Category Archives: News

Keystone XL job gains: A sick joke

News,

From The New York Times:

It should come as no surprise that the very first move of the new Republican Senate is an attempt to push President Obama into approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canadian tar sands. After all, debts must be paid, and the oil and gas industry — which gave 87 percent of its 2014 campaign contributions to the G.O.P. — expects to be rewarded for its support.

But why is this environmentally troubling project an urgent priority in a time of plunging world oil prices? Well, the party line, from people like Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, is that it’s all about jobs.

Read the full article.

After Nebraska Supreme Court ruling, Keystone XL is up to Obama

News

From BOLD Nebraska:

In a split decision, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on Friday to allow LB 1161 to stand. Four of the seven justices sided with landowners, but we needed five to win — as a “supermajority” of concurring justices is required when constitutional issues are raised.

The Nebraska Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that stated the Unicameral and Governor used an illegal routing process for the Keystone XL pipeline.

TransCanada is left with a risky route to defend. The decision is now in Pres. Obama’s hands. This is a bad day for property rights in Nebraska. Private, foreign corporations now know they can buy their way through our state.

This ruling does clear the way for the State Department to complete their analysis and for federal agencies to weigh in on risks to water and climate.

We are confident the President will stand with farmers, ranchers and tribal communities and reject Keystone XL once and for all.

Read more, including legal analysis, from BOLD Nebraska.

Read the Nebraska Supreme Court ruling.

Legal analysis: Nebraska and Oklahoma take Colorado to the Supreme Court over legalized marijuana

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From Patients for Medical Cannabis:

Earlier this month, the Attorneys General of Nebraska and Oklahoma filed a lawsuit on behalf of their respective states, naming the state of Colorado as the defendant. Nebraska and Oklahoma allege that Colorado’s legalization of marijuana undermines their ability to maintain their own prohibitions of marijuana because Colorado takes inadequate measures to prevent legal intrastate marijuana from crossing state borders, where it enters the illegal market. Taking advantage of a provision of the Constitution covering cases “in which a State shall be Party,” Nebraska and Oklahoma filed their complaint in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado raises a number of important procedural and substantive questions, including these: Does Colorado’s marijuana legalization violate federal law or does it merely fail to enforce federal law? And given the essential role that the federal marijuana prohibition plays in the plaintiff states’ case, should the lawsuit be dismissed on the ground that their real complaint lies with the federal government, not Colorado?

Read full analysis.

On Nebraska’s Farmland, Keystone XL Pipeline Debate Is Personal

News,

From NPR:

Drive down gravel Road 22 in Nebraska’s York County, past weathered farmhouses and corn cut to stubble in rich, black loam soil, and you’ll find a small barn by the side of the road.

Built of native ponderosa pine, the barn is topped with solar panels. A windmill spins furiously out front.

Known as the Energy Barn, it’s a symbol of renewable energy, standing smack on the proposed route of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline — a project of the energy giant TransCanada.

Pipeline opponents built the barn two summers ago. And at first, says Jenni Harrington, one of those opponents, “I think a lot of the neighbors didn’t like the barn. They thought it was like poking TransCanada in the eye.

“It took me aback because I was like, ‘Well, what do you think they’re doing, walking on our land and saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna put a pipeline through it’?”

Read or listen to the two-part radio story.

Nebraska’s Lonely Progressives

News,

From The New York Times:

When I travel to the East or West Coasts, people sometimes ask me, “Why do you live in Nebraska?” Or even, “Have you considered moving?” Outsiders often believe Nebraska is a nondescript state with little to recommend it in culture, politics or landscape. But I reply that Nebraska is my home and that I love its people and its geography. To me there is nothing more beautiful than the muddy Platte River or the vast undulating Sand Hills. Of course, our state can be blistering in the summer, arctic in the winter. It’s a windswept, spare place designed to toughen up its inhabitants.

I also explain that Nebraska needs progressives.

Read the full story.

LES adds wind, solar farms in major push to renewable energy

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From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Friday was more than a banner day for the Lincoln Electric System. It was equivalent to a seismic shift in the way Lincoln residents will get their power over the next 25 years. Adding power from two wind farms and a solar energy project will increase the utility’s renewable generation portfolio to 48 percent by 2016.

LES will add 173 megawatts of power generated from a wind farm in north-central Kansas and one in northeast Nebraska in 2016 and add a 5-megawatt solar energy farm along Interstate 80 near 75th and West Holdrege streets near the Lincoln airport. The solar farm’s footprint — equivalent to slightly more than 30 acres of land, or about 25 football fields — will be visible to motorists much like the two wind turbines on the east edge of Lincoln.

Read the full story.

Nebraska Report: The Militarization of Our Schools

News

From the November/December 2014 Nebraska Report by Nebraskans for Peace, written by Kevin Haake and Barbara van den Berg of Alternatives to the Military–Lincoln:

One doesn’t need to look very hard to find references to the military in our society. Indeed, the military’s presence is seemingly everywhere: from retail stores’ sales campaigns, sponsorship of running events, football camps, national and local sporting events and television advertisements, to university “welcome-back-to campus” events, and even community festivals, such as Lincoln’s “Rib Fest.” This pervasive culture has also made its way into the corridors, classrooms, study halls and lunch rooms of our schools.

Read the full article.

TransCanada has its application to the PSC ready

News,

From the Omaha World-Herald:

The company seeking to build the Keystone XL pipeline says it has no intention of walking away if the Nebraska Supreme Court deals the project a setback in coming weeks.
TransCanada Corp. has already prepared an application to the Nebraska Public Service Commission, said Corey Goulet, president of the Keystone project for the company. Whether the company submits it depends on how the Nebraska Supreme Court settles a constitutional dispute over a law used to route the pipeline, which would carry Canadian crude through the state and to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

A lower court judge struck down the 2012 law, saying the Legislature improperly gave the governor authority to approve the pipeline route. Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy ruled that regulatory power over pipelines rests with the five independently elected members of the Public Service Commission.

Read more.

Visualizing carbon in the atmosphere

News

From NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center:

An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe. Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

Read more about NASA’s efforts to measure and map carbon in the atmosphere.