Home » News » MT Landowner Pipes Up About Pipeline Plans
News
MT Landowner Pipes Up About Pipeline Plans
News Articles | Public News Service-MT | Deb Courson | June 30, 2010
Read the full article on the originating site
CIRCLE, Mont. - A Montana grain grower made a quick trip to Washington, D.C., to testify Tuesday about TransCanada's proposed crude oil pipeline, which would cross his property on its way to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Tom Rudolph from Circle is pushing for more specific safety plans, especially in light of the Gulf oil spill.
June 30, 2010
CIRCLE, Mont. – A Montana grain grower made a quick trip to Washington, D.C., to testify Tuesday about TransCanada’s proposed crude oil pipeline, which would cross his property on its way to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Tom Rudolph from Circle is pushing for more specific safety plans, especially in light of the Gulf oil spill.
“This draft Environmental Impact Statement should include a better emergency response plan, because it’s pretty vague the way it is.”
The pipeline is set to carry 900,000 barrels of crude per day, extracted from tar sands.
Rudolph testified that he also takes issue with the way the company has categorized his property, and most of the land that would be used in Montana, as a ‘low consequence area,’ in case there is a leak. Rudolph contends that the pipeline should be built to the same safety standards to protect farm and ranch land as are expected to protect cities. He says most of those testifying were in favor of the pipeline plan.
Rudolph is a member of the Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group. It is made up of property owners along the pipeline route who have joined together to negotiate with the company about compensation for using their property. He says he’s not even sure that will be an option.
“It’s not clear. They may have the right of eminent domain, as they did in North Dakota, which means they can force us to accept the pipeline across our land.”
The Department of State is accepting comments on the pipeline until July 2.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, pipeline, secretary of state, montana
