This is just a reminder about this Saturday’s Peaceful Multi-Ethnic Event:
Reject KXL and Protect the People
Saturday, April 26, 2014, 3:00 p.m.
North Steps of the State Capitol
Speakers will include Mary Pipher, Myron Long Soldier, Terry La Mere ,and Randy Thompson. Be there!
From the Nebraska Sierra Club:
The US State Department today stated that it will delay a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline because of the continuing litigation over the route through Nebraska. The Lancaster County District Court declared LB 1161 unconstitutional in February 2014. Part of that decision voided Governor Heineman’s approval of the proposed pipeline route. The case is currently on appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court. It appears unlikely the Supreme Court will decide the case before November 2014.
Ken Winston of the Nebraska Sierra Club stated today: “Today’s delay is another victory for all the people who have spoken out against KXL in the past four years, the thousands who have attended State Department and legislative hearings, attended rallies, written letters, made phone calls and signed petitions. Your sacrifices, your voices have made the difference throughout this process. Every delay means that more tar sands will stay in the ground. The longer this goes on, the more people find out about KXL and its threats to our water, land and climate, the more likely they are to oppose it. To paraphrase my daughter Helen, TransCanada may have the money, but when people come together, we have the power.”
Read more at JournalStar.com.
Celebrate Earth Day 2014 with Julene Bair as she reads from her new book, The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning:
Monday, April 21, 2014
7 p.m.
Unity Room
Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center at UNL
Julene Bair has inherited part of a large farm and fallen in love with a rancher from Kansas’s beautiful Smoky Valley. A single mother, she means to provide her son with the father he longs for and preserve the Bair farm for the next generation, honoring her own father’s wish and commandment, “Hang on to your land!” But part of her legacy is a share of the ecological harm the Bair Farm has done: each growing season her family, like many other irrigators, pumps over two hundred million gallons out of the Ogallala aquifer. The rapidly disappearing aquifer is the sole source of water on the vast western plains, and her family’s role in its depletion haunts her.
From Morning Ag Clips and the Nebraska Farmers Union:
Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen praised Governor Dave Heineman, State Senators Mello, Davis, Schilz, and Dubas, along with a diverse coalition made up of farm, business, environmental, conservation, and public power stakeholders for successfully updating the state’s C-BED (Community-Based Energy Development) law with the passage of LB402.
In addition to Governor Heineman, State Senator Heath Mello of Omaha, who sponsored LB402, Senator Ken Schilz of Ogallala, who co-sponsored LB402, and Senator Al Davis of Hyannis, who made LB402 his Priority Bill, participated in the LB402 signing ceremony. Senator Annette Dubas of Fullerton was also a LB402 co-sponsor.
LB402 updates and expands the criteria for use of the C-BED law to qualify for sales tax abatement including solar energy in addition to wind energy, allowing Nebraska content of labor, materials, professional services and components, allow corporations domiciled in Nebraska to meet the definition of “qualified owner,” and reduces the qualifying percentage from 33% to 25% to qualify.
From UNO’s College of Education and College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media:
On Saturday, April 12, dancers from UNO’s The Moving Company and musicians from Ensemble 768 will be participating at this national event. Come view and support their performance highlighting the topic of drought.
The National Water Dance is an opportunity for performance artists to collaborate on forming a nationwide movement choir. It aims to inform and inspire participants and audience members to conserve and protect water resources. Participants from all over the country will perform at the same time connected through live streaming media.
Saturday’s event in Omaha will take place at 3 p.m. at the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge.
From Bold Nebraska:
Bold Nebraska has partnered with artist John Quigley to create the world’s largest-ever crop art installation, sending a 70-football-field-spanning #NoKXL message (visible from space!) from the Cowboy and Indian Alliance to President Obama.
This amazing work of art will be unveiled next Sunday, April 13, at a community BBQ on the land of gracious hosts Art and Helen Tanderup near Neligh, Nebraska. Join us to check out the crop art installation, and enjoy some catered BBQ with fellow Pipeline Fighters.
The Tanderups also hosted a Spiritual Camp on their land that is directly in the path of Keystone XL — as well as on the Ponca Trail of Tears — last November. This past weekend, the Cowboy and Indian Alliance was up in South Dakota, where the Rosebud Sioux Tribe set up another Spiritual Camp. The tipis will remain standing in protest until Pres. Obama rejects the pipeline. The Community BBQ at the Tanderups’ place on April 13 will also serve as a “bon voyage” party for the caravan of citizens, farmers, ranchers and tribal members with the Cowboy and Indian Alliance who will travel to Washington, D.C. later this month for a weeklong Spiritual Camp near the White House — called Reject + Protect. The Reject + Protect event will see the Cowboy and Indian Alliance ride into D.C. on horseback April 22, and then encompass a series of actions during the week before culminating in a public event on April 26, where a ceremonial tipi will be presented in honor of President Obama.
From Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light:
Can Nebraskans be moved to take action on climate change? It’s possible, if the subject is presented in a language that people understand.
The Nebraska chapter of Interfaith Power & Light is working hard to reach people of faith. Their first conference is coming up and deserves all our support.
Join us Saturday, April 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Callen Hall. Cost is $35.
The keynote speaker is Rabbi Lawrence Troster, one of the leading eco-theologians in the world. He has published and lectured widely on theology, environmentalism, liturgy, bioethics, modern cosmology, and Judaism.
All faith traditions welcome. Hope to see you there!
From Clean Energy Nebraska:
Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has announced a stakeholder initiative called OPPD Listens with the intent to educate and engage the public, working with constituents to shape the utility’s collective energy future. Public input will be gathered in a three-phased approach starting March 18 and wrapping up April 30. You can get involved through open houses, focus groups, and online meetings. Learn more.
From Bold Nebraska:
Bold Nebraska, clean energy developers, and landowners on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route will welcome U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Iowa State Sen. Rob Hogg, along with winning attorney David Domina, to a Pipeline Fighter event in Omaha on Wednesday afternoon, March 19, 2-3 p.m., at the Slowdown. We will talk climate, public health, clean energy, and why Keystone XL is not in our national interest. Read more.
From Yale Environment 360:
For six decades, writer Wendell Berry has spoken out in defense of local agriculture, rural communities, and the importance of caring for the land. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his Kentucky farm, his activism, and why he remains hopeful for the future.” Read more.