NE: Backers, foes debate bill that would remove eminent domain authority for future oil pipelines

[Omaha Steve]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Landowners and activists stand outside the full Judiciary Committee hearing room before going to an overflow room at the State Capitol in Lincoln during a hearing about LB 473, a measure to repeal a 2012 law that allowed former Gov. Dave Heineman to approve the route of the Keystone XL pipeline through the state.


http://www.omaha.com/news/legislature/during--hour-hearing-backers-foes-debate-bill-that-would/article_2014e697-611f-5d0d-998f-dd728b478ab7.html

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 9:00 PM
By Joe Duggan / World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN — If not for a Canadian company’s power to condemn private land in Nebraska, the Keystone XL pipeline would stand almost no chance of being built.

So opponents of the project stood firmly behind a bill heard in the Nebraska Legislature Wednesday that would take away eminent domain authority for future major oil pipelines.

Meanwhile, a representative from TransCanada Corp. urged members of the Judiciary Committee to kill the bill. The committee took no immediate action on the proposal.

During the four-hour public hearing, 30 people testified for Legislative Bill 473, introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha. Many expressed bitter disappointment in a 2012 law that gave eminent domain power to TransCanada, which they said the company has used as a threat to obtain land easements.

FULL story at link.



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha speaks Wednesday under a statue of Abraham Lincoln during a rally outside the State Capitol in Lincoln in support of LB 473. Landowners and activists testifed in support of the measure later in the day at a committee hearing.