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Silence greets pipeline bill
News Articles Featured | Omaha World-Herald | April 15, 2011
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LINCOLN — Nebraska should pass liability rules so that a Canadian pipeline company keeps its word and is responsible for possible oil spills in the state, a lawmaker said Thursday.
But an amended proposal from State Sen. Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids to accomplish that goal got a mostly cool reception from the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee.
The committee took no action. None of the seven senators present voiced outright support for the amendment.
More than once, Sullivan said her amended version of Legislative Bill 629 was not intended to stop the controversial Keystone XL pipeline “in any way, shape or form.”
“It just says what TransCanada has always said it will do — be responsible. It’s the right thing to do for our state,” said the senator, who made LB 629 her priority bill this year.
Under the amended version of Sullivan’s proposal, a crude-oil pipeline company would be liable for cleanups, restoration of land and any damages unless a spill was caused by an act of war or terrorism.
She said it also exempted pipeline companies from “intentional damage” by third parties.
A TransCanada spokesman said the company is already responsible, under federal and even state law, to clean up any spills.
Jeff Rauh, the spokesman, said the firm would be liable for the costs except in cases of “purposeful or negligent acts” of others.
Rauh said Sullivan’s latest proposal is unnecessary and sets up a new standard that TransCanada operate with “due care.”
He said the bill might also weaken Nebraska’s “one-call” law, which requires that people call a state hotline before digging so they don’t hit an underground pipeline or utility line.
The 36-inch pipeline has become controversial because it would cross the Sand Hills region, which overlies aquifers that provide 80 percent of the region’s drinking water and 30 percent of the nation’s water for irrigation.
Planning for the pipeline stepped up just as millions of gallons of oil began spilling from a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
There’s also some opposition to the type of oil — drawn from tar sand deposits in Canada through an expensive extraction process that environmentalists say harms the environment.
The committee chairman, Sen. Chris Langemeier of Schuyler, said members need to consider Sullivan’s proposal.
“My concern is that whatever we do, we don’t give the public false hope” that Nebraska can halt the Keystone XL pipeline or force a new route around the state’s fragile Sand Hills, Langemeier said.
A representative of the Sierra Club of Nebraska, which has opposed the pipeline, said he was surprised that Sullivan’s proposal was receiving opposition.
“It seems like a pretty basic, simple description of the obligations of the pipeline company and provides some baseline of protection for Nebraska landowners and Nebraska taxpayers,” said Ken Winston, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club.
TransCanada has said the pipeline will exceed U.S. safety standards and ensure a reliable flow of oil from a friendly ally.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, nebraska, chris langemeier
