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TransCanada Ponders Pipeline Safety. Upgrades Coming?

By   /   October 13, 2011  /   5 Comments

It is day two of TransCanada’s latest look at safety concerns involving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

On Tuesday— after the company’s top executives met with four Nebraska lawmakers and refused to move the pipeline— TransCanada did agree to re-examine what, if any, changes could be made to counter fears of a leak that would contaminate drinking water in the Sandhills.

Lawmakers expect to hear back from the company in the next few days.

But what changes might TransCanada make?

Nebraska Watchdog’s Joe Jordan analyzes (see video below) the company’s and the state’s next moves with Jack Mitchell of KLIN radio in Lincoln.

Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org

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Joe Jordan

  • http://Boodogmom@aol.com Joan

    TransCanada refuses to move the pipe line. Let me see, they don’t promise to clean up any spills in writing nor relocate the families who’s farms are destroyed. Nor do they agree to ship in water to the millions of people who will have contaminated water to drink. Plus in the C-Span hearing on TV the medical experts talked about all the illness that occurs as a result of spills. Then there is the issue of the Indian tribes in the Dakotas that don’t want this dirty oil either. The list goes on and on. This whole project stinks of greed for Polititions and lack of concern for the people of Nebraska.

  • Watching From Lincoln

    TransCanada is, was and always will be Snake Oil Salesmen, who will say and promise ANYTHING to close the deal. We heard it before with Keystone I, and the results are literally splashed across the land.

    Speaker Flood, what “legal research”? Two states (Montana and South Dakota) ALREADY have laws on the books that govern pipeline siting and construction regulations. Hasn’t the Yellowstone River break this summer and the Enbridge break in Michigan last summer taught these legislative shills for TransCanada, bought with Americans For Prosperity (and let us NOT forget that AfP is the pet for funding by David Koch, who along with his brother will make tens of billions of dollars in profits refining that Tarsands Crude in their Texas Gulf refineries, and that AfP is the checkbook for the Tea Party) money and Tea Party backing, anything?

    Evidently not, as they continue to stall and shill for TransCanada. What is Sen. Langenmeir doing in that meeting? He was the AfP shill responsible for killing or gutting the bills in the NRC last session pertaining to TransCanada!

    Let’s see, what will TransCanada “promise” this time? To wave their magic pipeline wand and make the pipeline “perfect”? To sprinkle magic “spill dust” to immediately clean the Benzene, Xylene and Toluene out of the Ogallala Aquifer WHEN the XL leaks directly into it?

    Or maybe they will promise, in another behind closed doors session, to spread even more cash around to buy off more politicians to make objections go away. We know that the Governor and State Attorney General were caught red-handed with TransCanada money in their pockets, Sen. Deb Fisher was notably absent from the Atkinson hearing she said she would attend, in her own district no less. In fact it was more notable which State Senators did NOT attend either hearing, Senators whose constituents are being DIRECTLY affected by the proposed route, Senators who received donations and support from AfP and Tea Party members, and whose votes killed any attempts to meaningfully control TransCanada in the last legislative session.

    Perhaps Nebraska Watchdog should be concentrating its “investigative prowess” on the behind the scenes corruption and not the so blatant and obvious pandering by the likes of Heineman, Flood, Bruning and their ilk?

  • ogallala-sioux

    Joan, your comments were perfect. Why hasn’t this come up before? There is NO WAY this pipeline will be “safe” — & what it endangers is a lasting legacy to the people of Nebraska, it is NOT owned by the pipeline company. They do NOT have any right to despoil “foreign” territory. The people of Nebraska, especially our leaders, should be doing everything necessary to STOP IT. I hope all the Indian tribes could get involved also. WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. It is no longer the 11th hour, THIS IS THE HOUR. We all must take action, because the pollution, desecration of holy land (the aquifer) will be irreversable. Once caused, cannot be undone. And you can bet that the ones responsible for the leaks will be like British Petroleum, who has skipped out on their legal obligations to help the fishermen in the Gulf.

    I can’t believe we do not have the right to CHOOSE if we want this pipeline to go through, They are a FOREIGN govt, for God’s sake, & yet they can come here & dictate to us what we have to allow, & where we have to allow it. Our leaders seem to be trying to help, but they would be more energized if we had a major support system for this effort. LARGE NUMBERS GETTING INVOLVED.

    As the Hopi elders said “Do not look outside yourselves for the Leader. We are the ones we have been waiting for.” WE THE PEOPLE of NEBRASKA.

  • Prairie Dog

    Let’s stop and take a brief look at what we are risking if we allow this XL pipeline to cross the Ogallala aquifer. An aquifer is part of the natural water cycle, natural underground storage for water. The Ogallala aquifer is one of the largest in the world. It took 4 million years of geological processes to create the layers of permeable (porous) rock that contains the water, and another 2 million years to fill it to the level it was in 1950. This aquifer provides fully one-third of the irrigation water used in the US and the drinking water for more than 80% of the people who live over the aquifer. Are we are going to risk a six million year “project” that we could effectively destroy in what? a year? a decade? a quarter century? Of course, the argument is that oil contamination in one part of the aquifer does not destroy the whole aquifer. A crack in a mirror does not destroy the whole window, either, just the cracked part. Looking at another facet of the pipeline, how does the value of the product transported through this pipeline compare to the value of the water it could destroy? My own presentation of this would be feeble at best, but if you go to YouTube.com and type “alberta tar sands documentary” in the search window on that page you will have a wide choice of videos to watch ranging from a few minutes to over an hour in length. I hope you will track this down. My mantra: GOOD ECOLOGY IS GOOD ECONOMY

  • Occupy the Aquifer

    A MIRACLE of NATURE is in trouble. The Ogallala Aquifer. It is one of the largest fresh water aquifers in the world. (174,000 sq miles). It took 4 million years to create it, & another 2 million years to fill it up to this level. Most of it is underground in NE. Then continues into SD, Wyo, Colo, KS, Okla, NM & TX.

    What took 6 million years to create, can be destroyed in less than a month. Any damage is immediate & devastating (& cannot be undone). For those who are relentlessly “profit motivated” — Keep this in mind. Starting now & into the future, WATER will be more valuable than anything else in the world. It will be SCARCE & the fresh water supplies will be like GOLD & Platinum, & we are letting Canada walk right in & steal our water, or else carelessly pollute it, & not even give it a 2nd thought? For those who seek a few greedy bucks right now, we are sacrificing our most precious resource, something which nobody on earth will be able to buy in the future, since fresh water is quickly vanishing.

    Even the northern icecaps are melting. Other oil/shale corporations are right now destroying the fresh water coming out of the mountains of Colorado, & it is only a matter of time before they have leaks & fractures that will devastate that water supply. This is NOT a JOKE, Human life cannot survive more than a FEW DAYS without water. Think about it. Your kids & grandkids will thank you for caring about their future. And preserving one of God’s little Miracles.