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On Wednesday, a Nebraska judge struck down a state law that would have allowed TransCanada to use the power of eminent domain to seize private land to help construct a short 300-mile segment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline between Cushing and Steele City, Nebraska. The law in question, LB 1161, allows Nebraska Governor David Heineman and TransCanada to avoid regulators in siting a crucial portion of the pipeline. Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy sided with three landowners who challenged the law, finding that regulatory power over industrial companies such as TransCanada must remain with agencies such as the...

Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The findings also show that the public thinks the massive project, which aims to ship 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta and the northern Great Plains to refineries on the Gulf Coast, will produce significant economic benefits. Eighty-five percent say the pipeline would create a significant number of jobs, with 62 percent saying they...

The Keystone oil pipeline is good idea for the United States, Warren Buffett said Monday, even though it would take away some business from his Berkshire Hathaway rail subsidiary BNSF. The long-delayed leg from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska should be approved, the billionaire investor told CNBC. "I would vote 'yes,'" Buffett said in a "Squawk Box" interview, but added he has "no idea" if President Barack Obama will approve it. "I don't believe in the Keystone pipeline because of the jobs you'd make building it. You can build anything and create jobs," he said. "I just believe it's a useful...

Give Obama this: When he wants something, no one moves more quickly and decisively. From unilaterally rewriting Obamacare at least 18 times to bypassing Congress and implementing the DREAM Act’s immigration policies by fiat, Obama rules by decree. His executive orders recall the late Yul Brynner’s portrayal of Pharaoh Ramses II in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). As the maximum leader of Egypt said: “So let it be written. So let it be done.” Now that’s leadership. “America does not stand still,” Obama likewise declared in his January 28 State of the Union address. “And neither will...

if we’re gonna’ kill this Keystone XL pipeline I supported one month ago And I quote: “Based on safety I think the President should give this project the stamp of approval. Environmental groups obviously think differently. And so do the majority of people on the left. But this newsflash: We’re not getting out of the oil business in America. It runs our economy. Do we have climate change? Yes we do. But the construction of this pipeline does not mean we are going to consume more as a country. … So a brand-new pipeline, to me, makes sense.” That was...

"All of that is rhetoric and nonsense," says Girling, about the criticism. "As things sit right now we do have an approved route in Nebraska. ... seen as environmentally sound through five environmental reviews by the federal government and through the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.... We'll eventually get through that process. It's just a matter of determining what is the legal process for us to have it reviewed."

Faith Spotted Eagle figures that building a crude oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast would bring little to Indian Country besides more crime and dirty water, but she doubts that Native Americans will ever be able to get the U.S. government to block the $7 billion project. “There is no way for Native people to say no — there never has been,” said Spotted Eagle, 65, a Yankton Sioux tribal elder from Lake Andes, S.D. “Our history has caused us not to be optimistic. . . . When you have capitalism, you have to have an underclass — and...

About 300 people were arrested at the White House - most of them students - in a protest against approval of the Keystone pipeline.The reasons they oppose the project are so far out in left field, they aren't even in the ballpark. Politico: More than 300 anti-Keystone XL protesters were arrested Sunday afternoon outside the White House in the latest push by environmentalists to convince the Obama administration to reject the Canadian oil pipeline. The student-led protest, organized by XL Dissent, started with a rally at Georgetown University. The students marched from there to the White House — with a...

Police on Sunday arrested around 200 people who strapped themselves to the White House fence to protest the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. The protesters were mostly college students who participated in a peaceful march that began at Georgetown University and ended outside the White House. The marchers chanted “climate justice now” and carried signs such as “don’t tarnish the Earth” in their efforts to convince President Barack Obama to reject the pipeline. They say it will contribute to global warming.

Like many conflicts before it, the current battle brewing between Russia and Ukraine has a strong energy component. Russia has a history of using its energy supplies as a control mechanism—such as the 2006 and 2009 gas wars when it cut natural gas supplies in the midst of winter and left many European nations, which rely on Russian natural gas that is shipped through Ukraine, without energy. The supply disruptions were due to “disputes over politics, price, and late payments,” says the Washington Post. Back in November, before the current conflict erupted, Reuters reported: “Ukraine has for years been a...

Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to add a new element to the Keystone XL oil pipeline debate: its effects on health. The California Democrat claims negative health effects from the proposed pipeline's development were ignored by the State Department's environmental impact review. "The Environmental Impact Statement was woefully inadequate when it came to exploring human impacts of the pipeline," Boxer said Wednesday at a press conference held with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and anti-Keystone XL activists and environmentalists. She said Keystone will add pollutants to the air that will increase the likelihood of peopel getting cancer or heart disease. "I do...

Which would you rather do: heat your home, or turn on your lights? That's a choice made every day on New England's natural gas pipelines, and the answer is always the same. Heating homes is given priority. It's a decision that makes sense given the number of other fuels available to generate electricity — coal, oil, sun, wind, nuclear, are just a few. But it's also a decision that's costing New England more and more each winter, as using natural gas for home heating grows in popularity. The result is a traffic jam on the natural gas pipelines that puts...

A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a setback for the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries. Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that a law passed in 2011 improperly allowed Heineman to give TransCanada eminent domain powers within the state. Stacy said the decision should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates pipelines and other utilities. Heineman said Wednesday that state...

Because the Obama administration really needed another justification for their interminable dithering on the Keystone XL pipeline — not to mention the eco-radicals grasping at everything and anything they can to court the success of their counterproductive crusade.To review: Back in January of last year, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality finished their impact report on TransCanada’s amended proposal for the route the Keystone XL pipeline would take through their state (environmentalists had objected to an earlier version that would have routed the pipeline through the state’s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region, and this new version proposed to curve around...

A Nebraska judge ruled Wednesday that the state violated its constitution when it allowed the governor to approve the route of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that could significantly delay the $5.3 billion project. District Court judge Stephanie F. Stacy blocked Gov. Dave Heineman (R) and other defendants “from taking any action on the governor’s January 22, 2013 approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline route,” such as allowing land to be acquired by eminent domain for the project. Stacy concluded that the state legislature’s decision to take the siting power away from its Public Service Commission and give...

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz supports reducing the amount of crude oil shipped by rail in favor of pipelines that are safer, cheaper and cleaner, Capital New York reported on Wednesday. "What we probably need is more of a pipeline infrastructure and to diminish the need for rail transport over time," he said in an interview published on the Capital New York website. He said the infrastructure is "not there" to handle the surge in North Dakota Bakken oil production from near zero to 1 million barrels per day (bpd). "Frankly, I think pipeline transport overall probably has overall a...

Enbridge Inc. says the U.S. State Department is taking longer than expected to review an expansion to its Alberta Clipper pipeline between Alberta and Wisconsin. But executives with the Calgary-based energy shipper say they're confident a green light will come in time to expand the line to 800,000 barrels per day by the middle of next year. Enbridge obtained a U.S. federal permit in 2009 before starting up the first phase of the line, which has 450,000 barrels per day of capacity, but the State Department says it needs to amend its environmental review before allowing the expansions to go...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...

U.S. natural gas pipeline company NiSource Inc said it was investigating an explosion on its key Columbia Gulf Transmission interstate natural gas pipeline in Adair County, Kentucky that injured at least one person. The blast early Thursday morning engulfed and destroyed homes and cars, authorities said. The explosion and fire in Knifley, Kentucky, about 90 miles (145 km) south of Louisville, could be seen "just as plain as day" from Columbia, about 12 miles from the blaze, a local police officer said. Katherine Dupuis, a spokeswoman for NiSource, said the company was investigating the incident and would provide more details...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...