The White House recently denied an invitation from Nebraska farmers and ranchers for a "Beer and Beef Summit" to show President Obama the livelihoods and water that are at-risk with the Keystone XL pipeline.

The White House rejected the invitation on the grounds they were not taking any meetings on the pipeline. Bold Nebraska was therefore surprised the President is meeting with staff at Ellicott Dredges a company that just testified in Congress in support of Keystone XL and makes equipment that creates the tailing ponds, which are massive bodies of polluted water and a by-product of the tarsands mining process.

In addition to the 13,004 public comments we submitted on behalf of Nebraskans and the over 1 million comments nationwide submitted, state-based groups came together to submit a detailed response to the State Department on why we oppose the Keystone XL pipeline--the route, the map of the Sandhills, emergency response plans, landowner rights, spill liability, concerns about our water and economic risks to rural farmers and ranchers are all detailed in our submission to the State Department including how the DEQ changed the region of the Sandhills on their own website to cover-up the real Sandhills and give TransCanada political cover for a risky route.

View the full PDF of our submission to the State Department.

Update, 4/23: You can watch the hearing in full at the NET Nebraska site (our NPR affiliate) they taped everyone's testimony.

Please share this 2 minute recap video of the hearing produced by 350.org: http://youtu.be/cXKJgTn5iN8

Developing Story: The tarsands spill on Saturday in Arkansas forced families to evacutae their homes. At first Exxon denied it was tarsands, tried to say its no worse than other oil. Enbridge tried this same lie in Michigan and we all know how that turned out ($1 billion later and still not cleaned up 2 years later).

This Exxon pipeline that burst and kept spewing tarsands and benzene for 45 minutes in Arkansas is a snapshot of what could happen in Fullerton or any of the small towns along the proposed TransCanada route. Here are two articles, we will post more as press and citizens report on this risk and no reward...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/arkansas-oil-spill-2013-exxon_n_2986754.html

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/30/arkansas-residents-evacuate-as-exxon-mobil-tar-sands-pipeline-ruptures/

More than the Easter bunny is hopping our way! Updates on landowner rights, State Dept. hearing, the citizen lawsuit and timing of the decision by Pres. Obama are in this blog post. We still need you write letters to President Obama. It is the old-school, handwritten letters that get the attention of our elected leaders. The President told Republicans he knows this pipeline creates 35 long-term jobs and is an export pipeline. Which if course then asks the question, how again is this in our national interest? Why are we risking water and property rights? Keep up the pressure pipeline fighters!

Donate to help support the activities for the hearing!

You can Stand Tall with Julia Trigg by sharing this video, donating to her legal fund, going to her Stand Tall concert on April 20th or writing a letter to President Obama (links below for all these actions).

Fighting a multi-billion foreign pipeline is not easy. There are days when our odds look slim. The difference between us and them is we stand tall, we stand together. We are pipeline fighters and we will never give up on protecting our land and water so a foreign tarsands company can make a bunch of money on the backs of our families.

Leaders from the Republican Party visited with President Obama and of course the Keystone XL pipeline came up in conversation.

Various reports of what the President said or did not say started to hit blogs and newspapers and twitter.

Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled his budget, which forces approval of the Keystone XL pipeline by ignoring the basic fact that this is an export pipeline, headed to a refinery owned by Saudi Arabia, that will create only 35 permanent jobs.

"On the one hand we want to send Rep. Ryan a big box of tarsands-free steaks from Nebraska thanking him since these types of politically-motivated moves helped get the pipeline denied last time around," said Jane Kleeb, Bold Nebraska Director. "On the other hand, we are deeply concerned Ryan is citing false job numbers from the oil industry that have even been refuted by TransCanada."