|
Speak Out
Nebraska vs. Keystone Pipeline: Is the state’s resistance constitutional?
By John Vettese, Student Voices staff writer
UPDATE 11/15/11: Trans-Canada announced plans to reroute the Keystone Pipeline.
UPDATE 11/11/11: The Obama administration announced that it would delay its decision on the Keystone Pipeline until 2012.
When the Canada-based energy company TransCanada announced plans to build an oil pipeline through the United States, Nebraska lawmakers decided they wanted a say.
Last week, a special session of the state legislature began to draw up a plan to alter the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would begin in Alberta, enter the United States at Montana, cut diagonally through Nebraska and terminate in east Texas. It would transport
petroleum in the form of tar sands through the states, and TransCanada says it will reduce both nations’ dependence on energy from the Middle East.
The concern is the route that the pipeline would take through the Cornhusker State – it would cut right through the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground formation that provides drinking water for eight states. Environmental groups have raised concerns that the pipeline might leak and cause mass contamination, and the state wants to block the pipeline from the Aquifer and reroute it.
TransCanada representative Shawn Howard told the Huffington Post that once a pipeline is planned, moving it to suit a state’s concern is more complex than it sounds.
“You can’t just take an eraser and erase a line on the map and say, ‘Well, we’ll just draw it over here,’ because you’re not operating under the same environmental review,” he said, explaining that the federal EPA has already reviewed and approved the project.
“This is the only route that the pipeline is approved to follow,” Howard told the Post. “You can make minor variations; if during construction you run into something, you can make small adjustments. But you can’t be just moving it tens or hundreds of miles.”
Furthermore, the company argues that not only is it impractical for the state to weigh in on the route, it’s also unconstitutional. Since the oil pipeline would be providing energy not just to Nebraska, but also to other states, it becomes an issue of interstate commerce – which the Constitution says (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) is the jurisdiction of Congress. If Nebraska’s legislature were to pass a law blocking and rerouting the pipeline, it could be unconstitutionally exceeding its power.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman recognizes this, even as he supports his state lawmakers using the special session to seek alternative options. “The key decision for current pipeline discussions is the permitting decision that will be made by the Obama administration,” he says. “Which is why I have urged President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to deny [TransCanada] the permit.”
For the president and his cabinet, it is a search for the right balance, since the Keystone pipeline would certainly achieve positive objectives – reducing dependence on oil from the Middle East and creating jobs. Robert Mendelsohn, a Yale University professor of environmental studies, told NPR, “People don’t want to see the environment get raped and ruined, but on the other hand, they don’t want to be unemployed.”
In a recent visit to Nebraska, President Obama echoed those sentiments. “We need to encourage domestic natural gas and oil production. We need to make sure we have energy security and aren’t just relying on Middle East sources,” he said. “But there’s a way of doing that and still making sure the health and safety of the American people and folks in Nebraska are protected.”
What do you think?
Is Nebraska’s search for a way to block the pipeline constitutional? If the plan passed environmental review at the federal level, should the state have any say? Or is the concern over the safety of drinking water in Nebraska and its surrounding states of greater importance? How can President Obama balance environment protection with the need to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil and the need to create jobs? Join the discussion!
|
Join the Discussion
|
|
Related News
|
Related Resources
|
Share
|
|