Oil industry: 'Huge political consequences' if pipeline rejected

Nebraska has tons of pipelines. Are they above ground? Is Keystone to be above ground. I assumed they were buried.

His original plan was to delay the decision on the pipeline in favor of the environmentalists who he desperately needs to help in his re-election campaign. On the other side of the coin he promised the unions that he would approve it after the election, but he needed to appease his environmentalists first. The problem is he no longer has time, because the Canadians said if the US doesn’t want the oil, they will pump it to the west coast and sell it to China. Now he also has the 60 day decision timeline. What will he do? It sucks to be Obama.

Its not a threat.

It is reality.
The Chinese are in there buying and buying.

At some point they will build their own pipeline to the west coast.

The oil will be refined in Gulf Coast refineries. The oil and pipeline are privately owned so the owners can determine the most productive uses of their product. The landowners will still be compensated under eminent domain.

So where does the USA get any guarantee that our refineries will be used and that the oil will be used for USA consumption? We don't. The only thing the USA gets is forcibly giving up right of way so Canadian business can profit. Instead USA citizen landowners are forced by the GOP to give up their property for the profits of private foreign enterprise.

The US government maintains a reserve but I do not see the pipeline contributing to the reserve unless there is a national emergency. Your screed against global corporations is just leftist screed.

My screed against globalism is leftist???? I suppose you love the UN too? The only way eminent domain in the USA can ever be justified is if it obviously serves the greater good of the USA. Canadian oil is not our greater good. If it was my land they wanted for a right of way, I'd fight them up to the Supreme Court. These global corporations would be required to take it over my dead body unless they offered me enough to convince me to sell. My land is my land, not big oil or not corporate Canada. If you believe otherwise you are a corporatist and not a conservative. Unfortunately for the USA that has become the GOP creed.

It is total hypocrisy version 2012 to claim eminent domain is fine for global corporations but not in Kelo vs City of New London case - Connecticut 2005 with developers. Make no mistake that eminent domain for private enterprise is about stealing private property rights regardless.

To quote Scalia who ruled against eminent domain in this Kelo case: Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, suggested that a ruling in favor of the city would destroy "the distinction between private use and public use," asserting that a private use which provided merely incidental benefits to the state was "not enough to justify use of the condemnation power."[10]

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

Too many "conservatives" now listen to the hypocrisy of well rewarded and leased politicians instead of listening to conscience and consistency.

I would first like to see where eminent has been used, when running a pipeline you don’t buy the land you pay for a right of way.

To hear a bunch of suburban or city conservatives talk about this as though - so what, is a sad state of affairs.

I happen to be a land owner, and right of way means that the land owner loses the right of use of said right of way and land. To lose land by right of way is not insignificant and means that access be permanently provided and that property value declines and that use of that land is lost. Crops can not be planted, structures are disallowed as are roads and who wants to live next to major pipeline? Yeah NIMBY means something if it is in your back yard.

Any taking of private property by private enterprise is in direct opposition to property rights. In my view it is non-negotiable, only unless it can be proven to benefit the greater good and not just private pockets and crooked politicians, and then I would still fight it unless landowners were paid properly, but they are not.

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I would first like to see where eminent has been used, when running a pipeline you don’t buy the land you pay for a right of way.

To hear a bunch of suburban or city conservatives talk about this as though - so what, is a sad state of affairs.

I happen to be a land owner, and right of way means that the land owner loses the right of use of said right of way and land. To lose land by right of way is not insignificant and means that access be permanently provided and that property value declines and that use of that land is lost. Crops can not be planted, structures are disallowed as are roads and who wants to live next to major pipeline? Yeah NIMBY means something if it is in your back yard.

Any taking of private property by private enterprise is in direct opposition to property rights. In my view it is non-negotiable, only unless it can be proven to benefit the greater good and not just private pockets and crooked politicians, and then I would still fight it unless landowners were paid properly, but they are not.

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Sir we have a total of 51 sections in West TX with multiple pipeline crossing, we have roads crossing them and crops planted over them, they’ve been no inconvienence to us at all. Plus we were paid nicely for that access.

I might add that the going rate for a pipeline easement in South TX is going from 400 to 600 dollars per rod with damages at 125 to 200 per rod. We're in negotiation for another easement across the north end of the ranch which will cover just over 3 and 1/2 miles. There's 320 rods per mile.