http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/12/1364134/-Nebraska-judge-temporarily-blocks-TransCanada-s-ability-to-use-eminent-domain-for-Keystone-XL
[image and links in on-line article
U.S. citizens might also want to note KXL is a good deal for TCP because
TCP won't have to pay into the U.S. federal oil spill response fund, as
by U.S. law, the dilbit is not 'oil'. Nope, it's the stuff that made a
nastier mess of Kalamazoo and Mayflower than conventional oil would
have. So in return for almost no real permanent jobs in the U.S., a
ticking time-bomb for the Ogallala aquifer - because the TCP pipeline
will leak at some point in time - and no money, TCP gets to export
Canadian bitumen to international markets via the U.S. And a foreign
company getting to use eminent domain for a for-profit pipeline route,
against U.S. citizens, that was hilarious.]
Nebraska judge temporarily blocks TransCanada's ability to use eminent
domain for Keystone XL
The Keystone XL pipeline that both the Senate and House have voted in
the past two weeks to approve just ran into another possible hang-up.
Joe Duggan reports:
Holt County District Judge Mark Kozisek granted a temporary
injunction Thursday to landowners who challenged the ability of
TransCanada to use eminent domain to acquire land for the controversial
pipeline.
The judge made the ruling after landowners filed new lawsuits
challenging the state’s pipeline routing law, which was narrowly upheld
by the Nebraska Supreme Court in a decision last month.
A spokesman for TransCanada said Thursday the company agreed to the
injunction in exchange for an accelerated trial schedule. Although the
judge’s order affects just the landowners along the northern part of the
pipeline route, the company will offer to stall land condemnation for
the roughly 90 property owners along the route who have refused to sign
easement contracts.
Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled against a lower court
decision in a case that had found the authority for approving the
pipeline's route had been unconstitutionally taken from the state's
Public Service Commission and given to the governor instead. The high
court's justices voted 4-3 that the change in authority was
unconstitutional, but the state requires a supermajority of at least
five justices to overturn a law. The decision left the door open to the
additional litigation that Judge Kozisek issued his injunction on Thursday.
The Obama administration is nearing the end of a process to determine
whether Keystone XL is in the "national interest." This process for
approving international pipelines has been handled since 1968 by the
U.S. State Department and has been a prerogative of the executive branch
since Ulysses S. Grant was president. Since the Nebraska Supreme Court's
decision five weeks ago, expectations have been that a presidential
decision on the pipeline will be announced soon, possibly later this
month, but more likely in early March. The latest ruling in Nebraska
could delay that decision just as the original land-owners' lawsuit did.
Republicans and a couple of handfuls of mostly conservative Democrats
have sought to circumvent the decision process by turning over approval
authority for Keystone XL—but, tellingly, not other cross-boundary
pipelines—from the president to Congress. The House voted 270-152 on
Wednesday on the latest round in this ongoing effort. Two weeks ago the
Senate approved the same bill by a vote of 62-36. Advisers to President
Obama have said they will recommend the bill be vetoed.
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