:30 minute trailer, including interviews with many of the women, here.
LELA SHANKS AT HISTORY MUSEUM . . . In conjunction with the Nebraska History Museum’s “Civil Rights & Civil Liberties in Nebraska,” an exhibit that chronicles the state’s civil rights history, a series of public presentations by local leaders continues on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at the Museum, 15th and P streets, Lincoln. Local writer and civil rights activist Lela Knox Shanks will discuss how the press has reported on African Americans at noon. The lecture is free, and open to the public.
FRIENDS OF WILDERNESS PARK . . . This month’s Friends of Wilderness Park meeting and presentation will be Sunday, February 20, 4:30pm, at the Unitarian Church, 6300 A Street, Lincoln. The speaker will be Steven Rolfsmeier, co-author of the definitive text guide, The Flora of Nebraska. The presentation is free and the meeting is open to the public. For more information, e-mail friendsofwildernessparkne [at] yahoo [dot] com.
SUNDAY LECTURE SERIES . . . The Unitarian Church, 6300 A Street, Lincoln, is hosting its annual free winter lecture series about Russia and Post-Soviet states. Each two-hour Sunday lecture begins at 7:00pm. The first hour features a guest lecturer, followed by refreshments with a half hour of questions and dialogue. Sunday, February 20, 2011, Kyle Scott, Director, Office of Russian Affairs, US Department of State, will speak on Russian relationships with the US.
Omaha area: Congressional District 2
THERE IS NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE . . . “With the US spending more on the military than the rest of the nations of the world combined, Congress can easily cut the military budget in half without harming our national security. In fact, ending wasteful military spending will make us stronger economically.” (See CD 1 Green Notes.) E-mail Elaine Wells, mmwells1 [at] cox [dot] net to join a carpool from Omaha for the February 14, 2011, 1:00pm news conference at the capitol in Lincoln. Learn how the federal deficit could be reduced by cutting the military budget in half. Then countact your Congressional delegation in support of this win/win approach to cutting the deficit, maintaining security, and providing human services.
OMAHA PEACE VIGILS . . . Omaha peacemakers vigil every Wednesday, 4:30-5:30pm, at StratCom/UN-O, 6801 Pine Street, east of the Scott Technology Center on the UN-O campus. Free parking is available at the NE Corner of 67th Street and Pine in a student lot. For more information, phone Jerry Ebner, 402.502.5887. Every Saturday, 1:00-2:00pm, there is a Peace Vigil at 72nd and Dodge Streets. Park next to 72nd Street, in the pet store parking lot. Contact Steve Horn at 402.426.9068 for more information.
OMAHA PEOPLE’S FILM FESTIVAL . . . There is a People’s Film Festival every Wednesday evening, 7:00pm, at McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe, 38th and Harney in Omaha. The event is always free and open to the public. This week’s film is “Gasland,” a first-person account of how a natural gas company made Josh Fox, the filmmaker, a lease offer for $100,000 to explore on his land in Pennsylvania’s Delaware River Basin. View the trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.
SNOW MOON HIKE . . . Thursday, February 17, 2011, the Nebraska Adventure Group will host a hike at Hitchcock Nature Center, 27792 Ski Hill Loop, Honey Creek, Iowa, at 7:30pm. E-mail debhoffnung [at] yahoo [dot] com to rsvp for mandatory reservations.
MEETING ON LOW POWER FM RADIO . . . Saturday, February 19, 2011, 1:00 to 2:30pm, there will be a community meeting on low power FM radio at 3715 Hamilton Street, Omaha. Congress has passed the Community Radio Act of 2010. This meeting will examine how one or more stations might be started in Omaha. Financing, legal, technical and organizational hurdles will need to be addressed. Come prepared to focus and work on providing a local voice for diversity. For more information, e-mail francesmendenhall [at] yahoo [dot] com
PROTEST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE . . . Omaha protest actions by Guardians of the Good Life will resume with warmer weather. Watch Green Notes for weekly location updates. STOP THE PIPELINE yard signs are available in Omaha by calling Nebraskans for Peace Coordinator Mark Welsch, 453.0776, or e-mail NFPOmaha [at] nebraskansforpeace [dot] org For more information, e-mail japlapoo [at] netzero [dot] net
SODERBERGH AND PAYNE AT HOLLAND FUNDRAISER . . . Sunday, February 20, 2011, Steven Soderbergh, director of “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” and “Traffic,” will headline a fundraiser for Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater at the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas Street, in Omaha. Public Radio International’s Kurt Anderson will speak with Soderbergh in live conversation. The event will be introduced by director, screenwriter, and Omaha native Alexander Payne. Click here for ticket information.
Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3
KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Hearings on three pipeline related bills were held in the legislature’s Natural Resources Committee on February 9, 2011. “TransCanada, critics differ on need for state oversight of pipelines,” was published in Lincoln Journal Star the following day. Links to pipeline bills, information on the hearing, and contact information for who to write/call in support of the bills is here.
The Lincoln Journal Star editorialized “The State Department’s responsibility goes beyond providing a simple yes or no answer to the project. It also should ensure that the pipeline will be built and operated safely and with low risk of harm to the environment. In Nebraska, that means that TransCanada should move the pipeline farther east, outside the Sand Hills.” “Pipeline route still valid issue,” was published on February 10th. “House Members Urge Clinton to Okay Pipeline,” was publilshed at Nebraska.Watchdog.org on February 11th. No Nebraska members of the House signed the letter.
“Nebraska gas prices among highest in nation,” published February 6th in the North Platte Bulletin, warns that if the XL pipeline is built, Midwest refineries will be bypassed and the result will be higher gas prices in the Midwest and big profits for Canadian oil producers. “Big Oil’s Pipeline Scheme to Increase Midwest Gas Prices,” at Wildlife Promise begins “It’s an old story: oil companies increase gas prices and their profits soar. But rarely do we get an inside view of how they manipulate markets to drive up prices, and even rarer still an opportunity to stop it from happening. This time, Big Oil has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar as they scheme to hike America’s oil bill by $4 billion every year. This time, we have the industry documents that prove it.” From the article, “…here’s the bottom line if the Keystone XL pipeline is built: Canadian oil producers get a huge profit windfall, and America gets higher gas prices as well as the pollution from refineries and any pipeline spills.” Meanwhile, last week Montana legislators heard from an unlikely duo about how the United States must pursue renewable power and move away from fossil fuels–a retired US Navy vice admiral and a Marine Corps colonel. “Montana lawmakers hear from military about dangers of relying on oil, coal” was published in the Missoulian and by BuzzFlash at TruthOut on February 5th.
Learn more from the National Wildlife Federation’s report on XL, “Staying Hooked on a Dirty Fuel: Why Canadian Tar Sands are a Bad Bet for the United States.” Click here to send a personalized message President Obama, or sign the online e-mail strongly urging him to stop the proposed pipeline.
Nebraska Green Party is one of the 86 organizations that signed a letter to the President asking him *not* to approved the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through our land and water as he was meeting with the Canadian Prime Minster, who is pushing *for* pipeline approval. The February 5, 2011 Lincoln Journal Star front page hard copy report is titled “Canada’s PM pushes for pipeline approval; coalition of 86 groups opposed to pipeline urge Obama to reject it,” reports “Environmental groups call the pipeline an ecological disaster waiting to happen and say the so-called tar sands produce “dirty” oil that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.” On February 11th, Scott Svoboda’s letter to the editor, “Canadian PM’s words questionable,” reminds “there is no guarantee that any of the tar sands oil piped from Canada to the Gulf Coast will be dedicated to US consumers. Oil is a commodity and sold to the highest bidder, whether it’s China or an oil corporation.”
Save the Date: Sunday, March 6, 2011, join members of the groups actively working to protect Nebraska land and water from further pipeline exploitation at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar, 136 North 14th Street, 2:30 to 5:00pm. There will be live music by The Lightning Bugs, John Walker and the Prairie Dogs, the Melody Wranglers, Chris Sayre & the Laddies, and The Toasted Ponies.
“TransCanada sues to access pipeline land,” reports “Court records show that TransCanada has filed more than a dozen lawsuits to condemn land along the route of its Keystone XL oil pipeline in western South Dakota, though it hasn’t received the federal permit it needs to go ahead with the project.” “Legal Challenge to Eminent Domain for TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline,” reports on the first legal challenge to the use of eminent domain to secure US right-of-way for the proposed pipeline. “Nebraska Farmers Oppose Keystone XL Pipeline,” features two Nebraska landowners in a national blog post.
An LA Times article by Kim Murphy, “Some Texans, too, resist Keystone XL Pipeline,” published in the LJS under the title “One Pipeline Too Many” begins “Texas has rarely met an oil business it didn’t like. Ever since Spindletop sent a gush of crude 150 feet into the air near here in 1901, Texans have been mostly willing to put up with the spills, smokestack belches and massive refinery vistas that go along with big, fat pots of “Texas tea.” But that was before a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., came forward with a plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to carry heavy, high-pollutant oil from the tar sands under the boreal forests of northern Alberta, across the American heartland, through scenic ranchlands in the piney woods of east Texas and on to refineries near Houston and Port Arthur.”
“Great Plains oil pipeline plan sparks grass-roots activism, high-stakes lobbying,” was written by Washington Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin. It begins “A massive feat of engineering by any measure, the Keystone pipeline expansion project would transport crude oil close to 1,700 miles from “oil sands” in the icy reaches of Hardisty, Alberta, down through the Great Plains to the refineries of Port Arthur, Tex. In doing so, the giant pipe also promises to allay some fears about U.S. energy security: The oil will come from a trusted ally, and its cross-continental path avoids visions of another deep-sea drilling disaster. But the decision on whether to issue a permit to the project, opposed by environmental groups, rests with the State Department, which has little expertise in engineering or environmental matters. And reflecting the chaos of U.S. energy and environmental policy, the proposed pipeline is pitting Montana landowners against pipe fitters in Nebraska and creating unlikely allies of Nebraska ranchers and chieftains from Alberta’s indigenous communities.” The article continues here.
The Natural Resources Defense Council calls tar sands “the dirtiest, most destructive oil on the face of the Earth.” The Keystone XL pipeline would threaten Nebraska’s underground source of fresh water, the 175,000-square-mile High Plains Aquifer, that provides water to 1.9 million people and irrigation for thousands of square miles of farmland throughout eight states. Nebraska’s geologically unique Sand Hills, where many bird species rest during migration, would also be threatened. Read Ken Winston’s November 4, 2010 Tar Sands Pipeline Update for Nebraska Sierra here.
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. Our Congressional delegation and the governor need to receive letters, e-mails and phone calls from constituents demanding regulation on the existing pipeline, expressing concern about more TransCanada construction in our state. Contact information for Nebraska Congressional Representatives is as follows: Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, CD-1, 1517 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515, 202.225.4806, 402.438.1598 (Lincoln); Rep. Lee Terry, CD-2, 1524 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515, 202.225.4155, 402.397.9944 (Omaha); Rep. Adrian Smith, CD-3, 503 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515, 202.225.6435, 888.ADRIAN7 (Toll Free); and Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244.
Stop the Keystone XL pipeline — call your senators. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline, and your senators can pressure her to stand up to Big Oil and stop it. Help put some needed pressure on Clinton by calling your senators today. Tell them that oil pipeline regulations need to be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Click here to tell Secretary Clinton NOT to grant a permit to TransCanda, tell Gov. Heineman to put forth laws that protect our resources and economic activity and tell President Obama to live up to his promise of clean energy and energy independence. Click here for a Bold Nebraska XL Pipeline Action page with resources and
background information. E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org to get yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts.
Remember, every man-made by-product of the petroleum industry could be replaced by hemp. “Help Save the Earth, Time to Subsitute Hemp for Oil.”
AGENCY SCIENTISTS OPPOSE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON . . . The following quotes are from Fish and Wildlife Service scientists themselves: “The environmental impact of escaped GE salmon is of great concern.” – Gregory Moyer, Regional Geneticist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; “…approval of the proposal is premature, given the unknowns and uncertainties regarding the possible ecological and environmental effects of these fish.” – Jeff Adams, Branch Chief, Fairbanks Fish and Wildlife Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and “…I do think the chance of escapement is huge” – Deborah Burger, Manager, Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Ask the President to stop the GE salmon approval process.
BUY FRESH. BUY LOCAL . . . . Farmers, gardeners, and craftspeople meet through The Nebraska Food Cooperative, an on-line, year-round farmers’ market and local food distribution service offering the best in local freshness. For ordering and pickup schedules, refer to the calendar here. Click here for products and prices from North Star Neighbors, a Cooperative member that doesn’t therapeutically medicate or unduly confine animals. Click here for Tomato Tomäto, Omaha’s year-round indoor Farmer’s Market at 156th & West Center. Shop for fresh foods grown in or very near your own community at Open Harvest, Lincoln’s member-owned natural foods retail cooperative at 1618 South Street. Buying local grows family farming, grows the local economy, and is thousands of miles fresher.
HELP NEBRASKA GREENS WITH GOODSEARCH . . . Each time you search the Internet (or shop online at a participating store), a donation can be made to Nebraska Green Party at no cost to you! To help NGP in this way, enter Nebraska Green Party where it says WHO DO YOU GOODSEARCH FOR? here. Bookmark the GoodSearch Homepage, or make it your own Home Page. Enter the url you want in the GoodSearch search box. Each time you do, one penny will be donated to Nebraska Greens. THANK YOU for your support!
We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente