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Green Notes Week of June 19, 2011

June 19, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. This week’s XL pipeline news is in CD 3 Green Notes below.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

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.

LES OPEN HOUSE ON POWER LINE . . . Property owners, residents and businesses who may be affected by the rebuilding of a high-voltage transmission line from 57th and Garland to 84th and Leighton are invited to an open house Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 4:00 to 7:00pm, at Mickle Middle School cafeteria, 2500 North 67th Street, Lincoln. For more information about the Leighton Area Reliability Project, click here or call 402.467.7607.

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.

LINCOLN GREEN DRINKS . . . NEW TIME AND PLACE! Lincoln Green Drinks will try something new this month. Green Drinks social networking meet-ups are active in 814 cities worldwide. The new Lincoln meeting time and place will be 7:00am to 9:00am, Wednesday, June 22, 2011, at The Mill, on the NE corner of 8th & P Street in the Haymarket. Simply ask at the front–meeting will be in the back. Walk, cycle, bus, or carpool if possible. Everyone interested in, work on, or studying environmental issues is welcome.

POETS ORGANIZING FOR STATEWIDE FESTIVAL . . . The Keystone XL pipeline opposition coalition is planning a statewide festival of the arts in towns across Nebraska, in venues from churches to bars, during the first weekend of August. Arts include dance, theater, cooking, poetry, music, sculpture, origami, flower arrangement, film and photography. Themes will include the Sand Hills, water, and stopping the pipeline. AnyOne can organize an event anywhere. Nebraska writer Mary Pipher is coordinating poetry events. Phone Mary at 402.484.5548 for details about the first organizing meeting for poets on Thursday, June 23rd. We are hoping for 1000 events statewide!

MORRILL HALL THURSDAYS . . . The UN-L State Museum, Morrill Hall, at 14th & Vine Streets in Lincoln, is offering free admission every Thursday, 4:30 to 8:00pm, through August 25th. Visit the Morrill Hall website for summer schedule information.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the Eco Stores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

JUNE 24TH JPA MEETING . . . The new group Watchdogs of Lincoln Government has been monitoring Joint Public Agency meetings following progress on the new Haymarket arena. Watchdog Bob Olson is quoted in “Railroad demand frustrates arena board.” The article begins, “A private citizen said what others in the room likely were thinking about the city’s lack of power as construction begins on the West Haymarket arena.” “JPA will pay BNSF another $3.4 million for construction delay,” reports details of the first additional cost demanded by BNSF. “White elephant,” a letter to the editor by Marc Schniederjans, published June 3rd, also says what Greens and No2Arena coalition members said all along: “For those of us who easily could see that the Lincoln arena project would be a constant drain on taxes, it comes as no surprise that before the project has really begun, it’s already costing millions of extra dollars.” The next JPA meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 24, 2011, 3:30pm in room 112, City Council Chambers of the County City Building, 555 South 9th Street, Lincoln. If you wish to attend the JPA meeting, it would be a good idea to double check the time by calling 402.441.7386 to confirm it has not been changed.

WEEKLY WALKABOUTS AT WILDERNESS PARK . . . Friends of Wilderness Park is hosting weekly hikes through the Park, led by Adam Hintz, starting at 1:00pm every Saturday from now through October. Each week will focus on a different area, highlighting the diversity of life in the Park. Hikes will start in parking lots according to the following schedule: the first and second Saturday of the month, meet at the Pioneers Boulevard entrance; the third Saturday, meet at Old Cheney Road; the fourth Saturday, meet at 14th Street north of Rokeby Road; and every fifth Saturday, the hike will start at Saltillo Road east of the Jamaica Trail. For more information, contact Adam at 402.421.8464.

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . Farmers markets are now open in Lincoln. The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, in the Haymarket District at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market is open Saturdays, 8:00am to noon, at 1265 South Cotner, through mid-September. Saturday Farmers Markets at the FARM, 11855 Yankee Hill Road, 9:00am to noon, run until October 29th. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday, May 23 through October 20. A Thursday market from 4:00 to 8:00pm at Fallbrook Town Square Park on the corner of Fallbrook Blvd. between NW Sixth and Seventh Streets will be open through October 13th. Other markets have now started, and more will start in July. Find out what’s new this year, check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Farmers Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs, and learn more about markets, CSAs, and local farms at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 about Saturday vigils.

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 “Money Driven Medicine,” a documentary about the economics underlying, and often undermining, our $2.6 trillion healthcare system. View a 3:11 minute trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

SAVE DEMOCRACY NOW! . . . Thanks in large part to Frances Mendenhall, current news from Democracy Now! is aired in Omaha Monday through Friday, 9:30pm, on Cox Channel 22. Cox is now renegotiating its contract with Omaha, and it wants to eliminate local public access, which would also eliminate Democracy Now! The decision will be made by the City Council in about two months. Thursday, June 23, 2011, 7:00pm, there will be a Meeting to Save Democracy Now! at 3715 Hamilton. Help plan a short campaign of support for keeping public access in Omaha. Phone Frances at 402.208.3717 if you have any questions.

BICYCLE OMAHA . . . Thursday, June 23, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, Omaha’s new Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator Carlos Morales, and Matt Martin, Executive Director of the Community Bicycle Project will speak at the Sierra Club June meeting, First United Methodist Church, 69th & Cass. (Enter north door Education Wing.) Find more information about “Bicycling in Omaha” here.

GLBT PRIDE FESTIVAL . . . Saturday, June 25, 2011, Heartland Pride, will host this year’s Omaha and Council Bluffs’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Cultural Festival, UNITED IN PRIDE, at 10th and Pacific Streets in Downtown Omaha. As in years past, the CommUNITY Pride Parade will also take place along 10th Street, 11:00 to noon, starting at 10th at Farnam. Vendors will be open from 12pm-8pm. There is no admission charge to the Festival Grounds until after 5:00pm. For more information, e-mail info [at] heartlandpride [dot] org.

BENSON COMMUNITY GARDEN . . . Omaha’s newest community garden is at 60th & Lafayette, at the south side of the historic Benson neighborhood. The Benson Community Garden is looking for individuals and families interested in garden plots. For more information, phone 402.714.0290 or e-mail goetzinger2 [at] cox [dot] net. To get involved, or help support the garden, please register here.

ENGAGE OMAHA . . . One of the nation’s first city-wide, virtual town hall websites, EngageOmaha, is now online. Omaha residents may weigh in on issues for the city to consider. Pick a topic, and join the mix here.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

PUBLIC HEARING ON URANIUM MINING . . . Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 7:00pm, there will be a public hearing with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality for citizen input on the Crow Butte Resources, Inc. application for an expansion of uranium mining. The hearing will be at Crawford Public High School, 908 5th Street, Crawford, Nebraska. An exemption for mining in an aquifer is requested on the basis that the underlying aquifer is already so contaminated that it cannot be remediated for drinking water. CBR does have a legal obligation to restore the aquifer to drinking water quality; the exemption is to allow Crow Butte Resources to not only walk away from that obligation, but to make water quality even worse. Click here [pdf] for more information from the previous public hearing. To see the full DEQ website on the exemption, click here.

PUBLIC HEARING ON CARBON CONCENTRATIONS . . . Thursday, June 23, 2011, 7:00pm, there will be a public hearing on reducing atmospheric carbon concentrations to 350ppm by 2100. The hearing will take place at a regular meeting of the Environmental Quality Council, Buffalo Barracks, Fort Robinson State Park, 3200 Highway 20, Crawford, Nebraska. For more information on this meeting, including the agenda, click here.

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Guardian.co.uk reported early news that a Congressional panel approved a bill to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska’s fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer. By Suzanne Goldenberg, it was published June 15, 2011. The legislation would force President Obama to make a decision on the proposed pipeline by November 1. “More than 100,000 people wrote to the State Department this month to express their views on the project. Nebraska state legislators and members of Congress have also written letters of concern. Meanwhile the EPA issued a letter last week criticizing the State Department for failing to fully take into account the risks of a pipeline accident, or of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the import of more fossil fuels.” The Wall Street Journal report is here.
Quoting “Nebraska Water Scientists Warn of Oil Pipeline’s Risk, Call for More Study,” by Elizabeth McGowan in SolveClimateNews, June 15, 2011: “A single study by the U.S. Geological Survey in Minnesota is the sole source for what scientists know about crude oil behavior in aquifers. …The two scientists complimented the State Department for making it clear that in Nebraska, 64 percent of the groundwater wells are within one mile of the Keystone XL route. That figure drops to just 10 percent in each of the other states—Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Gates and Woldt say their research indicates that a similarly high percentage of Nebraska’s wetlands are along the proposed pipeline route.” Thanks to Ken Winston of Nebraska Sierra for his work with these scientists. Ken’s letter on behalf of Sierra to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton points out many facts about the unique Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, requesting additional time for further study and action in the 2012 legislative session.
BOLD Nebraska published “Heineman Remains Silent on Pipeline,” by Ben Gotschall, June 14, 2011. It begins “Six months ago, Gov. Dave Heineman showed his disrespect for the people of this state and a lack of leadership regarding the Keystone XL pipeline when he accused concerned citizens of “mouthing off” and encouraged them to “talk to [their] president,” about the pipeline. Since then, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) memo requested by Nebraska Republican Congressman Lee Terry has shown that, although the State Dept. wields the power of approving or denying a permit for the pipeline to cross the US/Canadian border, it is ultimately up to the states (i.e. Nebraska) to determine siting of the pipeline route. This means, that Gov. Heineman has the legal authority and duty to get the pipeline out of the Sand Hills. …Sadly, Gov. Heineman still chooses to sit back and remain silent in the same invertebrate fashion he has displayed in the past. While it would be easy to write off his lack of initiative as typical partisan accommodation of big oil companies, the pipeline is a nonpartisan issue. Democrats and Republicans are concerned about the route of the pipeline, and members of the Nebraska legislature have shown that other state leaders can and will take action to protect our citizens.
The highest-ranking elected official in our state has chosen to opt out and avoid responsibility. This is not leadership. This is outright neglect of duty, and we need to let Governor Heineman know that his inaction is not what Nebraska citizens expect from a leader with such an important role and with so much at stake–our land, water, economic activity and the cultural heritage that makes our state strong. E-mail or call Gov. Heineman at 402.471.2244, and tell him to get serious about his duty to protect our land and water by rerouting the pipeline now.”
A June 18th canada.com article by Sheldon Alberts features BOLD Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb, Merrick County rancher Randy Thompson, and other Nebraska landowners. “Thompson’s perception of TransCanada has been sealed over three stressful years. He says the company has shown contempt for both landowners and Nebraska’s resources by refusing to alter Keystone XL’s route. “We can find another source of energy, but we have no alternative to our source of water. We are just a bunch of damn fools if we put our aquifer at risk,” he says. “We’re not just going to roll over and play dead for these guys.”
The Keystone Pipeline: Triple Trouble, by Bruce Johansen writing for Nebraskans For Peace, June 17th begins “The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would carry about 830,000 barrels a day at full capacity, has been catching a lot of grief locally because it could spill oil that might ruin our underground water supply. That much is true. But the environmental cost of the pipeline does not stop there. The oil that will be transported is refined from tar sands, mainly from Alberta, which combine all the worst attributes of fossil fuels: spill potential, the carbon footprint of coal, and the environmental damage of coal strip mining. Tar sands are, briefly stated, a triple environmental atrocity—enough to send a thinking person to a bicycle. …In other words, tar sands’ huge demand for water and energy, as well as its damage to the boreal forests of Canada, is beside the point—-which is profit. One wonders how much damage will have to be done before people realize that our appetite for fossil fuels is condemning coming generations to a hot, miserable, barren future. ”
A new Sierra Action Alert to call President Obama at 202.456.1111 outlines talking points for asking him to reject the dirty and dangerous XL tar sands pipeline. And readers can sign a letter asking Dole and Chiquita not to use toxic tar sands oil for transporting their bananas here.
Quoting “Piping in some common sense,” a LJS Local View by Lincoln’s National Geographic contributing photographer Joel Sartore, “…For the sake of my family, myself and my state, I challenge the proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline. …I don’t wish to offend anyone, but the conclusion I come away with every time is this: I cannot believe this is something we’re considering for even a minute. …If you care, let your voice be heard. Write and call Gov. Dave Heineman, Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith and Lee Terry, and Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns. Let them know that trading our environmental heritage in order to cater to greed and increase the wealth of a select few will not be tolerated. Nebraska is better than this.”
Contact information for Nebraska’s 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), FaceBook; 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); Senator Ben Nelson, 720 Hart Senate Office Building, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510, 202.224.6551; Senator Mike Johanns, 404 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202.224.4224. Contact Governor Dave Heineman, at linked e-mail or PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244. Please contact them all if you oppose the environmental devastation that XL would cause Nebraska’s ecosystems.
Petitions still open to signatures requesting the denial of a permit to TransCanada include “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline” to Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama; “Protect Nebraska; Say NO to Tar Sands;” “Protect Nebraska’s Economic Activity, Put the Brakes on the Pipeline;” “Protect Your Water, Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!” and a Brave New Foundation petition to Clinton, “Say No to the Kochs and Yes to Protecting Americans.” Please sign them all, and add personal comments of concern for our ecosystem if you wish. “Time’s Running Out to Stop the Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline — Take Action Now,” by Tara Lohan, AlterNet, June 3, 2011 also links a new petition to Secretary Clinton.
Also urging readers to contact the Nebraska delegation,”Plain foolishness,” by Jim Elsener, says “If people think they gotta have oil, try living without water. A little horse sense will tell you it’s just plain foolishness to run the sands oil Keystone XL Pipeline through the Sand Hills and over the Ogallala Aquifer. Just this May the first Keystone Pipeline in North Dakota leaked more than 400 barrels of oil. And overall, Keystone has suffered 11 leaks in as many months. I urge people to write their representatives in Congress and let them know this is one foolish idea.” And on June 15th, Eleanor Hamersky’s letter thanking Sartore for his Local View says “We all must educate ourselves on the hazards involved to our Ogallala Aquifer water supply by the route of the proposed Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.”
“Why deadline on pipeline?” by Fern Adams, published June 13th, begins “I do not understand Rep. Lee Terry and Sen. Mike Johanns. Why is there a need to have a decision made on the Keystone XL pipeline by November? There are many unanswered questions: How many successful cleanup jobs has TransCanada done in aquifers similar to the Ogallala? What effect would cleanup and drawdown of the water table have on irrigation wells? How much experience does TransCanada have with 36-inch pipelines carrying tar sands? How much experience does the company have with planting and maintaining pipelines through sand hills?” And a June 12th letter by Dianne Petersen comments on TransCanada’s push polls asking misleading questions about gas prices and unemployment. “Do we need lower gas prices and more jobs? Yes, but having to mislead people to garner support proves the tactics are dishonest, so what else isn’t quite above-board in the dealings of pipeline supporters?”
On Thursday, June 9th, Democracy Now! covered a planned 92-mile natural gas pipeline in Puerto Rico that would cut across much of the island, bringing up similar issues as are being faced in Nebraska. “Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño has made the $450 million project a central goal of his administration and insists it is a safe and environmentally friendly way to lower utility bills. Called Vía Verde (Green Way), the pipeline has been dubbed Vía de la Muerte (Death Route) by critics who say it will expose people living near it to deadly explosions and cause irreversible damage to the island’s environmental and cultural resources.”
“Faith Groups Call on Obama to Stop Dirty Oil Sands Pipeline,” from the Missionary Oblates Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creating, June 2, 2011, reports “The Oblate JPIC Office has joined 45 other faith-based groups in asking the Obama Administration to deny the presidential permit needed by TransCanada Corporation to construct a pipeline to carry dirty oil sands from Alberta, Canada to Houston, TX.”
A new 6:31 minute YouTube video “Stop the Megaloads Now!” films this country’s scenic natural environments and contrasts the images of beauty with the “biggest, dirtiest, most ecologically destructive extraction operation on Earth” that has turned Alberta, Canada into a “raped and stinking tar pit.” Please watch to see how Exxon will treat Idaho and Montana’s scenic highways when destruction equipment starts rolling for tar sands extraction there. “Fight the Power!”
The Keystone XL Pipeline Story in the United States, is a new 40-minute documentary being produced in association with the National Wildlife Federation to explore environmental, social and political impacts of the $13 billion XL pipeline construction. From the website, “This film will uncover the realities behind building this 1,980-mile pipeline through the heartland of America. It will discuss the ramifications of the growing US reliance on Canadian oil, as well as the sacrifices on people, wildlife and the environment as a result of the transport and refinement of this very polluting tar sands oil.” Pending funding, principal photography is scheduled to begin on June 20, 2011. To learn more about this project and become a supporting financial contributor, click here.
Comprehensive Green Notes covering international, national and local opposition to the XL pipeline since May 30, 2010 are in archives here. (Scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Notes.)
What can you do now that the legislative session has ended and the official Department of State comment period has expired? Sign all the petitions linked above. Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska. E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org for yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here.
Be a community educator and organizer. Help make Nebraska the first state to successfully oppose a pipeline project.
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.“

STOP FRACKING NOW . . . “We, the undersigned, call on Congress to pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act this year. It’s time to hold the oil and gas production industry to the same standards as any other industry to ensure the safe protection of America’s drinking water.” Sign Petition and view 6:20 minute Colbert Report interview with Tom Ridge.

PETITION THE EPA . . . Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately prohibit the use of clothianidin and conduct a full scientific review to determine its impact on honey bee populations. Learn more about clothianidin and sign the petition here.

TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA NOT TO CAVE TO MONSANTO AND THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY . . . The Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve three biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified alfalfa, Roundup Ready genetically modified sugar beets and a new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production. These decisions are a devastating blow to our democracy and the basic rights of farmers to choose how they want to grow food on their land and the rights of consumers who increasingly choose organic and sustainably grown food for its positive health and environmental impacts. Please tell the President it’s time to stand up to Monsanto and reject GMO crops.

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

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of June 12, 2011

June 12, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. This week’s XL pipeline news is in CD 3 Green Notes below.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

NIOBRARA: JEWEL OF THE NORTH . . . “Niobrara: Jewel of the North,” a 42-minute educational documentary, tells the story of Nebraska’s Niobrara River during the four seasons–from its headwaters in eastern Wyoming, through the National Scenic River stretch near Valentine, and on to its mouth at the Missouri River. Broadcasts continue on NET2 (channel 12.2 in Lincoln), Thursday, June 16, 7:00pm, and Sunday, June 19, 2011, 1:00pm. The film is now also available online here.

ANNUAL WRITERS CONFERENCE . . . The Nebraska Summer Writers Conference began this weekend for registrants, and related events for the public begin Monday, June 13, 2011 at 6:00pm in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. For a schedule of free events, click here.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the EcoStores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION . . . The 2011 Juneteenth Celebration will be 11:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, June 18th, at Pentzer Park, North 27th & Potter, Lincoln.

BACKYARD HABITAT TOUR . . . The Wachiska Audubon 22nd Annual Backyard Habitat Tour will be Sunday, June 19, 2011, 11:00am to 4:00pm. Descriptive brochures and maps will be available at all the garden locations. For more details, and a list of featured yards on the tour this year, click here.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “The One Percent,” an 80-minute documentary on the growing “wealth gap” in America. Watch the trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

BENSON SUMMERFEST 2011 . . . The 2011 Benson SummerFest is Saturday, June 18th, on Maple Street between 59th & 63rd, in Omaha. A schedule of the day’s events, starting with a morning pancake feed, includes an auto show, art and crafts fair, beer garden and main stage entertainment from noon to 8:30pm. SummerFest After Dark starts at 9:00pm in five venues hosting 25 bands. Lemon Fresh Day will play on the Main Stage from 7:00 to 8:30.

BUTTERFLIES . . . Reservations are required for “Butterflies: Taking Science to the Backyard,” on Saturday, June 18, 2911, 9:00am to 1:00pm, at Camp Brewster, 1313 Bellevue Blvd., two blocks east of the Learning Center, Bellevue. Bring a sack lunch or snack to the free event. To rsvp, call Laci Prucinsky, 402.731.3140 ext.230, or e-mail lprucinsky [at]fontenelleforest [dot] org.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . The US State Department comment period on the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline through Nebraska’s Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer ended at midnight, Monday, June 6 2011.
The letter opposition groups including Nebraska Green Party submitted to Secretary Clinton before the official State Department comment period ended is linked here. 3,431 Nebraskans submitted comments through the BOLD Nebraska website, and together, “over 265,000 Americans submitted comments urging Secretary Clinton to deny the permit to TransCanada” for Keystone XL. The Nebraska Sierra Club letter to Secretary Clinton is here.
Also on Monday, a statement from the Nebraska Wildlife Federation said the State Department’s Environmental Impact Study on the XL pipeline “falls well short of what is required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. It fails to recognize the significant harm the project will do to wildlife, wetlands, rivers, groundwater and the Nebraska Sand Hills, and fails to require TransCanada to put in place measures to deal with that harm.”
Tuesday, June 7th, Lincoln Journal Star reported on the quick two day turn-around from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s warning that continued operation of Keystone I without corrective action “would be hazardous to life, property and the environment,” to allowing TransCanada to resume pumping operations. “Pipeline regulator defends quick turn-around on Keystone,” is here.
Wednesday, June 8th, LJS reported the Environmental Protection Agency’s response to the State Department’s Environmental Impact Study in “EPA lining up with Keystone XL critics,” by Art Hovey. “As the U.S. State Department moves toward a final decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline by the end of the year, the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to be persuaded the project has gotten proper scrutiny. The EPA announced Tuesday that it had placed the TransCanada project in a category headed “Environmental Objections” and said what the State Department has done so far with an environmental impact statement is based on insufficient information.” Quoting a nine-page letter dated June 6, 2011 to State from the EPA: “While the SDEIS has made progress in responding to EPA’s comments on the DElS and providing information necessary for making an informed decision, EPA believes additional analysis is necessary 10 fully respond to our earlier comments and to ensure a full evaluation of the potential impacts of proposed Project, and to identify potential means to mitigate those impacts.” Also on June 6th, the State Department did announce there will be scheduled field hearings along the pipeline route.
LJS published two Editorials on June 8th, both calling on readers to take advantage of this new public hearing opportunity. “Last chance on pipeline,” begins “Nebraskans have been granted a new opportunity — perhaps the last — to present their views on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. We hope they take full advantage. This probably is the last chance Nebraskans have to try to change the pipeline plan before heavy equipment starts ripping through the Sandhills. Credit the State Department for scheduling a meeting that will allow Nebraskans to deliver their message in person, face to face.” In “Take time to get it right,” LJS editorializes “Three cheers for the five state lawmakers (Sens. Colby Coash, Annette Dubas, Tony Fulton, Ken Haar and Kate Sullivan) who asked the State Department to delay a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline until May 2012 to give the state time to strengthen its safeguards. A raspberry for Rep. Lee Terry who wants Congress to set a Nov. 1 deadline for a decision. And a raised eyebrow for US Senator Mike Johanns, who signed on as a cosponsor to an energy policy bill that had a pipeline deadline tucked away in its provisions.”
Also on Wednesday, US Senator Ben Nelson made his strongest statement on the pipeline yet. Thursday’s Omaha World-Herald, “Nelson: Pipeline a state issue,” reported he said responsibility for the in-state path of a controversial oil pipeline sits squarely with Nebraska state government.“ The location is the state’s responsibility and authority, and I hope the state doesn’t just acquiesce and by silence not exercise its responsibilities, because it has responsibilities and they should do something affirmatively — either yes or no – on the location. Not a maybe, not sitting back in their hallowed offices watching others work on this — they need to be engaged. …the location issue is essentially up to … the governor, the Legislature and others in state government,” Nelson said. In support of that position, he pointed to a report by the Congressional Research Service which found that “state laws establish the primary siting authority for oil pipelines.”
Quoting “Piping in some common sense,” a LJS Local View by Lincoln’s National Geographic contributing photographer Joel Sartore, “…For the sake of my family, myself and my state, I challenge the proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline. …I don’t wish to offend anyone, but the conclusion I come away with every time is this: I cannot believe this is something we’re considering for even a minute. …If you care, let your voice be heard. Write and call Gov. Dave Heineman, Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith and Lee Terry, and Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns. Let them know that trading our environmental heritage in order to cater to greed and increase the wealth of a select few will not be tolerated. Nebraska is better than this.”
Contact information for Nebraska’s 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), FaceBook; 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); Senator Ben Nelson, 720 Hart Senate Office Building, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510, 202.224.6551; Senator Mike Johanns, 404 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202.224.4224. Contact Governor Dave Heineman, at linked e-mail or PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244. Please contact them all if you oppose the environmental devastation that XL would cause Nebraska’s ecosystems.
Petitions still open to signatures requesting the denial of a permit to TransCanada include “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline” to Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama; “Protect Nebraska; Say NO to Tar Sands;” “Protect Nebraska’s Economic Activity, Put the Brakes on the Pipeline;” “Protect Your Water, Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!” and a Brave New Foundation petition to Clinton, “Say No to the Kochs and Yes to Protecting Americans.” Please sign them all, and add personal comments of concern for our ecosystems if you wish. “Time’s Running Out to Stop the Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline — Take Action Now,” by Tara Lohan, AlterNet, June 3, 2011 also links a new petition to Secretary Clinton. Please sign all the petitions if you haven’t already.
Also urging readers to contact the Nebraska delegation, a June 8th letter to the editor of LJS, “Plain foolishness,” by Jim Elsener, says “If people think they gotta have oil, try living without water. A little horse sense will tell you it’s just plain foolishness to run the sands oil Keystone XL Pipeline through the Sand Hills and over the Ogallala Aquifer. Just this May the first Keystone Pipeline in North Dakota leaked more than 400 barrels of oil. And overall, Keystone has suffered 11 leaks in as many months. I urge people to write their representatives in Congress and let them know this is one foolish idea.” A Sunday June 12th letter by Dianne Petersen comments on TransCanada’s push polls asking misleading questions about gas prices and unemployment. “Do we need lower gas prices and more jobs? Yes, but having to mislead people to garner support proves the tactics are dishonest, so what else isn’t quite above-board in the dealings of pipeline supporters?”
On Thursday, June 9th, Democracy Now! covered a planned Puerto Rico Pipeline that poses a similar threat to the environment and public health: “President Barack Obama is due to visit Puerto Rico next week in what will be the first official US presidential visit to the territory in 50 years. His trip comes as controversy grows over a proposed 92-mile natural gas pipeline that would cut across much of the island. Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño has made the $450 million project a central goal of his administration and insists it is a safe and environmentally friendly way to lower utility bills. Called Vía Verde (Green Way), the pipeline has been dubbed Vía de la Muerte (Death Route) by critics who say it will expose people living near it to deadly explosions and cause irreversible damage to the island’s environmental and cultural resources. We speak with Dr. Arturo Massol, a biology professor and director of the Scientific and Technical Commission of Casa Pueblo, a community-based organization in Puerto Rico that is leading opposition against the pipeline project. He calls for development of infrastructure that can harness the island’s solar and wind power to meet its energy needs.” [“Safe and environmentally friendly.” Sound familiar?] Video is here.
“Faith Groups Call on Obama to Stop Dirty Oil Sands Pipeline,” from the Missionary Oblates Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creating, June 2, 2011, reports “The Oblate JPIC Office has joined 45 other faith-based groups in asking the Obama Administration to deny the presidential permit needed by TransCanada Corporation to construct a pipeline to carry dirty oil sands from Alberta, Canada to Houston, TX.”
A new 6:31 minute YouTube video “Stop the Megaloads Now!” films this country’s scenic natural environments and contrasts the images of beauty with the “biggest, dirtiest, most ecologically destructive extraction operation on Earth” that has turned Alberta, Canada into a “raped and stinking tar pit.” Please watch to see how Exxon will treat Idaho and Montana’s scenic highways when destruction equipment starts rolling for tar sands extraction there. “Fight the Power!”
The Keystone XL Pipeline Story in the United States, is a new 40-minute documentary being produced in association with the National Wildlife Federation to explore environmental, social and political impacts of the $13 billion XL pipeline construction. From the website, “This film will uncover the realities behind building this 1,980-mile pipeline through the heartland of America. It will discuss the ramifications of the growing US reliance on Canadian oil, as well as the sacrifices on people, wildlife and the environment as a result of the transport and refinement of this very polluting tar sands oil.” Pending funding, principal photography is scheduled to begin on June 20, 2011. To learn more about this project and become a supporting financial contributor, click here.
TransCanada representatives are making the rounds to county meetings all along the pipeline route. On June 1st, they held a media event covered by Art Hovey for Lincoln Journal Star. “Keystone XL proponents rally round the cause” mentions the presence of opposition activists. Americans for Prosperity, heavily financed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, kicked off XL pep rally events in Nebraska last week. Coalition protesters where present in opposition at the Omaha Walnut Grove Park rally. Former state senator Mike Friend was a high profile presence. His lobbying work for AFG has not been properly registered, prompting Common Cause Nebraska to file a complaint covered by LJS June 11th, here.
Meanwhile, “the Domina Law Group is investigating a class-action lawsuit against the XL pipeline, saying the company may be abusing eminent domain laws to bully Nebraska landowners into making way for the pipeline. Environmental groups are hoping that if even a few landowners can block the pipeline from running over their turf, they can force the pipeline to be re-routed.” “Keystone Facing Potential Legal Hurdle,” was reported at POLITICO.
A new Nebraska Sierra 9:45 minute YouTube video of pipeline opponents speaking at the May 12, 2011 Citizen Hearing in the capitol rotunda is now posted online. Many letters to the Lincoln Journal Star have been published in the year since the public started realizing the threat posed by TransCanada. Letters linked in Green Notes since May 30, 2010 are in archives here. (Scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Notes.) Comprehensive news coverage related to the XL pipeline is also linked in archives.
Save the Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011. The XL opposition coalition is planning a statewide festival of the arts in towns across the state, in venues from churches to bars, during the first weekend of August. Arts include dance, theater, cooking, poetry, music, sculpture, origami, flower arrangement, film and photography. Themes will include the Sand Hills, water, and stopping the pipeline. AnyOne can organize an event anywhere. Nebraska writer Mary Pipher is coordinating poetry events. Phone Mary at 402.484.5548 for details about the first organizing meeting for poets on Thursday, June 23rd. We are hoping for 1000 events statewide!
What can you do now that the legislative session has ended and the official Department of State comment period has expired? Sign all the petitions linked above. Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska. E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org for yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together. Help make Nebraska the first state to successfully oppose a pipeline project.
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.”

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of June 5, 2011

June 5, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. Breaking News that Keystone I was shut down by the US Department of Transportation on Friday led to a brief Lincoln Jouranal Star article on Sunday that TransCanada had “passed the safety test” and the pipeline could re-start sending toxic tar sands oil through out region. We await the DOT re-start Order for confirmation. There has never been a successful pipeline opposition campaign in the US. Please help save our Nebraska land and water from more corporate exploitation, and join Nebraska’s opposition efforts. The Department of State public comment period ends at midnight, Monday, June 6, 2011. This week, Nebraska’s Joel Sartore wrote a Local View for the LJS, “Piping in some common sense.” Published June 5th, the internationally regarded National Geographic photographer and speaker says “For the sake of my family, myself and my state, I challenge the proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline.” Join him in commenting at links in CD 3 Green Notes below, if you haven’t done so yet.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

NIOBRARA: JEWEL OF THE NORTH . . . “Niobrara: Jewel of the North,” a 42-minute educational documentary, tells the story of Nebraska’s Niobrara River during the four seasons–from its headwaters in eastern Wyoming, through the National Scenic River stretch near Valentine, and on to its mouth at the Missouri River. It will be broadcast for the first time on NET2 (channel 12.2 in Lincoln) on the following schedule: Thursday, June 9, 8:00pm, Sunday, June 12, 2:00pm, Thursday, June 16, 7:00pm, and Sunday, June 19, 1:00pm. After June 9th, the film will be available online here.

LANDSCAPING FOR WILDLIFE . . . Thursday, June 9, 2011, 7:00pm, Dave Titterington, founder of the Wild Bird Habitat Stores, will present “Landscaping for Wildlife” at the Wachiska Audubon monthly meeting, Union College Dick Administration Building lower level auditorium, 3800 South 48th Street, Lincoln. For more information, click here, phone 402.486.4846, or e-mail wachiskaoffice [at] inebraska [dot] com.

WATCHDOGS OF LINCOLN GOVERNMENT . . . The new group Watchdogs of Lincoln Government has been monitoring Joint Public Agency meetings following progress on the new Haymarket arena. Watchdog Bob Olson is quoted in “Railroad demand frustrates arena board.” The article begins, “A private citizen said what others in the room likely were thinking about the city’s lack of power as construction begins on the West Haymarket arena.” “JPA will pay BNSF another $3.4 million for construction delay,” reports details of the first additional cost demanded by BNSF. “White elephant,” a letter to the editor by Marc Schniederjans, published June 3rd, also says what Greens and No2Arena coalition members said all along: “For those of us who easily could see that the Lincoln arena project would be a constant drain on taxes, it comes as no surprise that before the project has really begun, it’s already costing millions of extra dollars.” The next Watchdogs group meeting will be Saturday, June 11, 2011, 10:00am, at Gere Library, 2400 South 56th Street (56th & Normal Blvd.) in Lincoln. CPA Ron Ecklund will demonstrate how to access and read the City budget online.

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . Farmers markets are now open in Lincoln. The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, in the Haymarket District at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market is open Saturdays, 8:00am to noon, at 1265 South Cotner, through mid-September. Saturday Farmers Markets at the FARM, 11855 Yankee Hill Road, 9:00am to noon, run until October 29th. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday, May 23 through October 20. Other markets have now started, and more will start in July. Find out what’s new this year, check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Farmers Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs, and learn more about markets, CSAs, and local farms at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “Restrepo,” a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Watch the trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

PROGRESSIVE OMAHA MEETING . . . The next Progressive Omaha meeting will be Saturday, June 11, 2011, 6:00 to 9:00pm, at 4924 Chicago in Dundee (NE corner of 50th & Chicago). Curtis Bryant, a founding member of Progressive Omaha, will speak about a way to make Omaha more livable and progressive: transportation reform. There will be a potluck supper between 6:00 and 7:00; then the discussion until 8:00; followed by business and social time until 9:00pm. Contact Karen Abrams, kabrams123 [at] cox [dot] net for more information.

RIDE OAK CREEK TRAIL . . . Sunday, June 12, 2011, there will be a 26 mile round trip Sierra Club Bike Outing along the Oak Creek Trail between Valparaiso and Brainard, Nebraska. This former Union Pacific rail winds its way through wooded, rolling hills and offers “highland” vistas along the way. A description of the trail is here. A trail map is here. [pdf] Bikers will leave from Wohlner’s Grocery Store, Stinson Park, 72nd and Center, at 8:30am sharp. The drive to the trailhead will take about 1.5 hours. For more information, or to rsvp, contact Bob Goetschkes, bobbygoetschkes [at] hotmail [dot] com, or phone 402.614.4788 (Home) or 402.326.1775 (Cell).

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . This was Friday’s BREAKING NEW: “First Ever US Department Of Transportation Order Shuts Down Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline for Corrective Action.” Published in Wildlife Promise, June 3, 2011, the article begins “As the State Department likely wraps up a comment period on the second round of environmental review for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Monday, the US Department of Transportation today issued a first-ever “Corrective Action Order” for the leak-prone one year old Keystone pipeline. The order requires TransCanada to meet 14 conditions before the pipeline can restart and raises serious doubts about TransCanada’s ability to build safe tar sands pipelines.” At the National Wildlife Federation blog DOT says, “After evaluating the foregoing preliminary findings of fact, I find that the continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment” The Order to TransCanada from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is here.
The Lincoln Journal Star front page headline Saturday, June 4, 2011, proclaimed “Pipeline remains closed.” It reported “A federal safety regulator Friday ordered operations on the Keystone petroleum pipeline — the TransCanada line that crosses eastern Nebraska — to remain shut down until the federal agency “is confident that all immediate safety concerns have been addressed.” The Order to TransCanada from Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is here.
Martha Stoddard’s Omaha World Herald article “Keystone pipeline shut down,” quotes Sierra’s Ken Winston saying the order calls into question promises TransCanada has made about its ability to operate a pipeline properly.
The DOT Order followed the closing of Keystone I after the twelfth leak in less than one year. Quoting Anthony Swift on the Natural Resources Defense Council staff blog, June 1st, “The first Keystone tar sands pipeline, constructed less than a year ago, has sprung its twelfth leak, spilling up to 2,100 gallons of raw tar sands crude oil in Kansas on May 29th when a pipeline fitting around a pressure transmitter failed. This comes just three weeks after a broken pipe fitting on Keystone resulted in a 60’ geyser of tar sands crude, spewing 21,000 gallons in North Dakota. Surely this appalling record of spills should send a message to the State Department as it goes through the permitting process for a second tar sands pipeline – Keystone XL – by the same company that we need better pipeline safety assessments and regulations in place before building another tar sands pipeline through sensitive U.S. lands and waters. We have an agency that handles pipeline safety – the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). They should be making the assessment of the safety of diluted bitumen pipelines a priority.” The DOT stepped up days later. Now there is a brief LJS article indicating TransCanada has already “passed the safety test” and can restart Keystone I. Until we see the Department of Transportation re-start Order, this is being regarded as unconfirmed. Quoting BOLD Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb, “to us this all seems very fast–too fast for any level of comfort of safety.”
The deadline for comments to the State Department on the proposed XL tar sands pipeline through Nebraska’s Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, on the official Comments Page is Monday, June 6, 2011, at midnight. If you haven’t commented yet, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction. Ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. Remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
Petitions still open to signatures requesting the denial of a permit to TransCanada include “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline” to Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama; “Protect Nebraska; Say NO to Tar Sands;” “Protect Nebraska’s Economic Activity, Put the Brakes on the Pipeline;” “Protect Your Water, Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!” and a Brave New Foundation petition to Clinton, “Say No to the Kochs and Yes to Protecting Americans.” Please sign them all, and add personal comments of concern for our ecosystem if you wish. “Time’s Running Out to Stop the Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline — Take Action Now,” by Tara Lohan, AlterNet, June 3, 2011 also links a new petition to Secretary Clinton.
TransCanada representatives are making the rounds to county meetings all along the pipeline route. On June 1st, they held a media event covered by Art Hovey for Lincoln Journal Star. “Keystone XL proponents rally round the cause” mentions the presence of opposition activists, who happen to be Greens. Quoting, “Although all the panel members were pro-pipeline, two protesters took up positions outside the room during the panelists’ remarks. John Carlini of Lincoln carried a sign that said “No Dirty Oil Over Our Aquifer.” Shari Schwartz, also of Lincoln, stood nearby with one that said “Nebraska Can’t Afford An Oil Spill.” Carlini is quoted in the article. The next XL pep rally will be Wednesday, June 8th, at Walnut Grove Park, 15050 Q Street, in Omaha–for those who want to hear propaganda, ask questions, and learn about what the Canadian company plans to do next.
Meanwhile, “the Domina Law Group is investigating a class-action lawsuit against the XL pipeline, saying the company may be abusing eminent domain laws to bully Nebraska landowners into making way for the pipeline. Environmental groups are hoping that if even a few landowners can block the pipeline from running over their turf, they can force the pipeline to be re-routed.” Keystone Facing Potential Legal Hurdle, was reported at POLITICO.
A new Nebraska Sierra 9:45 minute YouTube video of pipeline opponents speaking at the May 12, 2011 Citizen Hearing in the capitol rotunda was posted online this past week. Many letters to the Lincoln Journal Star have been published in the year since the public started realizing the threat posed by TransCanada. Letters linked in Green Notes since May 30, 2010 are in archives here. (Scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Notes.) Comprehensive news coverage related to the XL pipeline is also linked in archives.
What can you do now that the legislative session has ended and the official Department of State comment period expires June 6th? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska. E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org for yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.“

TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA NOT TO CAVE TO MONSANTO AND THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY . . . In the past 3 weeks, the Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve three biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified alfalfa, Roundup Ready genetically modified sugar beets and a new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production. These decisions are a devastating blow to our democracy and the basic rights of farmers to choose how they want to grow food on their land and the rights of consumers who increasingly choose organic and sustainably grown food for its positive health and environmental impacts. Please tell the President it’s time to stand up to Monsanto and reject GMO crops.

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of May 29, 2011

May 29, 2011Green Notesgreenone

EARTH CIRCLE . . . On the first day of every month, people around the world stop everything for five minutes, joining with thousands of others to visualize peace and focus on new levels of kindness, understanding, and compassion necessary for collectively facing the challenges of the 21st century. New Dimensions invites peacemakers everywhere to join at 4:00pm Greenwich Mean Time, 10:00am in Lincoln and Omaha, 9:00am in District 3 where Mountain Time begins, Wednesday, June 1, 2011, with the intention of deep healing for the Planet and all its people. Click here for more information about Earth Circle.

WILDFLOWER WEEK STATEWIDE . . . Nebraska Wildflower Week, May 28 through June 5 this year, is a celebration of native plants in the wild, the state’s prairies, and gardens at their prime, during the first week of June. Click here for a schedule of Wildflower events in Eastern Nebraska. More informaton, photos, and a complete list of statewide events can be found here.

PROTECTING WILDLIFE FROM DIRTY TAR SANDS OIL . . . The National Wildlife Federation will host a 30-minute Tele-town Hall: “Protecting Wildlife from Dirty Tar Sands Oil,” Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 7:00pm CST. Learn more about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline’s threats to wildlife, and how you can help stop it. BOLD Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb will address what is at stake along the 2,000 mile route, and award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, author of “Why Keystone Pipeline Will Weaken the US,” will give a first-hand account of Canada’s tar sands operations–one of the most polluting and destructive industries on Earth. To join the Town Hall, rsvp here and you will receive a phone call between 6:45 and 7:00pm CST on June 1st. From NWF: “We can’t let this dirty tar sands pipeline put America’s wildlife at risk and jeopardize our clean energy future. Get your questions answered and find out what you can do by joining our Tele-town Hall on June 1st.”

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. There has never been a successful pipeline opposition campaign in the US. Please help Nebraska be the first state to organize opposition successfully. Actions you can take, regardless of where you live, are in CD 3 Green Notes below. Please help save our land and water from more corporate exploitation. The public comment period ends Monday, June 6, 2011.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

EMPTY BOWLS . . . The Food Bank of Lincoln will host the ninth annual Empty Bowls luncheon on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 11:00am to 1:00pm, at Embassy Suites, 10th & P Streets. For more information, a list of participating restaurants, and to order tickets online, click here.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the Eco Stores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT
speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail Mitch Paine at mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

PUBLIC MEETING ON POST OFFICE CONSOLIDATION . . . The public will have an opportunity to offer comments about a proposal to consolidate some Lincoln and Omaha postal services on Thursday, June 2, 2011, 6:00pm, at the Firefighter’s Reception Hall, 241 Victory Lane, Lincoln. For more information about the proposed consolidation, click here for a Lincoln Journal Star article.

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . Farmers markets are now open in Lincoln. The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, in the Haymarket District at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market is open Saturdays, 8:00am to noon, at 1265 South Cotner, through mid-September. Saturday Farmers Markets at the FARM, 11855 Yankee Hill Road, 9:00am to noon, run until October 29th. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday through October 20. Other markets start in June and July. Find out what’s new this year, check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Farmers Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs, and learn more about markets, CSAs, and local farms at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “Progpaganda Swing,” a 60 minute documentary about Charlie and His Orchestra, a 1930’s Hitler propaganda swing band. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

TOWN HALL DISCUSSION . . . Thursday, June 2, 2011, 9:00am to 4:00pm, there will be a Town Hall Discussion on the mass incarceration of people of color. The free event, “JAIL and the Black Man,” is open to the public at Metropolitan Community College South Omaha Campus, ITC Training Building, 27th & Q Street. For more information, contact Willie Hamilton, 402.502.2081, or willzzway2 [at] yahoo [dot] com.

HIKE FONTENELLE FOREST . . . In celebration of National Trails Day, June 4, 2011, there will be a 9:00am, moderate to difficult Hollow to Hollow Hike at Fontenelle Forest Nature Center, in Bellevue just south of Omaha. For more information, e-mail bobbygoetschkes [at] hotmail [dot] com.

PATTY DUNN BENEFIT FUNDRAISER . . . Patty Dunn was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Her family, including longtime Progressive Omaha Director Jack Dunn, and friends, are hosting a benefit fundraiser to help with medical expenses on Saturday, June 4, 2011, 3:00 to 7:00pm, at Premier Events, 145 Main Street, Springfield, Nebraska. There will be a buffet dinner, silent auction, door prizes, and a live auction at 6:00pm. All proceeds will go to the Dunn Family for long term cancer treatments. Suggested ticket prices are Adults-$5 and Children-$3. For more information, contact event organizers: Carl Brown, 402.681.6265 or Carol Radke, 402.397.3233. Springfield is just a few minutes south of Millard.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Monday, June 6, 2011, is the deadline for submitting comments on the proposed XL tar sands pipeline to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. BOLD Nebraska has a new blog post with videos, a petition to Secretary Clinton, background information and action alerts. The Department of State prefers comments specific to the 320-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed pipeline through Nebraska’s Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, but EveryOne’s expressed opposition for whatever personal reasons is needed. A five-page Executive Summary of the SEIS is here. The Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” and encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the ESI during this final comment period. The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl@cardno.com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax 206.269.0098. In comments, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction.
A new SignOn.org petition “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline” is here. To Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama, it says “Every elected official talks about the need for clean energy, biofuels, and energy independence. Now it’s time to live up to your words. We urge you—Sec. Clinton and Pres. Obama—to deny the permit to TransCanada. We urge you—Gov. Heineman—to get serious about protecting our land and water and get state-based regulations passed in the Unicameral. Stop the TransCanada pipeline. It’s too risky and threatens the good life of Nebraska.” A Sierra Action Alert “Protect Nebraska; Say NO to Tar Sands!” addressed to Secretary Clinton is here. A Guardians of the Good Life petition “Protect Nebraska’s Economic Activity, Put the Brakes on the Pipeline,” to Secretary Clinton is here. Take action here, to ask Clinton to “Protect Your Water, Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!” at a food&waterWatch petition. And a Brave New Foundation petition to Clinton, “Say No to the Kochs and Yes to Protecting Americans,” is here. Please sign them all, and comment directly to the Department of State here.
Thursday, May 26th, was the last day of the 2011 Nebraska legislative session. LB 629, [pdf] the Oil Pipeline Reclamation Act, regulating petroleum pipelines in Nebraska, passed 47-0, with two senators absent. The narrow “Revegetation Bill” is a small first step that does nothing to address basic safety and landowner rights concerns about the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL protect. Meanwhile, state Senators Ken Haar, Colby Coash, Annette Dubas, Tony Fulton, and Kate Sullivan asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to delay a decision on the project until next May, allowing the legilsature more time to consider further legislation to “ensure that the citizens and landowners of Nebraska are adequately protected by state law.” “The senators’ letter said that federal regulations are inadequate and that Nebraska needed to explore issues such as siting, routing, eminent domain powers, emergency response and liability of pipeline companies.”
Many letters to the Lincoln Journal Star have been published in the year since the public started realizing the threat posed by TransCanada. Letters linked in Green Notes since May 30, 2010 are in archives here. (Scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Notes.) Sunday, May 29, 2011, LJS published a letter from Jeremiah J. Leubbe, of Broken Bow. “Smith needs to speak out on route” begins “Adrian Smith needs to take a stand, for once, against big business. He needs to speak out and oppose TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline and its proposed route through the Sand Hills.” “New idea for route,” by Larry Fruhling of Wilber asked “Why is the company so insistent on the route that takes it directly over the main source of our drinking water and irrigation water, whose pollution would affect millions of people in the high plains and the global economy? A major pipeline leak could in one day ruin what took 10 million years to develop. I urge people not to be swayed by ads that show little interest in these greater and far-reaching effects.” Quoting from “Heineman asleep at helm,” by Britton Bailey, published May 26th, “Gov. Dave Heineman fell asleep at the helm. Instead of guiding us through rough waters, he may have punched holes in our boat with his silence. We needed a leader in Nebraskan to protect our rights by listening to the majority of citizens who feel the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline is way off course. I’m starting to question what Heineman has to gain in silence and by letting a foreign company threaten Nebraska landowners with eminent domain for an unapproved pipeline. …Someone in Nebraska government has something to gain at our expense or we wouldn’t be in this sinking boat that’s leaking oil.”
TransCanada’s “disturbing history of oil spills along an existing pipeline in North Dakota” was reported in the Rapid City Journal Editorial “Oil spills keeping regulators busy” on May 18, 2011. The May 7, 2011 rupture of the Keystone I pipeline in Cogswell, North Dakota was covered extensively, including articles by AlterNet and Friends of the Earth, reporting that “the incident is the 12th spill from the Keystone I pipeline, which is not even a year old.”
FOE describes more about this spill: According to eyewitnesses, Saturday’s rupture of the Keystone I pipeline sent a six-story high gusher of oil into the air. The spill occurred at a pumping station, but the spray contaminated soil and water in a nearby field before it could be contained. The latest spill brings attention again to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, currently (and controversially) under review by the Obama administration. The XL pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Texas. The Keystone I pipeline carries 591,000 barrels a day, and concerns—and opposition—are mounting.”
A May 10th article covering local concern by statepaper.com, “TransCanada Oil Leak Draws Attention In Nebraska,” is here. Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster calls the North Dakota spill a “sign of things to come,” if the proposed XL pipeline is built. TransCanada’s “disturbing history of oil spills along an existing pipeline in North Dakota” was reported in the Rapid City Journal Editorial Board’s “Oil spills keeping regulators busy” on May 18th.
Just before the North Dakota rupture, Alberta, Canada experienced “one of the largest oil spills …reinforcing Nebraskan’s concerns that our state is not prepared for the massive tarsands oil pipeline planned by TransCanada.” Both tar sands environmental disasters are covered in a Reuters article, “Latest pair of oil accidents fuel opposition to Keystone pipeline extension” here.
Lincoln Journal Star revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.” In the May 12th editorial, LJS referred to the “Wide gaps as deep as three feet and hundreds of feet long (that) have opened above the 30-inch Bison pipeline. Secretary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened is a 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer.” Thompson’s testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, on behalf of his family and all Nebraskans who share concerns about the risks associated with the massive pipeline, is here. [pdf] Committee background information is here.
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.”
Pipeline educator and local musician Jim Pipher recently made a 1:40 minute YouTube video demonstrating a one barrel oil spill. A new documentary making the independent film circuit now, The Pipe, is based on a struggle in Ireland, but there are many similarities with our own Stop the Pipeline efforts in the US. And a new 13:32 minute film by UN-L students Casey Mills and Justin Swanson, “Voices of Nebraska,” features Jane Kleeb and Mary Pipher, but also includes an erroneous quote that opposition “has spent lots of money fighting the pipeline in Nebraska.” The quote is laughable. The truth about the far-right billionaire Koch brother’s involvement in promoting the pipeline for “making a killing” was reported in Forbes by Osha Gray Davidson May 20th. Quoting a Reuters article, Charles and David Koch are positioned to be the big winners if XL is approved. The Forbes article quotes Susan Seacrest, president emeritus of The Groundwater Foundation about the danger of mixing a major oil pipeline and the Ogallala Aquifer.
TransCanada representatives are making the rounds to county meetings all along the pipeline route. Meanwhile, “the Domina Law Group is investigating a class-action lawsuit against the XL pipeline, saying the company may be abusing eminent domain laws to bully Nebraska landowners into making way for the pipeline. Environmental groups are hoping that if even a few landowners can block the pipeline from running over their turf, they can force the pipeline to be re-routed.” Keystone Facing Potential Legal Hurdle, was reported at POLITICO.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.”

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of May 22, 2011

May 22, 2011Green Notesgreenone

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

JPA MEETING . . . A West Haymarket Joint Public Agency meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 3:30pm, at the County City Building, 555 South 10th Street, room 112, Lincoln. “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.” –Hartley Burr Alexander

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . Farmers markets are now open in Lincoln. The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, in the Haymarket District at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market is open Saturdays, 8:00am to noon, at 1265 South Cotner, through mid-September. Saturday Farmers Markets at the FARM, 11855 Yankee Hill Road, 9:00am to noon, run until October 29th. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday, May 23 through October 20. Other markets start in June and July. Find out what’s new this year, check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Farmers Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs, and learn more about markets, CSAs, and local farms at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

BELLEVUE TOWN HALL MEETING . . . Cyclists, are you interested in improved transportation systems? The City of Bellevue is conducting a Complete Streets public Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, May 24th 2011, 7:00pm, in the auditorium at Bellevue University, 1000 Galvin Road South. City Officials and representatives from Metropolitan Area Planning Association and Metro Area Transit will join the City Citizen Panel to hear from the public about issues and concerns related to safe, efficient transportation needs for all uses.

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 “Black Girl.” For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

OMAHA GREEN DRINKS . . . Wednesday, May 25, 2011, Omaha Green Drinks will meet from 5:30pm to close at Whole Foods Market, 10020 Regency Circle, in the education room by the restaurant–across from the coffee bar. Green Drinks is an informal, organic, self-organizing social network now active in 802 cities internationally. Walk, bike, bus, or carpool if possible. Click here for FaceBook event information.

FROM CAIRO TO MADISON . . . Saturday, May 28, 2011, 2:00pm, there will be a Rally for a Better World at Bemis Park, north of Cumming Street, between 36th and 33rd, in Omaha. Hosted by the International Socialist Organization, a brief presentation will be followed by a discussion about the prospects for building an alternative to the broken system characterized by greed, racism, war, and oppression. For more information, e-mail breadandrosestoo [at] gmail [dot] com or phone 213.880.6380.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

CONVERSATIONS CONFERENCE . . . Care about Nebraska’s future? The third Conversations Conference on Nebraska Environment and Sustainability will be Thursday, May 26, 2011, 8:00am to 4:30pm, at Bosselman Conference Center, 700 East Stolley Park Road, Grand Island. There will be conversations with area resource specialists On water, On Land, On Energy, On Food, and On Materials. Watch Conversations Conference Videos here. Register online here. Contact Katie Torpy at 402.933.0080 or ktorpy [at] sustainabledesign [dot] org with any questions.

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . The only pipeline related bill to be advanced out of the legislature’s Natural Resources Committee, LB 629–the Oil Pipeline Reclamation Act, ignores issues like the liability of pipeline companies to clean up a spill or leak; protection for landowners from eminent domain abuses; financial assurances; and state permitting and siting of pipelines. In debate, Lincoln Senator Bill Avery tried to make a distinction between “the best we can do” and “the most we’re willing to do.” As reported by the Lincoln Journal Star, Avery asserted that TransCanada’s efforts to use eminent domain and land condemnation to clear a path for the pipeline — at a time when federal permits have not been granted — amount to a violation of existing state law. He said it’s “a very serious problem” that such tactics got no attention Thursday. “We have here a foreign corporation that can actually invoke eminent domain against the private property interests of Nebraska citizens. That ought to give us pause.” The narrow “Revegetation Bill” was voted 47-0 first-round approval. It is a small first step in the right direction, although it does nothing to address basic safety and landowner rights concerns.
We know that TransCanada is making the rounds to all county meetings in the pipeline route. Meanwhile, “the Domina Law Group is investigating a class-action lawsuit against the XL pipeline, saying the company may be abusing eminent domain laws to bully Nebraska landowners into making way for the pipeline. Environmental groups are hoping that if even a few landowners can block the pipeline from running over their turf, they can force the pipeline to be re-routed.” Keystone Facing Potential Legal Hurdle, was reported at POLITICO.
More letters from Nebraskans were published in Lincoln Journal Star this past week.
Quoting “Nebraskans need to speak up,” by Cindy Myers, LJS lte, May 19, 2011: “TransCanada’s first experience building an oil pipeline is Keystone 1, which crosses eastern Nebraska and has had 12 leaks. The last leak was discovered by a landowner in North Dakota when he saw a geyser of oil shooting 60 feet in the air; 500 barrels of oil spilled. With 12 leaks in the Keystone 1 during its first year of operation, how can we believe it would be safe for TransCanada to build its second oil pipeline, Keystone XL, across our state’s most valuable natural resource, the Ogallala Aquifer? Holt County is vulnerable to oil leaks, particularly through southwest Holt County where the aquifer is saturated at or near ground level and the 36-inch pipeline carrying the world’s most toxic type of oil will be submerged in water only feet above our drinking supply. …Comments on the Supplemental Draft Environmental Statement are needed to discourage Hillary Clinton from signing the presidential permit for this pipeline. The comment period at www.keystonepipeline-XL.state.gov closes June 6, 2011. Don’t let the loud, powerful voice of a foreign company with self-serving interests drown the small voices of rural Nebraskans.” The entire letter is here.
“Concerns for land, people,” by Jeri Kuchera, LJS lte, May 18, 2011: “How many pipeline leaks (or using TransCanada’s vernacular, “unplanned releases of oil”), or miscalculations of response time, or reclamation problems will have to occur before our elected officials realize the risk they are putting our state in? The 12 incidents on the first Keystone Pipeline in the relatively short time it has been in use certainly does not give me a feeling of confidence that the Keystone XL will prove any less faulty.” Continued here.
“TransCanada shouldn’t get to weigh in,” by Barbara Bailey, May 16, 2011: “In the May 13 story “Panel advances pipeline proposal,” Sen. Chris Langemeier is paraphrased as saying “there’s nothing unusual about allowing a company to weigh in with suggested wording.” In what way is it ethical to listen to a foreign corporation’s, TransCanada’s, suggestions for legislative regulation providing protection of land and water for our state in the construction of its pipeline, which will carry corrosive and toxic diluted bitumen through fragile ecosystems? Why don’t we let al-Qaida “weigh in” on the security measures adopted by Homeland Security?”
“Concerned about pipeline,” by Joyce Petit, LJS, May 15, 2011: “I do not understand how a foreign company like TransCanada is allowed to come into our country without even having gotten a permit and try to coerce the landowners into letting it contract an easement to their land to install the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will transport dirty oil to a refinery in Texas. I guess the company’s leaders expect the landowners to just roll over and play dead like our elected officials have chosen to do. We have been told that everything is safe and “if” there is a leak in the pipeline, the company has machinery that will detect the leak right away and workers will get right out and shut it off and fix it. But reading about the six-story geyser of dirty oil in North Dakota, that isn’t necessarily the way it is.” Continued here. TransCanada’s “disturbing history of oil spills along an existing pipeline in North Dakota” was reported in the Rapid City Journal Editorial Board’s “Oil spills keeping regulators busy” on May 18, 2011.
Media coverage of the May 12, 2011 “Citizen Hearing” at the capitol rotunda included a tv report from KHAS, “Citizens speak out against future pipeline,” “Pipeline bill gets boost,” KVNO News audio, “Deadlock broken, panel advances pipeline bill,” by LJS reporter Art Hovey, and “Frustration over proposed pipeline fills capitol rotunda,” published in the Hastings Tribune. That morning, Lincoln Journal Star editorialized “Indifference over pipeline hard to fathom: The passivity of Nebraska’s elected state officials to the planned crude oil pipeline through the Sandhills becomes more alarming with every new reported problem. …It’s unfathomable that the pipeline route is not even a matter of public debate in the Legislature.”
A five-page Executive Summary of the 320-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed XL pipeline through Nebraska’s Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer is here. [pdf] The Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” and encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the ESI during this final comment period. The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl@cardno.com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax (206) 269-0098. In comments, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction.
A new Sierra Action Alert “Protect Nebraska; Say NO to Tar Sands!” addressed to Secretary Clinton is here. At a Food & Water Watch webpage you can enter your zip code and send a message asking your state representative to protect Nebraska’s landowners and natural resources. And Jane Kleeb’s petition to Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama says “Every elected official talks about the need for clean energy, biofuels, and energy independence. Now it’s time to live up to your words. We urge you—Sec. Clinton and Pres. Obama—to deny the permit to TransCanada. We urge you—Gov. Heineman—to get serious about protecting our land and water and get state-based regulations passed in the Unicameral. Stop the TransCanada pipeline. It’s too risky and threatens the good
life of Nebraska.” The petition is being circulated by MoveOn. Sign it here.
The Saturday, May 7, 2011 rupture of the Keystone I pipeline in Cogswell, North Dakota was covered extensively, including articles by AlterNet and Friends of the Earth, reporting that “the incident is the 12th spill from the Keystone I pipeline, which is not even a year old.”
FOE describes more about this spill: “According to eyewitnesses, Saturday’s rupture of the Keystone I pipeline sent a six-story high gusher of oil into the air. The spill occurred at a pumping station, but the spray contaminated soil and water in a nearby field before it could be contained. The latest spill brings attention again to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, currently (and controversially) under review by the Obama administration. The XL pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Texas. The Keystone I pipeline carries 591,000 barrels a day, and concerns—and opposition—are mounting.”
LJS coverage, “TransCanada cleaning up spill at N.D. pump station,” reported that Bob Banderet saw a geyser of oil higher than cottonwood trees about a mile and a half from his farm when he got up Saturday. He “called the TransCanada hotline and said he spent five minutes on hold, suspecting the person who answered thought his call might be a hoax.”
A May 10th article covering local concern by statepaper.com, “TransCanada Oil Leak Draws Attention In Nebraska,” is here. Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster calls the North Dakota spill a “sign of things to come,” if the proposed XL pipeline is built. TransCanada’s “disturbing history of oil spills along an existing pipeline in North Dakota” was reported in the Rapid City Journal Editorial Board’s “Oil spills keeping regulators busy” on May 18th.
Just before the North Dakota rupture, Alberta, Canada experienced “one of the largest oil spills …reinforcing Nebraskan’s concerns that our state is not prepared for the massive tarsands oil pipeline planned by TransCanada.” Both tar sands environmental disasters are covered in a Reuters article, “Latest pair of oil accidents fuel opposition to Keystone pipeline extension” here.
A LJS Local View, “Fence off Sand Hills to pipeline,” by Ben Gotschall, was published May 9th.
Letters to the LJS encouraging legislative action include “Shouldn’t governor lead charge?” by Kevin L. Johnson, and “Strangely quiet on pipeline,” by Dorothy A. Kubick, both from Lincoln.
“Silence deafening references Mary Pipher’s April 24th letter urging “all readers to do what they can to motivate our state senators and governor to act now. …The silence of most, but not all, of our elected senators and Gov. Dave Heineman on the subject is deafening.” Marilyn Barnes writes “Nebraska must take action concluding “Nebraska should not cede its oil pipeline siting authority to a Canadian corporation. I hope those who care about Nebraska’s water and agriculture will call or write to the governor and state senators urging immediate legislation to regulate this and future pipelines.”
April 21st, LJS revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.” In the May 12th editorial, LJS referred to the “Wide gaps as deep as three feet and hundreds of feet long (that) have opened above the 30-inch Bison pipeline.
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010 determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. A BOLD Nebraska blog post, includes background information, a transcript of the media roundtable held upon discovery of the memo, and action alert.
Action: write your state senator urging that oil pipeline regulations be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here. Contact Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244 asking that he be responsive to the citizens of Nebraska who oppose the environmental devastation this pipeline would bring to the entire region.
Secretary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer.” Thompson’s May 13th letter to the LJS editor is here. Thompson was invited to testify in front of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power. He will speak Monday, May 23rd, on behalf of his family and all Nebraskans who share concerns about the risks associated with the massive pipeline. Committee background information is here. Watch his testimony live here.
New Neal Obermeyer cartoons addressing the legislature’s inaction were published in the Lincoln Journal Star on May 8, 2011, and May 1st. Pipeline educator and local musician Jim Pipher recently made a 1:40 minute YouTube video demonstrating a one barrel oil spill. A new documentary making the independent film circuit right now, The Pipe, is based on a struggle in Ireland, but there are many similarities with our own Stop the Pipeline efforts in the US. And a new 13:32 minute film by UN-L students Casey Mills and Justin Swanson, “Voices of Nebraska,” features interviews with Jane Kleeb and Mary Pipher, but also includes an erroneous quote that opposition “has spent lots of money fighting the pipeline in Nebraska.” The quote is laughable. The truth about the far-right billionaire Koch brother’s involvement in promoting the pipeline for “making a killing” was reported in Forbes by Osha Gray Davidson May 20th. Quoting a Reuters article, Charles and David Koch are positioned to be the big winners if XL is approved. Forbes quotes Susan Seacrest, president emeritus of The Groundwater Foundation, about the danger of mixing a major oil pipeline and the Ogallala Aquifer.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Other excellent letters to Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org to get yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.”
PETITION THE EPA . . . Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately prohibit the use of clothianidin and conduct a full scientific review to determine its impact on honey bee populations. Learn more about clothianidin and
sign the petition here.

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of May 15, 2011

May 15, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in District 3 Green Notes.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

RIDE OF SILENCE . . . Wednesday, May 18, 2011, The Great Plains Bicycling Club will lead the fifth annual Ride of Silence in memory of cyclists who have been killed or injured while riding. The 10-12 mph ride will start at 7:00pm, Sawyer Snell Park, 1st & South Street, go through downtown, the Haymarket, and back to the park.

HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTIONS . . . The Lancaster County Health Department will host two household hazardous waste collections this week: Friday, May 20,2011, 3:00 to 7:00pm, at the Community Center, 115 and Locust Streets, in Hickman; and Saturday, May 21st, 9:00am to 1:00pm, at Pfizer, 601 West Cornhusker Highway, Lincoln. Phone 402.477.3606 for more information.

NEBRASKA BOOK FESTIVAL . . . The public is invited to celebrate Nebraska’s literary heritage and contemporary authors at the 2011 Nebraska Book Festival, “Cultivating Creativity,” Saturday, May 21, at the Nebraska State Historical Society’s Nebraska History Museum, 15th and P Streets, and NuVibe Juice & Java, 126 North 14th Street, in downtown Lincoln. The keynote panel, “Local Wonders: From Book to Musical Theatre Production,” features US Poet Laureate and Nebraska poet Ted Kooser, Nebraska Repertory Theater’s Virginia Smith, and Columbia College Chicago’s Paul Amandes discussing how Kooser’s book “Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps,” has evolved into musicial theater. Writers who will present their 2010 works, conduct free workshops, and participate in the keynote panel are listed and linked here. View the schedule of events by category here.

QUEEN OF THE SUN: WHAT ARE THE BEES TELLING US? . . . Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling us? examines the global bee crisis through the eyes of beekeepers, scientists, farmers, and philosophers unveiling 10,000 years of beekeeping, highlighting how our historic and sacred relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices. The 1 hour and 23 minute documentary runs at The Ross, 313 North 13th Street, Lincoln, through Thursday, May 19, 2011.

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, in the Haymarket District at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market opened Saturday, May 14th, at 1265 South Cotner, 8:00am to noon, and runs to mid-September. Saturday Farmers Markets at the FARM, 11855 Yankee Hill Road, 9:00am to noon, run until October 29th. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday, May 23 through October 20. Other markets start in June and July. Find out what’s new this year, check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Farmers Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs, and learn more about markets, CSAs, and local farms at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “The Constant Gardener,” a suspense-thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Since Nebraskans were not given an opportunity to speak out about the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed XL pipeline through our fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, BOLD Nebraska and the coalition of groups opposing the project held a May 12, 2011, “Citizen Hearing” at the state capitol rotunda. That morning, the Lincoln Journal Star editorialized “Indifference over pipeline hard to fathom: The passivity of Nebraska’s elected state officials to the planned crude oil pipeline through the Sandhills becomes more alarming with every new reported problem. …It’s unfathomable that the pipeline route is not even a matter of public debate in the Legislature.”
Media coverage of the Citizen Hearing included a tv report from KHAS, “Citizens speak out against future pipeline,” “Pipeline bill gets boost,” KVNO News audio, “Deadlock broken, panel advances pipeline bill,” by LJS reporter Art Hovey, and “Frustration over proposed pipeline fills capitol rotunda,” published in the Hastings Tribune.
A BOLD Nebraska blog “Langemeier Says Citizens Have No Relevance,” by Jane Kleeb, expresses a shared theme: “There is at least one thing that is crystal clear out of this process–Sen. Langemeier is a weak leader who is out of touch and not serious about protecting our land and water.” Call or e-mail Langemeier. Phone: 402.471.2719; E-mail: clangemeier [at] leg [dot] ne [dot] gov.
New action alerts this week include a Food & Water Watch webpage where you can enter your zip code and send a message asking your state representative to protect Nebraska’s landowners and natural resources; and Jane Kleeb’s petition to Secretary Clinton, Governor Heineman, and President Obama: “Every elected official talks about the need for clean energy, biofuels, and energy independence. Now it’s time to live up to your words. We urge you—Sec. Clinton and Pres. Obama—to deny the permit to TransCanada. We urge you—Gov. Heineman—to get serious about protecting our land and water and get state-based regulations passed in the Unicameral. Stop the TransCanada pipeline. It’s too risky and threatens the good life of Nebraska.” MoveOn is circulating the petition. Sign it here.
The Saturday, May 7, 2011 rupture of the Keystone I pipeline in Cogswell, North Dakota was covered extensively, including articles by AlterNet and Friends of the Earth, reporting that “the incident is the 12th spill from the Keystone I pipeline, which is not even a year old.”
FOE describes more about this spill: “According to eyewitnesses, Saturday’s rupture of the Keystone I pipeline sent a six-story high gusher of oil into the air. The spill occurred at a pumping station, but the spray contaminated soil and water in a nearby field before it could be contained. The latest spill brings attention again to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, currently (and controversially) under review by the Obama administration. The XL pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Texas. The Keystone I pipeline carries 591,000 barrels a day, and concerns—and opposition—are mounting.”
LJS coverage, “TransCanada cleaning up spill at N.D. pump,” reported that Bob Banderet saw a geyser of oil higher than cottonwood trees about a mile and a half from his farm when he got up Saturday. He “called the TransCanada hotline and said he spent five minutes on hold, suspecting the person who answered thought his call might be a hoax.”
A May 10th article covering local concern by statepaper.com, “TransCanada Oil Leak Draws Attention In Nebraska,” is here. Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster calls the North Dakota spill a “sign of things to come,” if the proposed XL pipeline is built.
Just before the North Dakota rupture, Alberta, Canada experienced “one of the largest oil spills …reinforcing Nebraskan’s concerns that our state is not prepared for the massive tarsands oil pipeline planned by TransCanada.” Both tar sands environmental disasters are covered in a Reuters article, “Latest pair of oil accidents fuel opposition to Keystone pipeline extension” here.
For background information about the tar sands extraction process, and photos showing Alberta’s devastated landscapes, BOLD Nebraska has posted a 9:44 minute YouTube segment from last summer’s Tar Sands Pipeline Summit in Lincoln. A 53:46 minute audio interview with John Hansen, Ken Winston, & Graham Christensen on the Derry Brownfield Show discusses TransCanada Pipeline Issues (mp3).
A five-page Executive Summary of the 320-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement is here. [pdf] The Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” and encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the ESI during this final comment period. The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl@cardno.com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax (206) 269-0098. In comments, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction.
A LJS Local View, “Fence off Sand Hills to pipeline,” by Ben Gotschall, was published May 9th. Letters to the LJS encouraging legislative action include “Shouldn’t governor lead charge?” by Kevin L. Johnson, and “Strangely quiet on pipeline,” by Dorothy A. Kubick, both from Lincoln.
“Silence deafening,” references Mary Pipher’s April 24th letter urging “all readers to do what they can to motivate our state senators and governor to act now. …The silence of most, but not all, of our elected senators and Gov. Dave Heineman on the subject is deafening.” Marilyn Barnes writes “Nebraska must take action,” concluding “Nebraska should not cede its oil pipeline siting authority to a Canadian corporation. I hope those who care about Nebraska’s water and agriculture will call or write to the governor and state senators urging immediate legislation to regulate this and future pipelines.”
April 21st, LJS revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.” In the May 12th editorial, LJS referred to the “Wide gaps as deep as three feet and hundreds of feet long (that) have opened above the 30-inch Bison pipeline. Saturated with spring meltwater, the loamy, sandy soil along Bison’s 50-foot permanent easement is sinking into broad crevasses through wheat fields, corn fields, alfalfa and rangeland. …In low areas of the rolling ranchland where deep snow gathered, fissures branch across the easement, eroding the topsoil and washing it out into creeks and ponds.”
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010 determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. A BOLD Nebraska blog post, [pdf] includes background information, a transcript of the media roundtable held upon discovery of the memo, and action alert.
Action: write your state senator urging that oil pipeline regulations be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here. Contact Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244 asking him to be responsive and join opposition efforts. Secretary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer.” Thompson’s May 13th letter to the LJS editor is here.
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.” Read the entire editorial here.
New Neal Obermeyer cartoons addressing the legislature’s passive inaction were published in the Lincoln Journal Star on May 8, 2011, and May 1st. Pipeline educator and local musician Jim Pipher recently made a 1:40 minute YouTube video demonstrating a one barrel oil spill. And a new documentary making the independent film circuit right now, The Pipe is based on a struggle in Ireland, but there are many similarities with our own Stop the Pipeline efforts in the US.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Other excellent letters to Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.“

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of May 8, 2011

May 8, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in District 3 Green Notes. Note this week’s “Citizen Hearing” in Lincoln at the state capitol building, Thursday, May 12, 2011, noon to 2:00pm.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

PUBLIC MEETING ON TOXIC CLEAN-UP . . . On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality will host a public meeting to discuss diesel fuel remediation and other toxic clean-up activities related to the new Lincoln arena site. Bring questions and concerns to the 5:00pm meeting at the Lancaster County Extension offices, 444 Cherrycreek Road, Lincoln. The public session will last until 7:00pm. For more information, visit here.

MULTI-STATE CITIZEN HEARING ON THE PIPELINE . . . Since the US State Department is not holding a public hearing on the new Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, BOLD Nebraska and coalition member groups have organized a “Citizen Hearing” at the state capitol in Lincoln on Thursday, May 12, 2011, noon to 2:00pm, to gather comments for Secretary of State Clinton, and to urge the Unicameral, governor, and attorney general to pass state-based regulations covering current and proposed pipelines in Nebraska. Citizen Hearings will be held on May 12th in all the states potentially affected by TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. See Pipeline Update below for background and action links.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the EcoStores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail Mitch Paine at mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

WACHISKA AUDUBON GENERAL MEETING . . . Thursday, May 12, 2011, 7:00pm, Wachiska Audubon will meet in the lower level auditorium of Union College Dick Administration Building, 3800 South 48th Street, Lincoln. Mary Bomberger Brown will speak on Cliff Swallows in Nebraska. For more information, and directions to the building, click here.

QUEEN OF THE SUN: WHAT ARE THE BEES TELLING US? . . . Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling us? examines the global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers, and philosophers unveiling 10,000 years of beekeeping, highlighting how our historic and sacred relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices. A reception “To Bee or Not to Bee: A Celebration of Local Honey & Bees,” featuring honey tasting, food, educational booths and demonstrations will begin at 5:30pm, Friday, May 13, 2011, before the 7:30pm opening at Ross Film Theater, 313 North 13th Street, Lincoln. Sunday, May 15th, 2:30, following the 1:00pm screening, MOVIE TALK will feature local beekeeper Ed Bannister, and UN-L professor and Apiculture Specialist Marion Ellis. Movie Talk, located in the Presentation Room of the Visitors Center immediately adjacent to The Ross, is free and open to the public.

BIRDING FIELD TRIPS . . . Two field trips will highlight Birdathon Weekend Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15, 2011. Saturday, 7:30am, meet at the 14th Street parking lot next to the footbridge crossing Salt Creek on the south side of Lincoln, north of Rokeby Road. Larry Einemann will be the guide. Sunday, 8:00am, meet at the parking lot by the restaurant and observaion tower at Platte River State Park for a trip led by John Carlini and Shari Schwartz. For more information, directions, or questions about either trip phone John at 402.475.7275.

WATCHDOGS MEETING . . . Saturday, May 14, 2011, 10:00am, Watchdogs of Lincoln Government will meet at Gere Library, 56th & Normal Blvd. The new group will be offering public forums, debates, and panels focused on various current issues facing local government. Get involved now to participate in decision making about issues and presentations at Saturday’s open meeting. For more information, contact Jane Kinsey, jakin3 [at] juno [dot] com.

LINCOLN FARMERS MARKETS . . . The Haymarket Farmers Market is open every Saturday, 8:00am to noon, at 7th & P Streets. Expect to find more than 120 vendors with fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and handmade items plus a performance showcase featuring local folk, jazz, blues and classical music. The Market continues through October 15th. Every Sunday, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market at 5500 Old Cheney Road features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants. The Piedmont Farmers Market opens Saturday, May 14th, at 1265 South Cotner, 8:00am to noon, and runs to mid-September. Community CROPS, 1551 South 2nd Street, has garden pick-up 4:00 to 6:00pm Monday and Thursday, May 23 through October 20. Other markets start in June and July. Find out what’s new this year, and check an interactive map of Lincoln’s Markets, Farms and Community Supported Agriculture programs. Learn more at the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Facebook page.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “Small Town Gay Bar.” The documentary explores the struggle for equal rights, examining issues faced by gay men and women in small town Mississippi. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

PROGRESSIVE OMAHA MEETING . . . Saturday, May 14, 2011, Progressive Omaha will meet from 6:00 to 9:00pm at 4924 Chicago in Dundee. Jo Peterson, Peace and Nonviolence activist, will facilitate a discussion about how to transition the group now that founder Jack Dunn is stepping down as director. Other issues such as confirming or changing the group’s mission and goals may also be addressed. A potluck will be from 6:00 to 7:00, the discussion will continue until 8:00pm, when group business and social time will begin. For questions, e-mail Karen Abrams, kabrams123 [at] cox [dot] net.

HIKE WAUBONSIE . . . Sunday, May 15, 2011, the Nebraska Adventure Group will hike Waubonsie State Park, near Hamburg, Iowa. A carpool from Omaha will leave from Panera on Saddle Creek Road near UNMC at 10:00am. For more information, e-mail debhoffnung [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . May 5, 2011, a BOLD Nebraska blog reported on the new Alberta pipeline environmental disaster: “One of the largest oil spills in Alberta, Canada occurred this week, reinforcing Nebraskans’ concerns that our state is not prepared for the massive tar sands oil pipeline planned by TransCanada. The full amount of the Alberta spill is not yet confirmed, but early estimates have the spill at 1,176,000 gallons of oil. Nebraska groups working on the pipeline issue are calling on Secretary Clinton to deny the permit to TransCanada, and for Governor Heineman and the Unicameral to pass state-based regulations.” A May 8th letter to the editor of Lincoln Journal Star by Larry Spangler comments on the glaring lack of interest in preserving our state’s natural resources by the current legislature and governor, and concludes, “We have been assured that any leak that may occur will have as quick a response time from TransCanada as from the company that built the currently leaking pipeline in Alberta, their own backyard.”
Since Nebraskans are not being given an opportunity to speak out about the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed XL pipeline through our fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, BOLD Nebraska and the coalition of groups in opposition will hold a Thursday, May 12, 2011, “Citizen Hearing” from noon to 2:00pm, in Lincoln at the state capitol. Comments for Secretary of State Clinton will be gathered, and passage of state-based regulations will be urged. Nebraska Farmers Union has organized a bus ride leaving from Stracke Bar & Grille on the north side of Hiway 20, Stuart, Nebraska, at 6:30am. The bus will go south through O’Neill on Hiway 281 to Grand Island, then east on I-80 to Lincoln. Reserve a ride by leaving your name and a return phone number with Lynda Buoy, 402.684.2209. There will be similar Citizen Hearings in all the states threatened by the proposed tar sands pipeline on May 12th.
In response to the 320-page SDEIS, the Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” “Pipeline impact statment disappoints” also encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the 300-page ESI during this final comment period. A five-page Executive Summary is here.  The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl [at] cardno [dot]com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax (206) 269-0098. In comments, please invite Secretary Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most impacted by XL pipeline construction.
For background information about the tar sands extraction process, and photos showing Alberta’s devastated landscapes, BOLD Nebraska has posted a 9:44 minute YouTube segment from last summer’s Tar Sands Pipeline Summit in Lincoln.
Monday, May 2nd, two new letters to the LJS encouraging legislative action on proposed pipeline regulations were published: “Shouldn’t governor lead charge?” by Kevin L. Johnson, and “Strangely quiet on pipeline,” by Dorothy A. Kubick, both from Lincoln.
From recent letters, “Silence deafening,” references Mary Pipher’s April 24th letter urging “all readers to do what they can to motivate our state senators and governor to act now. …The silence of most, but not all, of our elected senators and Gov. Dave Heineman on the subject is deafening.” Marilyn Barnes writes “Nebraska must take action,” concluding “Nebraska should not cede its oil pipeline siting authority to a Canadian corporation. I hope those who care about Nebraska’s water and agriculture will call or write to the governor and state senators urging immediate legislation to regulate this and future pipelines.”
April 21st, LJS revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.”
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010 determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. A BOLD Nebraska blog post,[pdf] includes background information, a transcript of the media roundtable held upon discovery of the memo, and action alert.
Action: write your state senator urging that oil pipeline regulations be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here.  Also contact members of the Natural Resources Committee asking that they move the pending bills, LB 340, [pdf] LB 578 [pdf] and LB 629 [pdf] out for floor debate. And please contact Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244 asking him to be responsive and join opposition efforts.
Secretary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer.”
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.” Read the entire editorial here.
A new Repower America Action Alert says “Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil made on a commercial scale. Why? It produces at least 17% more greenhouse gas pollution than conventional oil. To be precise, over two tons of tar sands have to be mined, transported and refined to produce a single barrel of oil.”  Repower also provides a sign-on letter to Secretary Clinton at the site.
Nebraska Greens John Carlini and Shari Schwartz produced a 30-minute public access tv show “Cornhuskers vs. Dirty Oil” for cable channel 13. Another pipeline educator, local musician Jim Pipher recently made a 1:40 minute YouTube video demonstrating a one barrel oil spill. A new documentary making the independent film circuit right now, The Pipe, is based on a struggle in Ireland, but there are many similarities with our own Stop the Pipeline efforts in the US.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Other excellent recently published letters to Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
           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.“

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of May 1, 2011

May 1, 2011Green Notesgreenone

The second annual Hemp History Week is Monday, May 2 through Sunday, May 8, 2011. Discover the benefits of hemp!

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in District 3 Green Notes. Note the Omaha Education and Action Forum Tuesday, May 3, 2011.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

VOTE . . . The General Election in Lancaster County is Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Early voting continues at the Election Commission, 601 North 46th Street, Lincoln. A sample ballot is here. [pdf]

MEETING WITH SENATOR NELSON’S STAFF . . . Thursday, May 5, 2011, there will be a noon meeting with Senator Nelson’s staff to address accountability for his votes against clean air. The senator’s Lincoln office is at 440 North 8th Street, Suite 120. Sign up to attend here.

COOPER NUCLEAR PERFORMANCE MEETING . . . Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District in a 4:00pm public meeting Thursday, May 5, 2011, at the Brownville Concert Hall, Atlantic Avenue and Second Street, Brownville. In addition to the performance assessment, NRC staff will answer questions from the public on the Cooper safety record.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the EcoStores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail Mitch Paine at mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

CANNABIS RIGHTS RALLY . . . The Nebraska Cannabis Coalition of nonprofit and political groups will rally Saturday, May 7, 2011, on the north side of the state capitol. Music and speeches will be from noon to 3:30pm, followed by a march to and from the federal building. The rally is designed to educate and reach out with new solutions to current environmental, political, and cultural problems. At 5:00pm there will be a potluck barbecue with live music at University Park, North 40th and Adams Street.

FARMERS MARKETS BEGIN . . . The first local farmers market is open from 10:00am to 2:00pm every Sunday at 5500 Old Cheney Road. The Old Cheney Road Farmers Market features in-season heirloom and traditional produce, artisan breads and cheeses, homemade baked goods, wild-crafted and traditional jams, jelly, honey, meats, fish, eggs, and bedding plants.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

OMAHA MEETING WITH SENATOR NELSON’S STAFF . . . Wednesday, May 4, 2011, there will be a noon meeting with Senator Nelson’s staff addressing accountability for his votes to undermine the Clean Air Act’s carbon pollution limiting ability at the Senator’s Omaha office, 11819 Miracle Hills Drive, Suite 205. Attendance is limited to eleven people. Click here to rsvp.

UN-O NFP END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR DROP-IN . . . Tuesday, May 3, 2011, progressives and peace wagers are invited to stop by the UN-O Nebraskans for Peace office on the third floor of Milo Bail Student Center for light snacks between 2:00 and 4:00pm, to celebrate the end of the school year. E-mail Candella at c [dot] ing [dot] the [dot] light [at] gmail [dot] com.

STOP THE PIPELINE EDUCATION AND ACTION FORUM . . . The Omaha Education and Action Forum on the proposed XL pipeline will be Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, at First Unitarian Church, 31st & Harney. Speakers will include Jane Kleeb, BOLD Nebraska, Jane Wilson, Guardians of the Good Life, Marian Langan, Audubon Nebraska, Duane Hovorka, Nebraska Wildlife Federation, Ken Winston, Sierra Nebraska, as well as other presenters on the impact to Nebraska’s water and land resources. Click here for a FaceBook link.

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 “Harlan County, USA,” an award-winning documentary record of a thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line. Watch the 3:00 minute trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

OMAHA CINCO DE MAYO 2011 . . . Celebrating 26 Years in South Omaha, events for Cinco de Mayo Omaha 2011 will begin on Thursday, May 5, and run through Sunday, May 8, 2011, featuring a parade, carnival, food, entertainment, vendors, contests, kids’ activities and national Latin group.
Thursday, May 5th, a Cinco de Mayo Reception hosted by the Mexican Consulate and the South Omaha Business Association to honor 2011 Sponsors and Grand Marshals will be at 7444 Farnam Street, 6:00pm.
Friday, May 6th, Carnival will start at 5:30pm on South 25th Streets (O-M Streets). Group Control will play at Plaza de la Raza (25th & N), 7:00pm.
Saturday, May 7th, one of Omaha’s largest parades will begin at 10:00am, and will extend from 24th & B streets to 24th & O streets. Following the parade will be a fiesta at Noon. There will be food, a carnival, music and booths. Over 80 shops and restaurants will offer a wide variety of Mexican Cuisines.
Sunday, May 8th, starts with Mariachi Mass on Plaza de la Raza (25th & N) with fiesta and carnival following on the Plaza from Noon to 10:00pm.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . More great letters to the Lincoln Journal Star were published Sunday, May 1st, and Tuesday, April 26, 2011. “Silence deafening,” by LaVonne Dilla, references Mary Pipher’s April 24th letter urging “all readers to do what they can to motivate our state senators and governor to act now.” Dilla writes “Those who care about Nebraska’s natural resources should let someone know. The silence of most, but not all, of our elected senators and Gov. Dave Heineman on the subject is deafening.” An April 26th letter from Marilyn Barnes, “Nebraska must take action,” concludes “Nebraska should not cede its oil pipeline siting authority to a Canadian corporation. I hope those who care about Nebraska’s water and agriculture will call or write to the governor and state senators urging immediate legislation to regulate this and future pipelines.”
Also on April 26, Art Hovey wrote about state senators not acting on pipeline regulations, with a focus on Fullerton Senator Dubas, in a LJS article “Sen. Annette Dubas defends actions on Keystone XL pipeline.” Sierra’s Ken Winston and BOLD Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb are both quoted, raising questions and expressing equally incredulous remarks about this legislature’s obvious lack of serious concern for the state’s natural resources.
“National groups, Merrick board, weigh in on Keystone XL,” was published Thursday, April 28, 2011. A new 20-page report by Friends of the Earth says TransCanada “bullies farmers, manipulates oil markets, threatens fresh water and skimps on safety in the United States.” The article also reported on a Merrick County Board vote giving support to the Keystone XL pipeline. A Daily Journal news item from Central City reports “The Merrick County Board voted Tuesday to write a letter of support for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which is being reviewed by the US State Department.” The rationale? “TransCanada has promised that the pipeline would be safe and reliable.” Safe and reliable. It’s a promise. Meanwhile, there have been eleven documented leaks on the first Keystone pipeline carrying tar sands through Nebraska since fall of 2010. A BOLD Nebraska blog commentary and action alert is here.
In response to a 320-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed pipeline through Nebraska’s fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, the Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” “Pipeline impact statment disappoints” also encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the 300-page ESI during this final comment period. A five-page Executive Summary is here. [pdf] The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl [at] cardno [dot] com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax (206) 269-0098. In comments, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction.
One of two Nebraska mayors who signed a letter supporting the pipeline has taken his support back–and he noted that TransCanada essentially lied to him about the letter. “Further review” reverses mayor’s pipeline support, April 21, 2011, reported that “after …consulting with others, Ralston Mayor Don Groesser retracted previous support of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline expansion in an April 13 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The same week, Lincoln Journal Star revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.”
A 13:26 minute interview with John Hansen, President of coalition member Nebraska Farmers Union, aired on NET News Capitol Comments. Hansen discussed the three pipeline regulation bills stalled in the Unicameral’s Natural Resources Committee. Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010 determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. A BOLD Nebraska blog post, [pdf] includes background information, a transcript of the media roundtable held upon discovery of the memo, and action alert.
Action: write your state senator urging that oil pipeline regulations be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here. Also contact members of the Natural Resources Committee asking that they move the pending bills, LB 340, [pdf] LB 578 [pdf] and LB 629 [pdf] out for floor debate. And please contact Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244 asking him to be responsive and join opposition efforts.
Secretary of State Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to ask her to stand up to Big Oil and NOT grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer. Our conclusion is that the courts need to make the final determination on this issue.”
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.” Read the entire editorial here.
Nebraska Greens John Carlini and Shari Schwartz have produced a 30-minute public access tv show “Cornhuskers vs. Dirty Oil.” It airs on cable channel 13, Sundays at 8:00pm, and Wednesdays at 9:30pm.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Other excellent recently published letters to Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.”

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of April 24, 2011

April 24, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in District 3 Green Notes. Note the Omaha Education and Action Forum on Tuesday, May 3, 2011.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

VOTE . . . Early voting for City elections began Monday, April 18,2011, at the Lancaster County Election Commission office, 601 North 46th Street, Lincoln. A sample ballot is here. [pdf]

WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES SEMINARS . . . The final UN-L seminar focused on urban stormwater runoff, gobal climate change, and related environmental issues is Wednesday, April 27, 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, phone the UN-L Water Center, 402.472.3305.

LINCOLN GREEN DRINKS . . . Wednesday, April 27, 2011, starting at 5:30pm, Lincoln Green Drinks will meet at Lazlo’s Brewery and Grill, 210 North 7th Street, in the Haymarket. Green Drinks is an informal self-organizing network now active in 793 cities worldwide. For more information, e-mail Rick Yoder, ryoder [at] mail [dot] unomaha [dot] edu.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the EcoStores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail Mitch Paine at mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

NEAC ANNUAL MEETING AND BANQUET . . . This year’s Nebraska Environmental Action Coalition Annual Meeting is Saturday, April 30, 2011, 10:00am to 4:00pm, in Lincoln at the Unitarian Church 6300 A Street. Morning speakers include Ted Thieman, and Laura Krebsbach,a from NEAC. The 1:15pm Keynote is by Lynn Henning, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, winner of the 2010 Goldman Prize for North America. The movie Food, Inc. will be shown at 3:00pm. Please make reservations for the noon local food lunch–vegetarian pasta salad or roast beef–by calling 402.276.7321, or e-mail chrisneac [at] gmail [dot] com. The meeting is free and open to the public, with a small charge for the lunch.

FUNDRAISER FOR MATT TALBOT KITCHEN . . . Local actress Pippa White will perform her one woman show “Women Who Make a Difference,” at a benefit to raise funds for a new piano at Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 2:00 to 4:00pm. The piano will be used in a new music outreach program for homeless people in Lincoln. Tea with a dessert bar will follow the performance at Matt Talbot, 2121 North 27th Street. Reserve tickets online here.

WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY MARCH . . . There will be a Solidarity March starting at 2:30pm, Sunday, May 1, 2011, at the north steps of the State Capitol Building. The rally is sponsored by the IWW and the LUNk Collective.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

HIKE STANDING BEAR LAKE . . . Wednesday, April 27, 2011, there will be a 9:00am hike around Standing Bear Lake, one of the early trail systems built around Omaha lakes. This will be a good hike for beginners, lasting approximately 2 hours, covering between 5 and 6 miles. E-mail omahahikingclub [at] cox [dot] net 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 “Bugsy Malone.” A cast of child actors, including Scott Baio as Bugsy and Jodie Foster as a speakeasy songbird, sends up Prohibition-era mobster flicks in this Alan Parker musical. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

PROTEST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE . . . Omaha protests with Guardians of the Good Life continue. E-mail japlapoo [at] netzero [dot] net for details. STOP THE PIPELINE yard signs are available in Omaha by calling Nebraskans for Peace Coordinator Mark Welsch, 402.453.0776, or e-mail NFPOmaha [at] nebraskansforpeace [dot] org. SAVE THE DATE: An Omaha Pipeline Education and Action Forum is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, at First Unitarian Church, 31st & Harney, in Omaha.

BENSON COMMUNITY GARDEN . . . Omaha’s newest community garden is at 60th & Lafayette, at the south side of the historic Benson neighborhood. The Benson Community Garden is looking for individuals and families interested in garden plots. The garden needs sponsors to help with the costs of building (hardware, lumber, etc.). For more information, phone 402.714.0290 or e-mail goetzinger2 [at] cox [dot] net. To get involved, or help support the garden, please register here.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . “We are entering a 45-day review period for comments to the State Department on the risks of the Keystone XL Pipeline to our Sandhills and Ogallala Aquifer. We are up against a corporation that has spent millions of dollars on an aggressive political and public relations campaign in D.C. and Nebraska (the primary lobbyist for TransCanada served on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign staff.)” So begins Mary Pipher’s April 24, 2011 letter to the Lincoln Journal Star urging “all readers to do what they can to motivate our state senators and governor to act now.”
In response to the 320-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed pipeline through Nebraska’s fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, on April 19th, the Journal Star editorialized “The statement is unfairly dismissive of the unique characteristics of Nebraska’s Sand Hills.” “Pipeline impact statment disappoints” also encourages “Nebraskans — actually all Americans –” to comment on the ESI during this final comment period. A five-page Executive Summary is here. The official State Department Comments Page is here. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail at keystonexl [at] cardno [dot] com, by US Postal to Keystone XL EIS Project, P.O. Box 96503-98500, Washington D.C. 20090-6503, or fax (206) 269-0098. In comments, please invite Secretary of State Clinton to visit the Sand Hills, see our unique ecosystem, and meet the people who will be most effected by XL pipeline construction.
More than 150 people participated in the April 17 Pipeline Education and Action Forum in Stuart, Nebraska. They stayed until after 5:00pm asking questions, continuing the discussion, and preparing activism in District 3. Norfolk Daily News coverage of the event is here.
In other news of the week, one of two Nebraska mayors who signed a letter supporting the pipeline has taken his support back–and he noted that TransCanada essentially lied to him about the letter. “Further review” reverses mayor’s pipeline support,” by Joe Shearer, The Gateway, April 21, 2011, reported that “after …consulting with others, Ralston Mayor Don Groesser retracted previous support of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline expansion in an April 13 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.” The Lincoln Journal Star revealed “TransCanada has encountered problems with the reclamation phase on a 50-mile stretch of a new natural gas pipeline through southeast Montana and western North Dakota that even its own spokesman calls severe. Erosion and …”very severe subsidence,” or settling of the soil, are visible in photographs taken by the Billings Gazette.”
A 13:26 minute interview with John Hansen, President of coalition member Nebraska Farmers Union, was broadcast on NET News Capitol Comments. Hansen discussed the three pipeline regulation bills stalled in the Unicameral’s Natural Resources Committee.
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010 determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. A BOLD Nebraska blog post [pdf] includes background information, a transcript of the media roundtable held upon discovery of the memo, and an action alert.
It is important to write your state senator urging that oil pipeline regulations be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here. Also contact members of the Natural Resources Committee asking that they move the pending bills, LB 340, [pdf] LB 578 [pdf] and LB 629 [pdf] out for floor debate. And please contact Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244 asking him to be responsive and join opposition efforts.
Secretary of State Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline. She needs to stand up to Big Oil and stop it. Click here to tell her NOT to grant a permit to TransCanda. You might want to remind her that the “European Union may blacklist tar sands because of higher greenhouse gas emissions.”
An April 2011 Prairie Fire article by Julie Myers concludes “If TransCanada can put a pipeline anywhere as they claim, then they can move it off the Sand Hills, and Nebraska should demand that. The upcoming hearings for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will offer Nebraskans a good opportunity to tell what they know of the Sand Hills and its water, and to demand a safer route.” Read “The XL Shellgame,” by a writer who grew up in the Sand Hills, here. “Tar Sands Make Their Mark,” by Ellen Cantarow, was published April 7. The Nation article quotes Nebraska organic rancher Ben Gotschall: “My family has been producing grass-fed beef for five generations. We do this organically, without chemicals and with minimum fossil fuel inputs…. Nebraska farmers and ranchers were producing food long before we had the benefit of fossil fuels and we can and will find a way to produce food long after fossil fuels are gone. But we will never be able to produce food without clean water. To me, this pipeline is an issue of national security that threatens our domestic food and water supply.”
“Koch Industries, Keystone XL Pipeline … a BP on the Prairie?” reports “Tar sands are plentiful in the US and Canada, but environmentally treacherous to mine and transport – yet, this is the ‘green energy’ the Obama administration has leaned toward.” “US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent new 2:49 minute AlJazeera English report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue. Thompson’s letter to TransCanada in response to their “final offer” for his land in Merrick County ends “Until a court of law determines otherwise, your arbitrary claim to condemnation powers is nothing more to us than an empty threat. We feel very strongly that this pipeline could place our property and way of life at risk. Therefore, we are unwilling to succumb to such a threat and respectfully decline your final offer. Our conclusion is that the courts need to make the final determination on this issue.”
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.” Read the entire editorial here.
Nebraska Greens John Carlini and Shari Schwartz have produced a 30-minute public access tv show “Cornhuskers vs. Dirty Oil.” It airs on cable channel 13, Sundays at 8:00pm, and Wednesdays at 9:30pm.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Excellent recently published letters to the Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.“

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente

STOP THE PIPELINE

Green Notes Week of April 17, 2011

April 17, 2011Green Notesgreenone

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials are below in District 3 Green Notes.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

FOCUS NEBRASKA . . . National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore will give the keynote lecture for Focus Nebraska, a week-long celebration of Earth Day at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Focus of the celebration featuring bike rides, faculty talks, films, tree planting and art exhibits will be climate change and the environment. A full schedule of the five day event is here. For more information, contact Matan Gill, 402.917.6583, or e-mail matan [dot] gill [at] gmail [dot] com.

VOTE EARLY, IF YOU KNOW THE FACTS . . . Early voting begins Monday, April 18,2011, at the Lancaster County Election Commission, 601 North 46th Street, Lincoln. A sample ballot is here. [pdf]

LGBT COMMUNITY TOWNHALL . . . Monday, April 18, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M Steet, Lincoln, will host a “LGBT Community Physical, Mental, Social & Sexual Health Townhall” in room 155. Dr. Christopher Fisher and Dr. Jay Irwin will present preliminary data from their current research on health issues in the LGBT community, followed by a discussion about how the information should be analyzed and reported.

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, April 20, 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. The series runs through April 27th. 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 they have been presented here.

STOP THE PIPELINE MEETING . . . Thursday, April 21, 2011, leaders of Stop the Pipeline coalition groups will meet in Lincoln at 5:30pm. To get involved with planning for local actions, e-mail Marian at scp [at] audubon [dot] org for more details.

THINK GREEN IT’S THURSDAY . . . TGIT is a new happy hour for planning a sustainable future at the Eco Stores Conference Room, 530 West P Street, Lincoln. This is an informational, educational, and social weekly event, with locally grown food and beverages. (Beverage donations will be accepted.) Learn about the latest green products, businesses, policies and practices every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. For the spring schedule of TGIT
speakers, click here. For more information, e-mail Mitch Paine at mitch [dot] paine [at] ecostoresne.org.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UN-L BANQUET . . . The UN-L Chapter of Amnesty International, in cooperation with Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, welcomes Curtis McCarty back to Lincoln as Keynote Speaker for the 2011 Annual Banquet, Thursday, April 21st, 6:30pm, at Arbor Suite in the UN-L East Campus Student Union. McCarty was exonerated in 2007 after serving 21 years, including 19 years on death row, for a 1982 Oklahoma City murder he did not commit. Read more about his story at the Innocence Project website. For more information, and to reserve tickets that include a catered meal from Vincenzo’s Italian Ristorante and beverages from The Coffee House, e-mail Jill Francke, jill [at] nadp [dot] net, or call the NADP office at 402.477.7787.

RECYCLE FOR EARTH DAY . . . Recycle unwanted electronics on Earth Day, April 22nd, at Open Harvest, 1618 South Street, in Lincoln. Drop off is 12:00 noon to 5:00pm. Read more details in the Open Harvest Newsletter here. [pdf]

NEW WATCHDOGS OF LINCOLN GROUP . . . Lincoln Urban Development Director Dave Landis will answer pre-submitted questions with the new Watchdogs of Lincoln Government group on Saturday, April 23, 2011, 10:00am, at Gere Library, 56th & Normal Blvd. The discussion is open to the public, and all Concerned Citizens from Lincoln are welcome to participate. From the North Portal of the Nebraska State Capitol Building, “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.” –H.B. Alexander. For more information about the new citizen action group, e-mail Jane Kinsey, jakin3 [at] juno [dot] com.

EARTH DAY IN LINCOLN . . . Saturday, April 23, 2011, Lincoln will celebrate Earth Day starting with morning fun runs, followed by live music on the solar-powered main stage, family activities, and informational booths at Antelope Park from noon to 6:00pm. Earth Night will be at the Bourbon Theater, 1415 O Street, 7:00pm, with local food, drinks, art, dancing and live music by Son of 76, Jarana, and DJ Spence. Admission is free. Walk, ride, or carpool if possible. Limited parking is available at the Park for those who drive to daytime events. For more information about Earth Day in Lincoln, click here.

SPRING AFFAIR . . . The 25th Annual Spring Affair Plant Sale will be Saturday, April 23, 2011, 9:00am to 4:00pm, at the Lancaster Event Center, 4100 North 84th Street, Lincoln. For more information about the free event, including plant lists, click here.

NEAC ANNUAL MEETING AND BANQUET . . . This year’s Nebraska Environmental Action Coalition Annual Meeting is Saturday, April 30, 2011, 10:00am to 4:00pm, in Lincoln at the Unitarian Church, 6300 A Street. Morning speakers include Ted Thieman, and Laura Krebsbach,a from NEAC. The 1:15pm Keynote is by Lynn Henning, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, winner of the 2010 Goldman Prize for North America. The movie Food, Inc. will be shown at 3:00pm. Please make reservations for the noon local food lunch–vegetarian pasta salad or roast beef–by calling 402.276.7321, or e-mail chrisneac [at] gmail [dot] com. The meeting is free and open to the public, with a small charge for the lunch.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

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 “Garbage Warrior.” Shot over three years in the US, India and Mexico, “Garbage Warrior” is a feature-length documentary telling the epic story of maverick architect Michael Reynolds, his crew of renegade house builders, and their fight to introduce radically different ways of living. A snapshot of contemporary geo-politics and an inspirational tale of triumph over bureaucracy, Garbage Warrior is above all an intimate portrait of an extraordinary individual and his dream of changing the world. View the trailer here. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

HIKE NEALE WOODS NATURE CENTER . . . The Neale Woods Nature Center, 14323 Edith Marie Avenue, is a nature preserve in the hills along the Missouri River, just north of Omaha. Saturday, April 23, 2011, the Omaha Hiking Club will meet at the visitor’s center, 8:30am, to hike about 4.5 miles. E-mail omahahikingclub [at] cox [dot] net for more information.

OMAHA EARTH DAY . . . There will be local food and a beer garden, live music, demonstrations, speakers and activities for the kids at Omaha’s Earth Day, Friday, April 22, 2011, Elmwood Park, 808 South 60th Street, 11:00am to 6:00pm. This year’s theme is Earth Day Every Day. For a full schedule of the day’s events, click here.

PROTEST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE . . . Omaha protests with Guardians of the Good Life continue. E-mail japlapoo [at] netzero [dot] net for details of this week’s protest. STOP THE PIPELINE yard signs are available in Omaha by calling Nebraskans for Peace Coordinator Mark Welsch, 402.453.0776, or e-mail NFPOmaha [at] nebraskansforpeace [dot] org. SAVE THE DATE: An Omaha Pipeline Education and Action Forum is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, at First Unitarian Church, 31st & Harney, in Omaha.

BENSON COMMUNITY GARDEN . . . Omaha’s newest community garden is at 60th & Lafayette, at the south side of the historic Benson neighborhood. The Benson Community Garden is looking for individuals and families interested in garden plots. The garden needs sponsors to help with the costs of building (hardware, lumber, etc.). For more information, phone 402.714.0290 or e-mail goetzinger2 [at] cox [dot] net. To get involved, or help support the garden, please register here.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . US Department of State published a 320-page Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Friday, April 15, 2011. A five-page Executive Summary is here. The information released appears to argue against a route change that would take the 36-inch Keystone XL tar sands pipeline around the Sand Hills. Lincoln Journal Star coverage of the EIS publication is here. Quoting BOLD Nebraska Director Jane Kleeb, “To say it is disappointing is an understatement.” The Department of State will not hold in-state field hearings, and they are not expanding the 45-day comment period. The EIS DID emphasize that eminent domain is a state law issue. Opposition groups, Nebraska landowners and environmentalists throughout the country and the world now must refocus pressure on state senators and the Nebraska governor to be responsive. Our state can pass a law right now saying no to oil pipelines in the Sand Hills. BOLD Nebraska’s blog covering the SEIS, and our next steps, is here. The official State Department Keystone XL Project EIS comment page is here.
Nebraska Green Party joined BOLD Nebraska, Audubon Nebraska, Guardians of the Good Life, Nebraska Bioneers, Nebraskans for Peace, the Nebraska League of Conservation Voters, the Nebraska Sierra Club, Lincoln 350.org, and the Western Nebraska Resources Council in signing a coalition response to the April 6, 2011 Omaha World-Herald editorial, “Let’s settle the question.” Bruce Kennedy, President of the Nebraska Wildlife Federation, signed for coalition members. Our response was published April 13th.
An April 2011 Prairie Fire article by Julie Myers concludes “If TransCanada can put a pipeline anywhere as they claim, then they can move it off the Sand Hills, and Nebraska should demand that. The upcoming hearings for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will offer Nebraskans a good opportunity to tell what they know of the Sand Hills and its water, and to demand a safer route.” Read “The XL Shellgame,” by a writer who grew up in the Sand Hills, here. “Tar Sands Make Their Mark,” by Ellen Cantarow, was published April 7. The Nation article quotes Nebraska organic rancher Ben Gotschall: “My family has been producing grass-fed beef for five generations. We do this organically, without chemicals and with minimum fossil fuel inputs…. Nebraska farmers and ranchers were producing food long before we had the benefit of fossil fuels and we can and will find a way to produce food long after fossil fuels are gone. But we will never be able to produce food without clean water. To me, this pipeline is an issue of national security that threatens our domestic food and water supply.”
Is There Such a Thing as ‘Ethical Oil’? by Jason Mark, from Earth Island Journal, was published by AlterNet April 8, 2011. The nine page article asks “Is it OK for some people to suffer as long as many others benefit?” Clearly, although exploitation of precious natural resources does not “benefit” The Earth, when financial profits are part of the equation, Big Oil benefits at the expense of Our Home Planet. The sometimes heartbreaking article starts by recounting destruction of the “quaint village of Fort McKay,” in northern Alberta, where wilderness is now stripped bare by tar sands industry “roads, power lines, smokestacks, and long lakes of hazardous waste surrounded by barbed wire,” and humans are surrounded by toxic devastation. Read the article here.
“Koch Industries, Keystone XL Pipeline … a BP on the Prairie?” reports “Tar sands are plentiful in the US and Canada, but environmentally treacherous to mine and transport – yet, this is the ‘green energy’ the Obama administration has leaned toward.”
The Lincoln Journal Star’s April 10, 2011 editorial, “Make Sand Hills off lmits,” describes how easy it would be for Nebraska legislators to end the threat to our Sand Hills by making crude oil pipelines off limits there. “The Legislature should simply pass a law declaring the Sand Hills off limits to any future crude oil pipeline. The in-state ramifications will be few. The giant oil pipeline company simply would have to reroute the pipeline farther east in Nebraska to a location where the land and Ogallala Aquifer are not as vulnerable.”
“US-Canada oil pipeline – water source threatened,” is an excellent new 2:49 minute AlJazeeraEnglish report featuring Nebraska property owners Randy Thompson, Cindy Myers, and Nebraska Audubon representing the issue.
The New York Times joined citizens, experts and opinion leaders in opposition to the pipeline in an April 2nd editorial “No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline,” concluding “Last July, an older bitumen pipeline in Michigan spilled 800,000 gallons of the stuff into the Kalamazoo River. A new TransCanada pipeline that began carrying diluted bitumen last year has already had nine spills. …From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary.” Read the entire editorial here.
A Study and Memo from the Congressional Research Service dated September 20, 2010, determined that primary authority over location of interstate pipelines belongs to individual states. BOLD Nebraska and Stop the Pipeline coalition members held a roundtable with press upon discovery of the memo. Media coverage was in the Omaha World-Herald, and on NTV. A BOLD Nebraska blog post including background information, a transcript of the roundtable, and action alert is here. The Congressional Memo is here. [pdf] To help with the campaign to save Nebraska’s fragile Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer from potential environmental devastation at the hands of Canada’s tar sands pipeline promoters, please write your state senator asking for personal involvement in opposition. Find your state senator’s contact information at the map linked here.
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline. Contact information for 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. The Secretary of State has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline, and your senators can ask her to stand up to Big Oil and stop it. 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.
What else can you do? Keep writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Excellent recently published letters to the Lincoln Journal Star are here, here, and here.
Nebraska Greens John Carlini and Shari Schwartz have produced a 30-minute public access tv show “Cornhuskers vs. Dirty Oil.” It airs on cable channel 13, Sundays at 8:00pm, and Wednesdays at 9:30pm. Keep the issue alive in conversations at the kitchen table, in cafes, churches, and clubs around Nebraska.
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. A website refuting TransCanada’s myths with an interactive graphic is here. More actions EveryOne can take are listed here. For comprehensive references in media since May 30, 2010, click here and scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Green Notes coverage.
Be a community educator and organizer. Let’s change the world together.
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.“

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.

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente