February 22nd
1:30pm

The last two of five critical pipeline bills will have a public hearing this week at the Unicameral. All hearings begin at 1:30pm in the State Capitol. We'll be there and hope to see you, too!

May 8th
1:30pm

As part of their new responsibility to site future oil pipelines in Nebraska, the Public Service Commission is hosting a workshop. They will be taking public input on the creation of their guidelines that will dictate pipeline route applications and the siting process for years to come.

In a 24-hour period beginning at 11am CT yesterday, a coalition of over 40 organizations and businesses -- from CREDO Mobile to Bold Nebraska to Patagonia -- launched a 24 hour “signature bomb” with the goal of sending the Senate over 500,000 messages opposing Keystone XL and urging Senators to block any amendments that would reverse the President's pipeline rejection. The goal was surpassed with a total number reaching over 770,000.  Those signatures are being hand-delivered to Senator Reid and Senator McConnell today.

"Congressional Republicans might make sweetheart deals with Big Oil," said Jane Kleeb, Director of BOLD Nebraska and a leader of the movement against Keystone XL. "But folks in the Heartland and across America are focused on keeping this pipeline from risking Americans water supply, our climate, and our clean energy future."

**Update: At 6:54pm on Monday, groups hit the 500,000 Americans telling the US Senate no pipeline riders! Best news yet is the 500,000th person was a Nebraskan. More on that person soon! We are blowing by that goal and now hoping for 600,000, sign the petition and pass it around!**

Congressional Republicans' attempts to revive the Keystone XL pipeline are driving massive public opposition. Almost 40 environmental, labor and progressive organizations have banded together to collect 500,000 signatures in 24 hours on a petition opposing the pipeline that will be delivered to Senate leaders.

Sign the Petition

Bold is joining almost 40 national and state advocacy organizations and businesses that are planning a massive online day of action on Monday to oppose efforts to overturn President's Obama's decision and resurrect the Keystone XL pipeline.

Update 2/14: After lots of calls and grassroots actions, Sen. Schumer has confirmed he will oppose any KXL ammendments! "Senator Schumer will be voting against the proposed amendment that includes Keystone XL and is working with Majority Leader Reid to defeat the amendment." --Martin Brennan, state director, Sen. Schumer

We need the Senate to stand strong against back door deals to ramrod Keystone XL through. With critical bills like transportation and another extension of the payroll tax cut coming up, we cannot afford political games that put our land and water at risk.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance Rep. Lee Terry’s bill that would require Federal Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) to approve the (already denied) Keystone XL pipeline in 30 days. In short, it’s awful. We never thought we would say this, but we actually miss the days when Lee Terry did nothing on Capitol Hill, except of course naming a post office and drinking with lobbyists.

Even FERC, the agency that Terry tosses the pipeline decision to instead of the president, hates the bill. They testified that they have no experience with oil pipelines, let alone tar sands pipelines. Additionally, the bill doesn’t give them any real authority and leaves them no time to build a defensible decision (read: we won’t be able to defend this when people sue us).

In yesterday's House markup meeting on Lee Terry's pipeline bill, we noticed that Rep. Terry liked to mention how the NRDC and Sierra Club asked President Obama to stop Keystone XL. But Terry nevers mentions that thousands of Nebraskans and our own Governor Heineman also asked the President to deny the permit.

Terry's selective memory times well with the unveiling of our new website HeinemanAgreesWithObama.com. We hope it serves as a healthy reminder that the Governor and the President have agreed about the risks Keystone XL poses to our land and the Ogallala Aquifer.