Transcript: U.S. State Dept. Public Hearing On Keystone XL Pipeline (2 of 2)

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ORIGINAL
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DEPARTMENT OF STATE
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PROPOSED KEYSTONE XL PROJECT

PUBLIC MEETING
VOLUME II OF II
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APRIL 18, 2013

Heartland Events Center
700 East Stolley Park Road
Grand Island, Nebraska
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Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153
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(At 4:05p.m. on April 18, 2013, the following proceedings were had:) MS. HOBGOOD: No. 61 . And if
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you can spell your name, we'd really appreciate

it.
MICHAEL MURPHY: challenging spelling my name.
It's It's Michael
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Murphy, M-1-C-H-A-E-L, M-U-R-P-H-Y. I come here and - with everybody. see that a lot of the folks aren't back. this is a nice building. union workers. I came on the interstate. built by hard union workers. things. I needed those today. And it was I But
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It was built by our
Those are good There were 1 ots
of trucks off the road. are all okay.
I hope those people
I - but I'm against the pipeline.
And
I think of the cold wind that's blowing across the State of Nebraska right now is kind of an energy that can be harnessed, something that's come from Canada. It's cold. We can make some
energy out of that and maybe eliminate some of this dependency on oil and things. But most of all, I come for my wife. My
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wife couldn't be here.
But she's right here.
My wife just recently passed away from cancer.

There's no family history of her cancer.
There's nothing she was doing that should make
any sense of why she had cancer.
But for three years, she fought cancer,
and she didn't want to die. die. win. And she -- but she did. She didn't want to
She couldn't
And she died because somebody made a lot She died because this earth is
of money.
polluted and people are dying. You look -- you look at the tar sands mine, and you know around that, people are dying. You look at the Arkansas -- the leak in the pipe and stuff, you know people are going to die because of that. You look at Kalamazoo
and you look at the fish that are dying and the wildlife that are dying, the plant life that are dying. You know that people are going to
be dying soon because of that. And people are making lots of money. And that's okay that those people had to die because people had to make money. they're insignificant. It's -
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And I don't think they're insignificant. My wife is gone. And I wake up in the morning
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January 6th, 1:30 in the morning, she died. She took her last breath. I also think of my - we think of my Native American ancestries, think of our children's children. nephew's daughter. hospital in ICU. I think of my - my And she right now is in the Had a bone marrow transplant.
Hopefully she lives. My daughter is pregnant, my daughter's daughter. And hopefully she has a good future.
But this pipeline is not in that direction at

all.
And I - and I hope the president, I hope you folks, I hope everybody 1 i stens. I hope the pipefitters and the workers and stuff, there's - there's good work to be done. And I hope you find it. windmills. I hope you get some And
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I hope we get something other than
work that's killing people. I just miss my wife. And I see this And I
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beautiful young 1 ady officiating us.
hope your family can live with you and you can live with them for a long time.
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And I hope everybody here is around as long as they're supposed to be around and don't have to die early because somebody had to make a lot of money. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Speakers
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MS. HOBGOOD:
with Nos. 62, 63, 64 and 65, if you can be prepared to speak when your number is called and if you can spell your name, we'd appreciate
it.
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Speaker No. 62.

DAVID LaBORDE: Thank you. My
name is David LaBorde, last named spelled L-A capital B-0-R-D-E. I am the national pipeline director for the Teamster's Union. members strong. We're 1.4 million
And I stand here today in
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support of the Keystone XL.

I've heard a lot of testimony here today about our environment and our water and our children and our land. And I've changed the
testimony that I was going to give today because I want to tell you where I come from. I live on the shores of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater body of water in the
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entire world. I have one of these pipelines these - this very pipeline that we're talking about runs within 300 yards of my land. The proudest moment of my life was when I became a father. I have a five-year-old son
that lives within 300 yards of one of these pipelines. I stand here today with my union brothers and sisters. I tell you this, they There is nobody
are the best at what they do.
in this country that can build a safer and a better pipeline than the four crafts that belong to this association that we go out and we do for a living. We - community. I come from an - a rural But we are
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We don't raise beef.
the second largest supplier of dairy products in the United States. My next-door neighbor is
an organic dairy farmer. That pipeline was constructed in 2008. People have testified here today that there's all risk and no reward. I'd like to tell you
about the reward that happened when it did come to my community.
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We employed 759 union men and women that got a fair living wage, health insurance benefits and pension benefits. When we - at peak payroll, we put $1.8 mi 11 ion into those people's pockets. million, a lot of that was spent in my community. It went to help the schools. It That $1.8
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helped build roads.
It helped all of our men It went
and women that work in that community. into our local grocery stores. our 1ocal hardware stores.
It went into
And in addition to that $1.8 million that was spent on a weekly basis in payroll, in five months when that project - it took five months for them to construct that project and move past, $17 million was spent in consumables from the pipeline contractors. That was the And a
stuff that they went out and had to buy. very good majority of that $17 million was spent in our community.
I'm here to tell you, Folks, there is a lot of reward. And there is very little risk.
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Thank you very much. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 63. Thank you.
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Speaker No. 63.
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Speaker No. 64. Speaker No. 65. Speaker No. 66. And I would just like to remind everyone here that if you do not wish to speak orally or if your number is called and it's missed and you have written comments, you are certainly welcome to leave them here. the back. And as we said at the outset, your oral comments and your written comments are equally important to us. And they will both form a We have boxes in
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part of the administrative record. Speaker No. - No. 65. Speaker No. 66. Speaker No. 67. PHILLIP WALLACE: My name's I think I called speaker
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Phillip Wallace, P-H-I-L-L-I-P, W-A-L-L-A-C-E. And I'm affiliated with the pipeline workers, Pi pel i ners Local Union 798 of the United Association. weld this together. Tulsa, Oklahoma. My home is in Arkansas. And I've been We're the welders. We
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And we're based out of
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affiliated with the TransCanada, with these pipelines since 2008. And we brought the first pipeline from North Dakota down through South Dakota, into Steele City, Nebraska, down to Cushing, Oklahoma, and across Missouri to Patoka, Illinois. We done got that in service in 2010. And I'm going to
So I know TransCanada.
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tell you, I know a lot of the little oil companies, too. TransCanada by far has more
safety environmental plans in place, with - you know, we - we're the welders. We weld it We've got a We
You know, we go out there. together. Our welds are x-rayed.
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training center in our home base of Tulsa. train our welders in all the latest welding technology.
And TransCanada, you know, they use the latest technology. And anything - anything
new to make their pipeline better, they spend the money for it. You know, there's a lot of talk today about, you know, the - I live in Arkansas. I know all I
know about the Mayflower spill. about it.
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I know about the Yellowstone River spill in Montana. These pipelines are outdated. We - we
want to take these pipelines out of service because they were made in the '40s, 1940s, 1950s. These - you know, we're - - we're - out with the old and in with the new, the new technology, latest safety emergency shutdown systems. These old pipelines don't have it.
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The new ones do. TransCanada goes the extra mile and the extra money to make it that way. So I want to
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want to thank the
State Department for letting us speak today. And I want to ask President Obama to permit this pipeline. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speakers No. 68, 69 and 70, can you be prepared to speak when your name is called. And please make sure you spell - please make sure that you spell your name. Speaker No. 68. DARRELL TURNER: My name is
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Darrell Turner, D-A-R-R-E-L-L, Turner,

T-U-R-N-E-R.
Thank you for allowing me to speak
today. I want to tell you that I'm a
I represent the
I have
professional pipeliner.
workers that will build this pipeline. 46 years' experience.
I might tell you that I'm a 1 an downer.

I'm also a supporter of Keystone Pipeline. I am not from Nebraska. resident of Alabama. United States. And I've got a news flash for you. A But I am a
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And I am a part of these
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new poll by the Pew Research Group shows the majority of Americans support Keystone XL. This poll reports a solid 68 percent of all Americans support the construction and the operation of this pipeline. In fact, i t has a very 1arge bipartisan support. 82 percent of Republicans and 54
percent of Democrats support this project. You know, I'm really tired of all of the posturing by people that think they can have their cake and eat it, too. They travel great And they
distances to protest against KXL.
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I.
show up in buses, trucks, automobiles.
And
these are fossil fuel-burning vehicles, Folks. And then they leave and go back wherever they came from in these same fossil fuel-burning vehicles. I'm not naive either. I understand the
numbers I just shared with you guys reveal a tough battle between our president and the environmental groups that are opposed to the project. But it goes much deeper than building Keystone XL. Stop the Keystone, and these
people think they can somehow put the brakes on all tar sands exploration. happen. Keystone will have no appreciable impact on climate. And I'll tell you why. Because Not going to
it's going to be developed regardless of the completion of the project. It will add tax revenue to the State of Nebraska and local governments. It will increase the trade between our two countries. I for one and evidently a majority of Americans as well would rather trade with a
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loyal friend than send their money to countries that hate us so they can take that revenue and buy bullets to kill us. You know what else? The last time I
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checked, Canadians are not killing Americans. Canadians are not bombing our embassies. And
Canadians have never flown a jet airplane into the Pentagon or the World Trade Center to make religious or political point. And in completion, I stand here as an American to tell you I support this pipeline and I support it as a veteran. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 69. LORNE STOCKMAN: Hi. My name is Thank you.
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Lorne Stockman, L-0-R-N-E, S-T-0-C-K-M-A-N. I'm research director of Oil Change International. I've been studying the tar sands in this pipeline for over five years. And I can tell
you the Keystone XL Pipeline is a pipeline through the United States, not to the United States. The pipeline's major purpose is not to
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190 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 provide energy security for America but to enable access to international markets in order to maximize returns to tar sands producers and refiners. In 2012, a full 60 percent of gasoline produced at Texas Gulf Coast refineries was exported. This export boon is not something
It is,
all U.S. refineries share equally in.
in fact, the same refineries that will receive Keystone XL oil that are the leading export refineries in the country. The they already export the majority The State Department's
of what they produce.
own report published in March, confirmed this, stating that almost half of the products produced by these refineries goes to the domestic market. market. It's also clear if we carry on the business as usual, exports from these refineries are only likely to increase. Since 2005, a remarkable thing has happened to U.S. oil demand. Instead of Almost half to the domestic
growing relentlessly as it has done for over a century, it is now declining. Americans are
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doing more and going further with 1ess oi 1 . And that's a great thing. It's a great thing because no matter how much oil America or Canada produce, American families and businesses will always be vulnerable to a volatile global world market, a market in which prices can sore at the whim of distant dictators or as a result of unavoidable natural disasters. The 1ess oi 1 America consumes, the 1ess vulnerable it is to these unpredictable events. It is also a great thing because we must reduce our use of oil in order to do our part to prevent the climate from becoming so unstable that we reverse the course of human progress and leave little hope for our children's future. That's not speculation. That's hard
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science supported by the vast majority of the world's scientific community and governments, including the United States government, apparently. So while Americans do their part to use less oil, the tar sands producers and their refining partners are doing their best to
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undermine these efforts by producing the world's dirtiest oil and exporting the products refined from it. The risks are borne by the many in order to benefit a few. water. We risk Nebraska land and
And we also risk the very stability of
our climate. The Keystone XL Pipeline will deliver some would deliver over 180 million metric
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tons of greenhouse gases every year, the equivalent of nearly 38 million cars or 51 average U.S. coal plants. The State Department claims that given business as usual, this pollution will happen with or without Keystone XL. I dispute that.
The point I want to make today is that we simply cannot afford business as usual. stopping this pipeline is a big step towards changing the way we do business for the better. The International Energy Agency, an organization set up to improve the transparency and security of oi 1 markets, not an environmental group, stated in its 1atest annual report that to achieve climate change goals, at least two-thirds of proven fossil And
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fuels must be left in the ground.
Climate
scientists argue that it should be more like 80 percent.

We've got to leave this bitumen in the ground. If we build this pipeline, it won't
get left in the ground.

It is not in the national interest to build this pipeline.
Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 70.
ERIC SIEGEL: Hi. My name is Thank you.
Eric Siegel, E-R-I-C, S-I-E-G-E-L. And I'm just thinking about the gentleman who spoke before me who read the research of the most recent Pew poll, 68 percent or something of Americans approve of the pipeline.
I want to know if those people live in the states that have experienced the pipeline going through land. I want to know who or And I want those
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which people are asked.
details scrutinized in a way that they were not scrutinized in your report. I'm appalled that the Environmental
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Impact Statement from the U.S. State Department does not think there would be any significant impact on climate change. appalling and shameful. I traveled here today from Iowa. the reason I'm here is because the water hydrant from -- comes from the Jordan Aquifer which is the largest aquifer in the State of Iowa and the largest source of groundwater. It connects to the Dakota Aquifer which then decisively reaches across the western border to Nebraska and connects to the Ogallala Aquifer. So when the oil spills -- because it wi 11 -- it wi 11 penetrate into these other aquifers. That's what ecology is. Humans And I find that
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cannot outdo ecology, no matter how much we think we can. We can work with it. I don't
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think we should, like, we often do, are trying to work against it. So my drinking water in Iowa is connected to right here to this debate. And I also wanted to say one thing, which is that in your report, a fact that's not stated about it, which is that it's well
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known -- it's well known that your outsourced EIS report is part of the decades-long trend in hiring private consultants to do government work. And I know your job at the state is to determine whether the pipeline is, quote, unquote, in the national interest. But from
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what I've read about the report and what I've read about the report, it sounds to me the way it was report is itself not in the national interest or because of the ability complete
lack of oversight and asks whether or not - whether there's any conflict of interest with the people who are doing the report. Normally when a State Department official, if they were to have any involvement or any financial interest with Keystone or if their spouse or partner did, they would be barred from working on it. But when the State Department outsources to private contractors, those employees are not subject to the conflict of interest rules. And so I think this report is extremely biased, whether it is acknowledged or not, even by the workers doing the report.
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And the last thing I would like to say is that as many people have said, but I just
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want to reiterate - that the rerouted pipeline still goes through land that is - has a very high water table, and when the oil spills, it will affect the aquifer I drink from. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75, if you could be prepared to come to the microphone as your number is approaching. you spell your name. Thank you. JENNI HARRINGTON: Jenni Harrington, J-E-N-N-I, H-A-R-R-I-N-G-T-0-N. I want to thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion on the proposed Canadian XL Pipeline project. The proposed route of the tar sands pipeline crosses my family farm that was homesteaded by my great-great-grandfather in 1876. The farm is very dear to me and my three We grew up there, working on the land Hi. I'm And please make sure
sisters.
side by side with our father made us who we
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are. I was concerned when I learned the reroute would be just a mile and a half from my home. But the night I saw the video of a
fl yover of the tar sands in Albert a, Canada, it was a game changer for me. I felt it was not only about what was happening on my family's farm, a foreign company taking our land for private gain, but, also, what was happening in Canada. Since then, I have been researching the issues of the proposed Keystone XL. What I
have found is representatives that are looking only at one side of a very divisive issue. much money does it take to have state and national representatives look at only one side of an issue? Americans are being sold out to big oil for Canada's want to expand the tar sands production to get tar sands out to the world market for, again, private gain. The tar sand industry in Canada has a horrible record on the environment, from stripping the Boreal Forest to bare earth to amazingly awful emissions to the amount of How
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spac~.
water it spoils to the huge amount of other fossil fuels that use this. The toxic tailing ponds can be seen from They're polluting the Alabaska River,
and no one cares. The people of Fort Chipawa are dying of rare cancers, brain tumors and sarcomas. Their
cancer rate is 30 percent higher than southern Alberta. The Canadian minister of the environment, Rob Brenner, said it wasn't his job to protect the environment. to me. Unbelievable
This tar sand industry is environmental
degradation end to end. We have been told that when the tar sand pipeline leaks, it will be localized contamination. Is one domestic well Are 10 domestic wells Is a town the size of York
contaminated okay? contaminated okay?
Nebraska's 8,000 people's water supply contaminated okay? When is it not okay? It has
Just ask Marshall, Michigan.
been since July 2010, and the tar sand leak still hasn't been cleaned up. So I don't believe this Canadian export
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pipeline is good for America.
We need to tell
Canada no thanks and ask them to look at what they're doing to the environment because it's affecting the world. I believe as stated by NASA scientist James Hanson, if the tar sands are continued to be developed, it is game over for the planet as we know it. David Schindler from the upper - from the University of Alberta, renown scientist for his work on acid rain and his understanding of the workings of lakes and rivers, said there's no environmental framework to keep up with this rapid pace of the tar sand expansion. We are at a real crossroads within the United States and the world is getting - and the world getting the energy economy right. Decisions are being made today that will make that happen or commit us to perpetual decline. Please hear us now. Say no to this tar
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sand pipeline and make a statement to send us in a renewal and sustainable energy direction. We get it. And we won't be silent anymore.
Thank you very much. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speaker No. 72.

DANIEL FELZIEN: thank you for this opportunity. Daniel Felzien, F-E-L-Z-I-E-N. I am not affiliated, not paid speaker. I am a citizen of Denver, Colorado, a veteran of the United States of American and inhabitant of the world.
I want to say how great the people - the speakers in opposition of the pipeline have spoken before. And I think they really ought Hello. And
My name is
to be applauded for getting the science and the emotions out in a way that's effective and a trick -- a -- beneficial to -- benefiting the process here. I want to just kind of share with you some random thoughts and ideas I had thrown down on paper late last night. And one of those would be I don't know if they're in here, but I feel for the people that work on pipelines, the unions, the laborers here. And what they don't realize,
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perhaps, maybe they're a little bit uninformed. I know where their emotions are and their hearts are.
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But they' 11 be affected just as well as everyone else of us here, maybe even more so because our hands will be on it. The pipeline agreement between our two countries is not logical for the following reasons: Economical reasons, environmental
protection, ecological system protection, public health, theological and science based. Furthermore, I urge you to not accept the EIS as it has - as it has far too many flaws and is a substandard product of what many regard as an industry insider document meant to protect big oil and TransCanada. As only one example, this EIS does not provide enough detail on pipe thickness and life expectancy in the area of the friction coefficient and pH control. Reading quickly, a little bit about the economical illogical points about this pipeline, tar sands, etcetera. And in the area of jobs, more and longer-sustaining jobs are created from renewable energy, money spent on renewable energy and the energy grid improvements provide a better return on investments for our nation.
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So much money spent on this temporary endeavor of the pipeline will be wasted in a short numbers of years, 40, 50, 60, or at least until the tar sands run out. This pipeline will increase the cost of individual and public health, will increase C02 production or releases and increase insurance claims and tax-based government funding of identified disaster - disaster areas as well. Storms increase in frequency and intensity. The pipeline spill disasters reparations are never paid and settled for short- and long-term contamination by those who trespass against them. These - these type of pipelines
spills are far too common occurrence affecting private and company property and livelihood. MS. HOBGOOD:
it
If you could wrap
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up, please. DANIEL FELZIEN: MS. HOBGOOD: You bet.
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Thank you. There's
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DANIEL FELZIEN:
environmental concerns, way too many to talk about here, ecology, the birds, the bees, the turtle, the trees. I won't get into it. But
it is affecting our human food chain.
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Regarding public health, this fascist corporatist tyranny or terrorism enacted upon people's land rights, against their health and wells is reminiscent of when the U.S. government also attempted to eradicate the native people by supplying them diseased blankets and foods. Take notice. We, 99 percent are the Do not kill us. Do
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people in this country.
not attempt to trick us anymore.
We are the
citizens of this world and will be heard. Please reject the pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 73. KATIE VANHOUSEN: Hi. Katie Thank you.
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VanHousen, K-A-T-I-E, V-A-N-H-0-U-S-E-N. Waking up every morning, I walk straight to the sink. I grab a glass and start to fill
it with the highest quality water in the world. It is the Ogallala Aquifer water that I am drinking. I never really thought about the effects this pipeline could have on me. I started to
ask myself what would happen if I would have to open up a bottle of water every time I needed a
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quick drink. I am from Nebraska. rural area of Polk. I grew up in the
I am an 18-year-old senior My family and I
at High Plains High School. live in York County. County.
But we have land in Polk
That is where the pipeline will be
ruining our land. My parents, Terry and Becky VanHousen, the owners of the land, are the most supportive people I've met concerning changes in things going on in Nebraska. Right when I found out
that they weren't supporting this pipeline, I knew that I needed to start informing myself about it. I have done my research. gone to meetings. And I have
I feel as if everyone needs
to start reconsidering this huge decision everyone is making so quickly. All these government people are putting yes on this pipeline. This makes me crazy
because I am an 18 year old, and I feel more informed about this issue than a lot of people. I know that my voice isn't heard very far. But I am trying to get it out there. I
feel that teenagers my age need to start
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standing up for what we believe in. I have never been the type to stand up to people and talk about what I believe in. When it comes to this pipeline, I have a feeling in my gut that I need to take a stand. Our family is the owner of the VanHousen Feed Yard. We house 10,000 head of cattle to I feel as if the feed The pipeline will be
feed and take care of. yard is my second home.
run one mile from the feed yard. The cattle are in constant need of water. The water comes from the ground, which
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is the exact place this poisonous muck will be if there's a spi 11 or 1eak. If that water gets contaminated from that poison, what is going to happen to all the cattle? water? Where are we supposed to get our Cows can't drink from a water bottle. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 74. Thank you.
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Speaker No. 74. JACK DAWKINS: It's on my phone.
Jack Dawkins, J-A-C-K, D-A-W-K-I-N-S. And, first, I'd like the record to reflect that 21 people have spoken for the
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Keystone XL Pipeline so far.
I'm number 74.
And all of those people have had direct or indirect ties to the oil and gas industry and have not been Nebraska landowners, to my knowledge. record. So I'd like that to be on the
Thank you. So I'm 22 years old. I've come to talk
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about something I often hear, and that is the idea that my generation doesn't care and we're too complacent. While this is not true, I figured out the reason it might seem this way. It's
because it was your generation's job to convince us to buy what you're selling. your generation has failed. You have failed in many ways. But the And
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first and most obvious way lies in the fact that I felt the need to skip class in Denver, Colorado, to come here and tell our federal State Department the difference between right and wrong. For over half of my life, our country has been off fighting crime in the name of freedom and democracy around the globe. But
tell me, where is the freedom of justice in
Latimer Reporting, Linco7n, Nebraska (402) 476-1153
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your own country, a place where our own government is letting a foreign corporation steal, lie and destroy our property. fair and just? What if instead of TransCanada doing these things it was an individual or individual group? I'm sure that the entire U.S. military Is that
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would be scouring the globe to find whatever terrorist was doing this to our citizens. Instead, it's a company. a company. Instead, it's
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And instead of our country standing
up for its citizens who are struggling with debt, disease and destruction, our country is standing up for this company. At the age of 22, it is difficult to listen to any more talk about this economy or its environment jargon, whatever the hell it is. Even my four-year-old niece can tell you which one is real and which one is made up. It's even harder when recent studies are telling me this planet might be tough if not impossible to live on at my age of retirement. You've really left me with no other option than to fight this pipeline and anything
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else threatening the future. If you do not have the moral backbone to stop this atrocity from happening, don't be surprised when the people use their power to stop it themselves. One thing TransCanada has neglected to mention is that the southern leg of this pipeline is well behind schedule, 1ess than halfway done as of last report, when originally expected it would be done around this month. The reason is because they have been losing court cases along with facing 79-year-old grandmothers locking themselves to construction equipment. By even considering this project, you are doubting the courage, the determination and the willpower of every Nebraskan landowner standing in this room and every indigenous person who has the inherent right to this land. The people had to fight our government to abolish slavery. to do it again. In closing, I'm thoroughly convinced that you have failed me and the rest of the youth in this room, worldwide and the seven And we're ready to go it
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generations to come.
All that I ask is that you-- is that you actually prove me wrong. Prove me wrong by
stopping this pipeline and stopping these eco-terrorists from destroying my future and this planet.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 75.
TERRY VANHOUSEN: My name is Thank you.
Terry VanHousen, T-E-R-R-Y, V-A-N-H-0-U-S-E-N. I'm a landowner. landowner in Polk County. My family's a And Keystone wants And it's
to lay a pipeline across that land. right above the Ogallala Aquifer.
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If that pipe sprung a leak, it goes straight down into the cleanest water in the world. That water runs southeast to seven right after them seven And how
homesteads and there
homesteads, I have a feed yard there.
would I ever water 10,000 head of cattle if there's crude oil, tar sands, whatever in the Ogallala Aquifer because that's what waters all my cattle and my land.
Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers No. 76, 77, 78, 79 and 80, if you can be prepared to speak when your number is called, that would be great. SHERRY LOSEKE: MS. HOBGOOD: SHERRY LOSEKE: My name is - Speaker No. 76. My number is 76.
My name is Sherry Loseke, S-H-E-R-R-Y, L-0-S-E-K-E. And our family farm is in the route of the Keystone XL Pipeline. I want to make sure that Secretary Kerry and President Obama understand that all of the risks, liabilities, human rights and property rights abuses that we've been talking about today that accompany the Keystone XL Pipeline are entirely unnecessary. Bitumen is what the refineries want. But you can't push tar into a pipe and expect it to move. The oil companies resolved this problem by adapting the bitumen to fit their outdated and untested technology by adding diluents, the composition of which are a trade secret, adding pressures two times greater than required for traditional crude oil and result in higher heat
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levels than with crude oil. There are no parts of this pipeline technology that has undergone focused peer-reviewed testing. There is no data available on the corrosiveness of the product on the pipe. And there has been no testing on elevated temperatures and pressures on the pipe. These statements are drawn from the SEIS. Without product knowledge and proper
testing, the SEIS conclusions are not credible. The special provisions and claims of TransCanada that this is a safe and high-tech pipeline are empty words. In America, we
require safety testing from industries with products that might bring risks. For example,
in the automobile industry in America, they test safety features to prove their safety claims. In America we' 11 ground over 1, 000 airplanes over concern for defective coating on a bolt in the tail section. get to pass? Why do pipelines
This is unacceptable.
If the secretary thinks it's important
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to satisfy our Canadian neighbors and oil company agendas, the SEIS market analysis shows that rail can ship raw bitumen. can't do that. American railroads can meet all market demands. And this option will eliminate the Pipelines
chemical component and all of the risks, fears and abuses.

We have to stop diluting bitumen. Pipelines are inadequate, unsafe, outdated, untested and unwanted.
But there should be a price for the privilege of moving this bitumen across our border and across our country. Make it
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sufficient to fund research and development to develop new energy solutions. do business for America.
Landowners can't be forced to partner with the a pipeline company that brings unnecessary risk and harm to fellow Americans. It's inconceivable that it's in the national interest to hand our land over to foreign entities.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 77. Thank you. That's how you
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BONNIE KRUSE: Kruse, B-0-N-N-I-E, K-R-U-S-E.
My name is Bonnie
I'm a Nebraska past state president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. member of the League of Women Voters. Rotarian. I'm a
I am a
I'm a member of the Seward County And I'm a member of
Groundwater Guardian Team.
the Seward Citizens on Pipeline Route Committee. I'm a concerned and active citizen.
Deny the presidential permit for the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. Regarding pipeline safety and spills, Congress has ordered a two-year study of dilbit. And basically the report indicates
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that the United States is not at this time ready for more dilbit pipelines from a regulatory or safety perspective. The TransCanada Keystone Pipeline is a dilbit pipeline. The TransCanada system cannot
detect less than a 2 percent leak. Pipeline capacity is to be 830,000 barrels per day. Leakage rate at 2 percent
would come out to 588,000 gallons per day. Dilbit sinks, making cleanup impossible. Benzene is one of the chemicals mixed with
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dilbit and is highly carcinogenic in small amounts.

Professor John Stansbury, associate professor of environmental water resources engineering at the University of Nebraska and instructor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Assessment Program reported that a spill in the Sandhills above the Ogallala Aquifer could dump as much as 180,000 barrels of crude oil, tainting the vast water supply in the region.
Pipeline safety is a shared responsibility. According to the National
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Transportation and Safety Board, we have a lot of work to do before the presidential permit for the XL Pipeline can be granted. According to the NTSB, there must be a process in place to ensure facts are reported, repaired and verified. There isn't.
Operators of pipelines need a verifiable procedure to notify potentially affected communities of the basic information such as the route of the pipeline, pipe diameter, operating pressure, product transported and potential radius. There isn't.
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Companies need to have qualification requirements subject to U.S. federal regulations for all control center staff involved in hazard liquid transmission operations. They don't.
There needs to be a federal response preparedness standards stating specific pipeline response planning guidance for worst-case discharge. There aren't.
Deny the presidential permit. Listen to the landowners when it comes to Sandhills blowouts, aquifers and wellhead protection areas. They don't want a major
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catastrophe any more than you do. Pipelines can physically be built through such areas. there.
It is still prudent that the Keystone XL Pipeline route is not located in the sandy soils and fragile soils and shallow water tables of Nebraska.
The new Keystone XL alternate route still crosses these lands. These lands are not They just don't belong
currently identified as Sandhills on some current maps, but they exist and where the
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alternate route is located.

The new Keystone XL route that has been proposed is better than the first route. the new route still places the Keystone XL Pipeline in the water of the Ogallala Aquifer and still crosses sandy soils and fragile soils and shallow water table areas. MS. HOBGOOD: your comments, please. BONNIE KRUSE: Yeah. Again, Again - But
If you can wrap up
should the pipeline break, leak or spill, this is not where you would want it to happen. MS. HOBGOOD: JON KRUSE: Kruse, J-0-N, K-R-U-S-E. I'm a landowner. The first Keystone Thank you. Hi. My name is Jon
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Pipeline crosses my farm west of Seward, Nebraska.

Regarding soils and sediment, Nebraska DEQ found that potential impacts associated with operation and maintenance of the proposed pipeline include erosion, compaction, temperature effects and contamination of oil to potential leaks. We are especially concerned about the
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impact of blowouts in these fragile and sandy

soils which are common when such soils are
disturbed. We did not see this issue addressed
in the evaluation.
Deny the presidential permit.
We question the employment and fiscal
numbers in the DEQ report. The report states
Keystone expects to employ approximately 270

Nebraska workers during construction or 110 average annual jobs. This 1oaks 1 ess to be 110
average jobs for only 2-1/2 years. When the dust settles on the construction of this pending pipeline, real numbers say it will create 38 permanent jobs in America, 13 of them in Nebraska, according to this state's own DEQ report. Our observation from the first Keystone Pipeline is that once the pipeline is built, there are very few permanent jobs. Also, we observed from the first pipeline that crews brought trailer homes and well-stocked campers with them. And our
communities saw very little economic impact. At best there would only be a temporary increase in economic activity as most of the
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construction would take place in the rural parts of Nebraska. Let's talk real jobs. U.S. Department
of State is not demanding that the pipeline be made of strong U.S. steel. create - jobs. TransCanada refuses to disclose publicly where and by whom the pipe of the pipeline is manufactured. The best welders cannot make up for weak pipe made in India that is not inspected by the Pipeline and Safety Hazardous Administration. As far as we know, the pipe for the XL Pipeline has already been manufactured by the India Welspun Company, and that pipe is being stored in front of U.S. steel mills that are currently closed due to lack of business. U.S. steel worker unions have publicly opposed the XL Pipeline and have sent letters to Obama opposing the pipeline because the pipe was not manufactured here. If TransCanada can't afford to build this pipeline right using strong U.S. steel and refusing to replace the route to avoid the That would
indeed create significant number of
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Sandhills region and the Ogallala Aquifer that supplies drinking water to 2 million people, then TransCanada has no business building the pipeline at all. The Keystone Pipeline is not in the national interest. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. And if
you can say your number and your name. VIRGINIA CZARNECKI: My name is Virginia Czarnecki. spelled 1ike the state. I'm No. 79.
Virginia
Czarnecki,
C-Z-A-R --like the Russian Czar -- N-E-C-K-I. I'm here from Morrison, Colorado, today. The Draft Environmental Impact Study regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline is deeply flawed and biased as it was prepared by ERM, a company with close ties to TransCanada. Therefore, it should be discarded. It's impossible for the public to take this as a serious impartial assessment of the viability of the pipeline. Instead, the
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objective evaluation of scientists contain the facts that truly inform the public. These tar sands are dirty, dangerous and
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destructive and will impair our environment, inclusive of land, water and air. We must not be promoting fossil fuels that threaten our very existence. Instead, we
need to be promoting renewable energy and firmly rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline will be a disaster for climate change. The EPA believes that the methodology used by the State Department is inaccurate and could underestimate greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 20 percent. Given that the expected lifetime of the Keystone XL Pipeline is 50 years, the EPA notes that the project could yield an extra 1.15 million tons of greenhouse gases using the quantitative estimates of the EIS. The Keystone XL Pipeline will be an export pipeline. The Gulf Coast refiners plan
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to refine the Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export to Europe and Latin America.
Most of the tar sands oil will never be delivered to U.S. drivers. So there's no We would bear
so-called advantage to the U.S.
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the risks and enable Canada to add carbon to our atmosphere and accelerate climate change. This is not what the U.S. should be doing. The Keystone XL Pipeline wi 11 not create significant jobs. Most of the jobs will be of
a temporary nature and will be low-paying manual work. The Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union both oppose the pipeline. Their August 2011 statement is we
need jobs but not when it's based on increasing our reliance on tar sands oil. The Keystone XL Pipeline will create huge safety concerns for our environment. look at what happened in Arkansas. The Just
proposed Keystone Pipeline will transport almost 10 times the daily amount of dirty oil that was spilled in Arkansas. The threats to wildlife, increased pollution in distressed communities that refining will take place, increased carbon emissions that would exacerbate climate change as well as possible contamination of water sources are all highly possible risks and cannot be taken.
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In conclusion, climate change is a real and present danger. And the Keystone Pipeline
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is a carbon bomb in the making. I want to go on record as adamantly rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline and affirming that continued development of dirty oil is not the direction the U.S. should pursue.
We must invest in and develop alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal to keep this planet from getting to a point where human societies are no longer viable.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 80. TONY CZARNECKI: Tony Czarnecki, better half.
And I'd kind of like to start out by saying we were in D.C. in February, speaking out against the XL Pipeline. And one comment No. 80. I'm Thank you.
that I found that was very interesting was made by Tom Steyer who was a very strong supporter of Mr. Obama. fund manager. And he's a billionaire hedge And his concise statement was,
this is a bad investment for America no matter
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I,
how you cut it.
This is bad investment.
As I see it, by building this pipeline, it sets the stage for potentially one of the worst environmental disasters we'll ever see in this country, not only the damage it would do to the Ogallala Aquifer but, also, to the devastating effects to the environment, the wildlife, the migratory bird populations. And
most certainly it would become a health hazard to all of the citizens of Nebraska. Because it's not a matter really if, it's just a matter of when something like this would happen.
I feel privileged to have been here and listened to all the speakers from Nebraska and also meet with a number of farmers and ranchers yesterday and listened to their concerns. And
they're very real because this is lands that they've owned for -- been in their family for years and years. way.
And the other feeling that I got is that they're feeling like their government really isn't supporting them any longer. And I feel And they want to keep it that
very strongly that -- and I feel very strongly
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that our founding fathers said that we need to have a government for the people and by the people. And right now I think most of us are
feeling that we have a government for the 1 percent and screw the people. And, again, I hope, 1 ike others have said, that you will prove me wrong and you guys will stop this XL Pipeline before it gets going because Nebraska doesn't need it, the U.S.A. doesn't need it and more than that, Planet Earth doesn't need it. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speakers No. 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, if you can be prepared to come to the floor as your number approaches, we would appreciate it. TERRI HARRINGTON: Hello. My
name is Terri Harrington, T-E-R-R-I, H-A-R-R-I-N-G-T-0-N. Thank you for being here today. Thank
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you for being so attentive and listening so kindly. We appreciate it. The farm I own has been in my family since 1876. And you're all invited. Come on down. Bring
President Obama.
My mom is a
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great cook.
We'd love to see you there.
TransCanada is under the mistaken perception that our president, President Obama, who we love and are thrilled has been our president will let them put a huge 36-inch toxic pipeline right down the middle of our country.
President Obama, I think that's unreal. President Obama would never allow that. There's no way. President Obama is for clean I know I've
air and clean water and clean energy. it. I've heard him speak in person.
heard him on the TV. radio.
I've heard him on the
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President Obama wants clean energy, renewable energy. that. He wants us to focus on
There's no way he's going to okay this I've heard him say that dozens of
pipeline. times.
TransCanada, President Obama is just going to say no.

I am -- I am praying for the indigenous people. I am praying for the pipefitters. And
I am praying that they can find jobs and good, healthy jobs.
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I'm also thanking God and thanking you, State Department, that President Obama has the strength and the wisdom to say no and do what is right. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 82. WADE PILGREEN: doing today? How you all Thank you.
My name is Wade Pilgreen,
W-A-D-E, P-I-L-G-R-E-E-N. And I'm just a normal American. here in support of the Keystone XL. And I would like for the State Department to take from this meeting one thing. And I think you all have heard over and over from both sides, the opposition and the for, it's the same thing, every -- about everybody that gets up and speaks. But I would like for you all to take this to John Kerry and the president what we all in this room need to stop is our young American men and women having to go overseas and die for this country. something we need to stop. And in the near future -- I agree. The You know, and that's I come
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only way in the near future that I can see this to happen is to start bringing oil in from from friendly nations. Canada. And I'm not just saying
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I'm saying any nation that's our
friend, we need to bring it in from there and stop bringing it in from the countries that hate us.
So thank you all very much. appreciate your time. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. And I
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Speaker with No. 83, speaker with No. 83. Speaker with No. 84.
RONNIE HILL: Hello. My name is
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Ronnie Hill, R-0-N-N-I-E, H-I-L-L. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for letting me speak here today. I'm an organizer and member of Pipeliners Local Union 798. pipeliner all my life. And I've been a
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That's what we do.
We had a lot of talk about temporary jobs, Keystone XL Pipeline would create temporary jobs. We're construction workers. That's
Everything we do is a temporary job. how we make our living.
And we support the Keystone XL Pipeline.
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And I don't think there's ever been a pipeline that's come under more scrutiny than this pipeline has in the world. And if we're
allowed to build it, it's going to be built by the people with the most skill and the best workers in the pipeline industry right here. And I think we can all agree that we couldn't ask for a better neighbor than Canada. Canada has been a great neighbor, a great ally. And we should do business with Canada versus OPEC nations. And maybe some day that we could
be independent from needing foreign oil and we won't have to send our children to go and fight in a war to try and get foreign oil for this country. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speaker -- speaker with No. 85. DIANA STESKAL: Hi . I'm Diana,
D-I-A-N-A, Steskal, S-T-E-S-K-A-L. Our farm is on the proposed route of the Keystone XL route. of this pipeline.
This pipeline route still crosses the Sandhills and the aquifer. We do not want this And our family is opposed
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pipeline to leak the tar stands into our water, as our families' livelihood depends upon our natural resource of the aquifer. TransCanada's record of pipelines is not very good. The first Keystone in eastern
Nebraska had 14 leaks in the very first year. TransCanada has a reputation of being a bully, a liar, and they have also threatened the landowners with eminent domain even before there is a presidential permit for their pipeline. I work in a very small town mini mart where I might experience the survey crews that come in for TransCanada. They're arrogant. They're rude.
And they walk into the place
as if you owe them something, just because they want to use our tiny booth as an office. Most of these employees are not from Nebraska, as they drive out-of-state vehicles. Some of them have southern accents. make snide remarks about our water. So this tells me that what TransCanada is saying about the jobs available to us is not true because Nebraska people are honest, kind and respectful. And they
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TransCanada's tactics that they use to secure and easement from the landowners vary from letters, threats of eminent domain and Baptist preachers as land agents. I'm very disappointed with the governments at all 1evel s, being 1ocal, state and federal. TransCanada flashes money around
to persuade elected officials to seeing things their way. Nebraska's unicameral and Governor Heineman have failed the people of Nebraska by passing LB 1161 which allows a foreign company to come into Nebraska and take our land away. This pipeline project is a for-profit commercial venture by a private company with environmental and health risks to us, the 1andowners whose 1 and it wi 11 cross. The
pipeline is a public threat, not a public good. I believe that Governor Heineman has shown his true colors to the people of Nebraska by making a statement that the NDEQ report was a very good nighttime read and then laughing about it. It's not a laughing matter to us,
the people of Nebraska. Also, his true - Governor Heineman's
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true colors came out when a group of landowners met with him, and during their conversations, he slammed his fists on the table with -- when met with differing opinions and threatened to send the National Guard out to their area. I believe that Governor Heineman has thrown the people of Nebraska under the bus, and TransCanada is the driver. It is not a It's when.
question of if this pipeline leaks. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD:
Thank you.
Speakers with Nos. 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, be prepared to come to the floor as your number approaches. Let's start with 86. SUSU JEFFREY: S-U-S-U, J-E-F-F-R-E-Y. Thank you, thank you all, thank all of us for being here. percent. I try to speak for the 70 The Susu Jeffrey,
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We're all 70 percent water.
surface of the earth is 70 percent water. It's really an honor to be here because we're on the cusp of climate change. And we
can either look ahead, or we can look backward. And I wonder about all of this foreign
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investment in the United States.
It's really
scary, the process being run by a London-based company and tar sands from Canada which is owned by multiple countries. This is the United States. Don't we
have the ingenuity to look ahead to invent all the stuff we need to invent, make some transitions?
The old motto, let's say, fossil fuel is a fossi 1. Fossi 1 fuel is a fossi 1.
If we would start retrofitting all the buildings in this country, we would have full employment, we would have construction workers who would get to live at home with their families and their gardens and their hobbies. And we would have the blue-green alliance that is the vision of really what this is all about. It's, like, where are we looking, behind or forward? I consider myself a patriot. And that You
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means having a relationship with the land.
don't come in from someplace else and just buy it. Buying the land? I mean, what a joke.
Buying the water? Thank you.
So I ask for the long view.
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Thank you.
ABBI KLEINSCHMIDT: Abbi Kleinschmidt, A-B-B-I, K-L-E-I-N-S-C-H-M-I-D-T.
My name is
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The revised route goes through a half mile of farm ground that has been in our family since 1876. My three sisters and I are the fifth generation of my family to own and farm this land. This ground sits right over the top of the Ogallala Aquifer. Our pristine water
supply, which allows us to irrigate our crops, provide fresh drinking water for our livestock and for our families who live in the area. If the tar sands pipeline would be embedded in our soils, we have grave concerns of what the consequences would be when a spill occurs. Our 1 i ves depend on the rich soi 1 and plentiful water supply which so generously produces excellent crop yields year after year. We have worked diligently and selflessly and will continue to do so to keep the farm
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sustainable for our children's lives and beyond.

We do not want a toxic tar sand piped through our farm ground now or ever. Our
eminent domain laws state that a project such as this needs to be for the public good. I ask
you how this is for the public good, let alone in the national interest of our country, when this pipeline full of toxic tar sands is simply cutting open the heart of the breadbasket of America, being shipped through our country to the Gulf to be refined and shipped off on the open market. We do not want toxic tar sands refined in our country. We do not want our fields
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disturbed, our water poisoned, or our children's health and heritage jeopardized. can't and we won't stand by and allow this to happen. You must say no to this pipeline. I We
know that deep down in your hearts and souls, you know the right decision to make. Please
make your decision for the good of mankind. Let's turn the corner on this dirty oil scene and move toward the freedom of renewable
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energies.
The blood, sweat and tears that have been shed on our soil belong to my family. we would like to keep it that way. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 88. Thank you. And
Speaker No. 88. Speaker No. 89. Can
Speaker No. 89.
you identify your number, state your name and spell your name. CAROL SCHOOLEY: Sure. My
name's -- number is 89 right now.
And my name
is Carol Schooley, C-A-R-0-L, S-C-H-0-0-L-E-Y. Thank you. crossroad. Okay. We as humans are at a
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And I believe that our leaders We have the capability
actually don't know it.
to develop energy products that are sustainable. But do we? No.
Instead we've spent millions on both sides to get a pipeline carrying very dangerous chemicals mixed with bitumen, a nasty tarry substance, into or out of existence. What are we thinking? about money? Could this be
All the proponents clammer for
the idea there will be more money for all of
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us, the workers, the counties the pipeline goes through, cheaper gas perhaps for all of us. The U.S. now has more oil than it can use in 2 or 300 years under its own soils, if I am to believe reports from the industry. But then there are other reports, too. Like, most Nebraskans are for the pipeline. I've heard this. But I never hare how this I was never asked
poll was taken or by whom. about it.
And my friends haven't been
questioned about their feelings about this pipeline.

So how can we believe what we hear about these so-called facts? There are some real facts I do know about this pipeline. No. 1, the company had
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very little concern for the land it proposed going through, originally or even now. you've heard the reasons. And
It didn't consider
how fragile it was and how important it is. No. 2, remember Murphy's law, the law that says if anything can go wrong, it will? So did TransCanada forget that law and say let's just run it right through the aquifer originally?
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Or maybe they didn't even know about the aquifer. Maybe it was just land that they
wanted to go through. Or maybe they were just looking for the fastest route and damn whatever else is in the way. Anyway, No. 3, you can catch more flies with honey. This is a fact I know. So why did
Canada behave so aggressively towards landowners? What do you think a company that is such a bad actor toward people before it's even allowed into the country is going to do when it gets its way? them? No. 4, if this oil is to be such a boon to the U.S., why is it going to Texas to be refined? Wouldn't we get a better return if How are we going to deal with
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the refinery were built right here, right there or in the northern U.S.? It's known that the United States will not get a deal on this oi 1 and that it is indeed going to places like China and India. That's why it has to go to Texas to be refined so it can be loaded on tankers and shipped out
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of here. No. 5, perhaps the worst fact that I know, this pipeline source will be responsible for more global warming than the cars of many of our states combined. They have already torn
up a large part of the great carbon sink and proposed to do more damage in future. MS. HOBGOOD: up your comments. CAROL SCHOOLEY: I'm ready. If you could wrap
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In conclusion, I have to be against the building of this pipeline. We should all be
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against the building of this pipeline because the KXL's obvious greed, their lack of concern for the land, water and people, their disrespect for the United States ownership of land, the flagrant lobbying of our politicians, their prevarication regarding where exactly the oil is going and their lack of concern about anything going wrong. Money may be important now, but what will the cost of this pipeline be to future generations of the United States citizens? Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speaker No. 90.

JEANNE CRUMLY: I'm No. 90.
Jeanne Crumly, J-E-A-N-N-E, C-R-U-M-L-Y. I want to comment about the $17 million infused in that community. impressive number. That's an
I was equally impressed by Those
the fact that they lasted five months. jobs lasted five months.
Our farming operation has lasted for five generations. And we've provided
employment for five generations. In that time period, we paid taxes. We
currently pay about $75,000 a year in property tax. That's sustainable because we have an
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operation that is sustainable. I live in Holt County. in the Sandhills. half ago. I used to live
That was about a year and a
DEQ maps in 2011 showed that Holt
County, all of Holt County was in the Sandhills, meaning our farm was in the Sandhills.
That identical map, DEQ, one year later, one month before the governor's approval, showed that we weren't in the Sandhills. fact, the Sandhills had disappeared. In
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Justification for placing the pipeline came through because it wasn't in the Sandhills. They had disappeared.
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Because the Sandhills had suddenly disappeared, we commissioned a soil analysis of our 1and. Three spots on our 1 and were 80
percent, 82 percent and 65 percent sand. Evidently all we lost was the hills. Whether you call it Sandhills or not, the land is uniquely fragile and permeable. The Natural Resources Conservation Service has deemed this land highly erodible. It means it
is among the nation's most fragile land. Add to that the dryness of our climate and the intensity of our winds, which you saw this morning, can make working our soi 1 an art form. Crops are harvested and cover crops follow immediately. Parts that aren't covered
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sufficiently have to be covered with hay to halt blowing. Results and blowouts where farmers and ranchers work years to repair the land. Imagine a 5-foot trench or a 7-foot trench with 50-mile-an-hour winds blazing across our
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country. The permeability of our sandy soil, along with the close proximity to the aquifer, makes wise stewardship critical. The
absorption rates of our soil can be understood by imagining a 1-inch rain. Surface puddles
last a matter of maybe an hour. Soil percolation carries the moisture and any contaminant immediately into the aquifer. Our highly erodible soil combined
with this permeability has created nitrate problems. We're in Phase 2 of the Upper Elkhorn NRD. State of the art for farming practices
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from the 1960s have created a nitrogen problem we suffer from today. A picture here of a map has a red line. That's our land. It's also pipeline routing of
the most permeable land. Farming outside of our area doesn't have this kind of sandy soil. Nitrogen is not Nitrate's
carried down into the aquifer. carried up into the plants.
One last thing, the TransCanada employee once said to me, the only problem with you
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people is you're over-thinking thii. I worry about the State Department under-thinking it.
A reading -- worse-case scenario says
there will be leaks and state of the art
management wi 11 handle it. Titanic was state of the art. the safest ship ever built. safety requirements. It was
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It exceeded all
That doesn't give me
comfort that this is a state of the art project. ' Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers with Nos. 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95, if

you can be prepared to come to the microphone
as your number approaches.
Speaker No. 91.
Speaker No. 92. DOUG GRANDT: having this hearing. D-0-U-G, G-R-A-N-D-T.
Let me say in the very beginning that I
have a prepared speech. speak to it. I hear But I'm not going to having heard some of Thank you for
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My name is Doug Grandt,
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the comments before, I'm going to speak

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extemporaneously.
But I would like to say upfront so I get it in, the Keystone XL and the tar sand bitumen that it is intended to transport have no redeeming value. We need to start dismantling
the hydrocarbon infrastructure, not expanding it. I'll explain why.

I've written six letters so far. points that I made in my six letters are contained in this new report which was just published in week. Books.
It's a little rhetorical in the statement. But it says Cooking the Books, It's called Cooking the The
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colon, how the State Department Analysis Ignores the True Climate Impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline. you.
I've also written countless letters to Barack Obama and now Secretary Kerry. And like Brand new. I'll turn this in to
I said, I've sent six letters to Genevieve Walker.

My first job was in 1970. for Humble Oi 1 as a And I worked
doing computer So I started my
simulations of Prudhoe Bay.
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career with Humble Oi 1, which is now Exxon

Mobil.
I just retired about a year ago from the
California EPA, regulating big oil, power
plants, concrete plants, electrical plants,
everything like that, the 54 biggest emitters
we were regulating in California EPA. ended my career doing that.
And since then I've been traveling around, trying to find a new home. I really And so I
feel like I've come home here in Nebraska. So just to reiterate what several other people have said, jumping to the bottom of my prepared speech, we're on the brink of a climate disaster. Tipping points loom from the
Arctic to the oceans. We must begin to reduce our net carbon emissions, not reduce carbon rate of growth. We must drop everything and shift energy investments from carbon fuel infrastructure to renewable energy. Excavating the tar sands and building the Keystone XL Pipeline take us in the wrong direction. Tar sands, di 1uted bitumen, excavation,
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processing and Keystone XL have no redeeming value.

MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 93. MERLIN FRIESEN: Good afternoon. Thank you.
My name is Merlin Friesen, M.D. , spelled M-E-R-L-I-N, F-R-I-E-S-E-N.

I got off work this morning after the night shift in the emergency room. And my wife
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and I drove several hours to get here because I feel very strongly about this. I am a landowner, a small farmer. I
work in healthcare part time at this point. But I operate a small farm full time. I have a vested interest in protecting my property rights and the rights of my fellow Nebraskans and preserving our land and water for the needs of farmers. of Nebraska Farmers Union. My son is a senior in high school. He I'm an active member
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and his class have been watching this through a closed-circuit today. He said my main concern
is give me a state that I can feel good about living in 40, 50 years from now. The concern I would like to discuss as a
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health professional has to do with health risks for our rural communities from the inevitable spills that will occur.
Contrary to bland insurances we've been provided, there have been multiple significant spills in just the recent past. The obvious question is what is actually in the tar sands oil that TransCanada wants to pipe across our land and water. We know there are multiple substances that have significant long-term risks for human health.
The alarming black box are the chemical-diluting agents needed to move this tarry product through the pipeline. The little
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we know about dilbit, as the industry people like to call it, is cause for plenty of concern, substances like toluene, benzene and others. Even as an organic chemistry student in the 1970s, I was cautioned to handle these chemicals very carefully. Nobody considered
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what it might be if they spilled in my drinking cup. In my medical t raining, I learned of the
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cancer-causing features of this sub - substances.
of these
Low-level, long-term exposure is a big deal. And i t leads to things, like,
chemical-related lymphoma in our rural communities which I've spent a career watching. I ask what will be done after these brief jobs have completed and done and TransCanada eventually signs this pipeline off to somebody else when they're tired of handling it? Who will have to pay for a cleanup, and
who will have to deal with the consequences of business as usual? rural Nebraska? water? I call on our State Department, on our president. I call on my state governor, my Who will protect us in
Who wi 11 protect our 1 and and
state U.S. senators and my U.S. representatives to take care of our small rural communities. We matter. state. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 94. LAURA MEUSCH: My name is Laura Thank you. We may be few. But this is our
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Meusch, L-A-U-R-A, M-E-U-5-C-H. I really want to thank you guys for being here. But I also want to know, are you All the speakers
people listening to us?
before me have pretty much said everything I want to say. But as I sit here, I keep writing and rewriting and rewriting, so I apologize when you guys get this. It's a mess.
I walked in the building this morning and was greeted by a gentleman who asked me if I was for or against the pipeline. And I said, I'm against the pipeline. And he proceeded to tell me about a letter he received from TransCanada. landowner on Keystone I. A proceed pipeline speaker before said there is no bogeyman. there is. I'm here to tell you He is a
And it's TransCanada.
The man I talked about before has Keystone I on his property. against his wishes. They put it there No one
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He didn't want it.
was standing there with him like we're standing here now. He didn't want it then. But it was
forced on him.
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He called them because there was a gaping gash in the top of the dirt where this pipeline is supposed to be. come and fix it. And they told him, we can't right now, could you fix it for us or could you hire someone to do it. So they agreed on a $4,000 He wanted them to
price for him to do that. And so he said, okay, I'll see if I can get someone to do it. And so they agreed on this $4,000 price. And so he -- they sent him a letter to say that they would -- they would pay his price if he did this. The 1etter states, "Now that I have been paid this" I'm not going to read the whole
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thing because it's too technical. Basically they say if you accept this money, you are now liable for anything that ever goes wrong with that pipe, it's on your property, you're 1 i able for it, not only are you 1 i able for it, every heir you ever have is liable for what happens to that pipe on your property because you fixed it instead of us. How is that good? How is that being a
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good neighbor?
I'm going to run out of time, so I'm going to skip a lot of stuff here. There have been lots of talks about all of the jobs this will create. If we need jobs
in this country, let's fix the infrastructure we currently have. gone. Our bridges and roads are We don't
These workers can fix those.
need this pipeline that's going to kill us. The bogeyman does exist. TransCanada.
And as for our men and women dying in a foreign country for us right now fighting, that can end, too, if we just bring them home. pipeline isn't going to end that. This pipeline is bringing oil that we cannot use in this country. It's a grade IV The This It's
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oi 1 that it makes, fuel that it does. sulfur content is too high. in this country. I'm out of time. say.
We cannot burn it
I have a lot more to
Please listen to us.

President Obama, if you really want to
be a climate change president, then you need to fix this. This pipeline cannot happen. Please
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I
deny this pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 95. Hello. I'm
LINDA DUCKWORTH:
Linda Duckworth, L-I-N-D-A, D-U-C-K-W-0-R-T-H. I'm president of the League of Women Voters of Nebraska. Members of the League of
Women Voters in Nebraska and across the country have worked tirelessly for many years to protect clean air and water, prevent harmful pollutants that contribute to climate change and inform the public of what they can do to get involved in the ongoing battle to protect public health and the environment. We believe that the Keystone XL Pipeline poses a major threat to our safety and our future well-being. And I have to tell you, I had this down to exactly three minutes, but I'm going to skip two of my paragraphs so that I can mention something about what the previous speaker brought up. pipeline. That was first noticed by anybody as far as I know by the members of the Seward League of Women Voters in tiny Seward, Nebraska. They And that is the Keystone I
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were -- apparently what happened is TransCanada came along and said, we'll build this pipeline and it wi 11 be great. And the people -- the
county board, the city fathers, whoever it was said, sounds good. And the only people who were really paying attention were observers from the League of Women Voters. there, Everybody. Just wanted to get that in Le sorority.
But the league opposes the Keystone XL Pipeline because it puts enormous and unacceptable risks on the American people. It
threatens clean water and public health, makes climate change worse and sends our nation's energy policy in the wrong direction. We were encouraged when the president blocked the permit for the project last year. The Keystone XL is a risky venture that is not in our national interest. And we encourage the
U.S. State Department to reject it. And now I have two that I need to - okay. Here we go. Moving ahead with the
Keystone Pipeline would also be inconsistent with meaningful action on climate change, one of the most serious threats to the environment,
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of our nation and our world.

The lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions
are gasoline produced from Canadian tar sands
are significantly greater than those of
gasoline produced from conventional sources.
Just as important, the Keystone Pipeline
would confirm our nation's blind reliance on
fossil fuels.
As President Obama has recognized, we need a balanced energy policy, one that moves into the future rather than one that looks to the past. The more we promote extraction of
tar sands oi 1 , the 1anger we wait to fully develop renewable resources. That is not in our best interest and certainly not in the best interest of our descendants. The way to secure our children's future is to commit today to clean renewable energy. Changing the way we do business is not easy. And it takes great courage. golden opportunity. But this is a
And we should grab it by
saying no to the Keystone XL Pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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you could be prepared to speak as your number approaches. Speaker 96. 97.
98.
LAURA FORTNEY: Fortney, F-0-R-T-N-E-Y.
My name is Laura
Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to share our thoughts with you today. While there are a myriad of environmental and economic reasons why the Keystone XL Pipeline makes no sense, none the least of which is the fact that burning tar sands oil is extra detrimental to the environment and that all of this oil is being shipped overseas, I simply wish to speak to you today on a human 1evel. My family owns land in Hamilton County. I grew up on a farm and have developed an intimate relationship with the aquifer. it for watering crops, the family garden, washing dishes, laundry, ourselves and most of a11 , we use i t for d r i n k i n g . I've been around the country, around the We use
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I.
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world.
And I' 11 tell you, there is no better And all you
tasting water than the Ogall alas. have to do is go to the tap. out of the tap.
It comes right
Many places in this great country don't have such good quality water. It is
inconceivable to me that anyone would want to play Russian Roulette with such a massive freshwater supply. Because as we've seen
around the world and most recently in Arkansas, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when that enormous pipe leaks. The Ogallala Aquifer is so delicate and precious. It supplies water to countless
people, plants, animals, farms, homes and ranches. Would you really risk the well-being
of the citizens that you swore to protect for some easy money that doesn't even really benefit our economy? I implore you to consider when did the desires of a few begin to outweigh the needs of the many? This pipeline makes sense to no one except for the people profiting from it. they already have plenty of our money. And Please,
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please, don't let them take our lives and 1 i vel i hoods, too. would die. Again, I just want to remind you of your humanity and your duty. average Joe just like me. You were once an And you probably got No oil , we cry. No water
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into government or public office because you thought you could bring positive change and serve the people. Please remember that your
loyalties lie with us, the population, and not a handful of oi 1 tycoons. Please stop the TransCanadian export pipeline. Thank you for your time. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 99. EVI KLETT: Hi . My name is Evi Thank you.
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Klett, E-V-I, K-L-E-T-T, Las in love. I came up here, out here east from Denver with a people. I carpooled with a number of
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There were four of us in one vehicle
because this is -- this is important. I don't live in Nebraska. I've met I
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amazing people here in the last 24 hours. think for me it's the global warming piece.
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This is a security issue.
I mean, how
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much - how many billions of dollars are we spending on war making for national security and we're not securing our air and our water and our 1 and? And - and we're pumping all this carbon into the atmosphere. There is - what is it?
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99 percent of scientists that study climate
agree that climate change is happening? We've had - we've broken how many heat records? 100 degrees plus I think in the in
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the middle of this country for months on end in the summer? Are we going to be able to grow Are there
crops when it's 120 degrees out? going to be crop failures? What about the southwest? Denver. It's been really dry.
I live in I've been so
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grateful for this rain this month and last month. But I don't count on it. The trend is
we're going to dry out. We're using more water than we have. And - and Obama talks about he's a - he's about protecting the climate. And, yet, he
should be coming down on this pipeline right now. I mean, it's a no-brainer.
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This is -- this pipeline is a fuse to

carbon reserve that is basically going to blow
up our planet for our ability to live here, not
to mention any all the other species and the
ecosystems and weather patterns.
I mean, it's existential this idea that
we're even talking about this. How come this
This
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decision hasn't already been arrived at? is not good for the planet. our children.
It's not good for
It is not good for us.
And then I guess the last thing I want to talk to you the pipeline layers. about unions. I'm all
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I've lived with union workers. I don't know. Maybe the
They're all gone.
buses that were paid for by TransCanada have left. There are -- they have skills. about retraining? So how
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How about retraining for
jobs to retrofit buildings so we're using less carbon fuels, building renewable energy, coming up with ideas for other ways to create energy, figuring out ways to live our lives where we use less energy, reclaiming our land and our water. We have so many poisoned places that
need tender loving care.
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And there's so many young people teaching people how to live on this planet in this new planet.
Thank you. I just want to remind you, there are no jobs on a dead planet.
Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 100. PAUL BLACKBURN: Blackburn. I'm an attorney. My name is Paul And I work as a Thank you.
consultant on pipeline safety for BOLD Nebraska. And I've been involved in this issue
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now for about the last five years. And I'm going to start with some boring comments.
The DI -- DSEIS includes its spill response discussion under the heading additional recommended mitigation. response is, in fact, not additional recommended mitigation. required by federal law.
The DE -- DSEIS treats oil spill response as a voluntary or a suggested action. And it is not. Oil spill response is Oil spill
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Since PHMSA is required to approve facility response plans, they are subject to NEPA because they're major federal actions. And that has been decided by the federal courts. And, yet, the DSEIS does not include any information about TransCanada's facilities response plan, not one drop. It includes information about TransCanada's plans for its existing pipelines. That would be like having all the weapons information the Keystone XL DSEIS be - relate only to the wetlands information and for the first Keystone Pipeline. Or like having
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the presidential permit for the Keystone XL not be included in the application but instead include only the application for the first Keystone XL Pipeline.
This is bizarre. NEPA for a long time. I've been working in It is very, very odd to
not have the actual document which is one of the elements of approval for that has been
to be approved pursuant to NEPA to not have the document that's being approved be public or provided in the environmental review document.
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And, you know, this means that there's no possibility to have a reasonable comment on the DSEIS because there's nothing to comment on with regard to the facility response plan. And, frankly, it's really a tremendous disservice to Americans because the citizens here want to know how much boom, how many boats, how many spill response personnel, what kind of skimmer trucks they have, what kind of vacuum trucks they have on skimmers, they want to know practically what you've all got, what's out there to protect them. Except for the one couple little
trailers that TransCanada has, that's all they have. So the oil industry, if they've got such a great spill response plan, they should put up or shut up. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers with Nos. 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, please be prepared to speak as your number is called. 101 . GLEN HOOKS: sir. Good afternoon. That's me. Yes,
My name is Glen Hooks,
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G-L-E-N, H-0-0-K-S.
And I've come up here representing the
Sierra Club of Arkansas.
Tomorrow -- tomorrow will be three weeks
since an Exxon Mobil pipeline ruptured in
Mayflower, Arkansas. I spent many days in
Mayflower over the last three weeks.

The rupture happened in the backyard of
a residential subdivision on Good Friday,
spilling more than 200,000 gallons of toxic
Canadian tar sands crude rolling down the
streets of the North Woods subdivision where
children were playing just moments earlier. Perhaps you've seen the video of the
workers in Hazmat suits attempting to scrape
tar sands off the streets of a quiet
subdivision.
Or maybe you've seen pictures of workers
shin deep in black tarry goo in yards where
children used to play.
If you've been paying attention, maybe
you've seen video of blobs of tar sand floating
in waterways around Mayflower or the dozens of
animals and birds coated with tar sands and, most of whom have died.
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Si nee Good Friday, more than 20 fami 1 i es

in Mayflower, Arkansas, have been evacuated
from their homes. They don't know when they
can return or, when they do return, what

they're going to return to.
These are good Arkansas people. And to
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a person, they had no idea that a tar sands

pipeline lay beneath their neighborhood.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you may have never heard of Mayflower, Arkansas, until the last few weeks. It's a special place to me. For
years, it was home to my grandparents, Bi 11 and Rita Hooks. And we spent countless hours when
I was a kid fishing Lake Conway. One of the special treats for all of the Hooks grandchildren was an annual fishing trip with our grandparents. And we were required to
fish until we caught a number of fish that matched our age that year. It's a special
tradition that I think of when I'm in Mayflower. But now due to these Canadian tar sands that have blown out of this ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline, Mayflower's waterways are fouled.
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One of the best fishing spots in the state, Lake Conway, is now littered with his booms to try to keep this tar sands in one place. Arkansas deserves better. And America
deserves better than the Keystone XL Pipeline. Keystone XL Pipeline will carry 10 times the amount of dirty tar stands as the pipe that exploded in Mayflower, Ladies and Gentlemen,
the risk of spillage is far too great to approve this gigantic, dangerous and dirty pipeline across our great nation. So on behalf of the people of Arkansas, who I'm speaking for today, far from home, especially on behalf of those families in Mayflower who still cannot go home, I urge you to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 102. Thank you.
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Speaker No. 102. JUSTIN HALVERSON: My name is
Justin Halverson. Minnesota.
I'm a student from
It's J-U-S-T-I-N,
H-A-L-V-E-R-S-0-N. Most people have said pretty much
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everything I wanted to say. I guess I kind of want to just emphasize what is at stake here. We're dealing with a
climate crisis that is already well in its ineffect already. And the Keystone XL pipeline
is just going to accelerate out of control. And there's something called the runway greenhouse effect that if you knew anything about the planet Venus, there's too many greenhouse gases in its atmosphere, which that means - a greenhouse gas is something that traps heat, for anyone who's unaware. So too many greenhouse gases, too much heat, basically an average day on Venus sits at 750 degrees Fahrenheit. So basically we're looking in the next 100 years with the amount of greenhouse gases we're emitting, that we will have a climate similar to Venus, which is kind of scary, you guys. I don't know. won't be here. That means that you all Everything
I won't be here.
that we've ever created will not exist or matter. And the money that you union workers,
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which I very much appreciate what you do - don't get me wrong. here. Like, I know why you're But there are so many
You need a job.
jobs out there for renewable energies and redoing our infrastructure that we need help. And that's local money that stays here. doesn't go out. And, I mean - right now? MODERATOR: 40 seconds. Okay. I mean, I 1ove how much time do I have It
JUSTIN HALVERSON: Nothing wi 11 ever happen again. people. Okay?
Who doesn't love people?
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Music, art, sunsets, 1aughter, comedy, that will not exist anymore if we continue to support energies like the Keystone XL. So
please don't make me cry any more for this cause. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker with No. 103. TERENCE MUHAMMAD: Terence Thank you.
Muhammad, T-E-R-E-N-C-E, Muhammad, M-U-H-A M-U-H-A-M-M-A-D. That's my name.
And before you start the time, I just
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have to say this, I came all the way from North Carolina to be here, all the way. ain't finished. I came all the way from North Carolina, spent almost 12 hours in Chicago airport yesterday. Got out. Went to Kansas City at 1 Oh, I
a.m. yesterday morning - or this morning. Slept in the airport. Got a rental car at 5
a.m. and drove five hours into the snow to be here. So, please, give me my time. I just wanted them to know that we support Nebraska against, against the Keystone XL Pipeline. So, once again, my name is Terence Muhammad. I am representing the Hip Hop Caucus
lead by our CEO, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, one of the organizations that sponsored the largest climate control rally in the country, February 17 in Washington, D.C. As I stated, we are against the Keystone XL Pipeline. And we also ask others to take a
unified stand against this pipeline as well, The Hip Hop Caucus leverages the creative expression of hip hop to communicate what's going on in neglected neighborhoods and
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vulnerable communities of young urban adults and to provide a political and social voice of value. The Hip Hop Caucus involves a new generation in the Democratic process with a meaningful platform and relevant programs created in a partnership with other leading organizations, mobilizing supporters to collectively exercise their voices to shape policy affecting their lives and further advance 21st century ci vi 1 rights. As citizens of this country and as citizens of the world, we have a moral obligation to pursue environmental responsible decisions. And the Keystone XL Pipeline, KXL,
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is absolutely not responsible or moral. One of the most important legacies we can leave for our children and future generations is a clean and safe environment. Tar sands pipelines are one of the filthiest objects we can add to our environment. The resultant C02 emissions and
risky toxic spills are risks that far outweigh any benefits of this pipeline. We are not just speaking out against the
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KXL Pipeline because it is our choice.
We are
saying we have no other choice if we want to stop fossi 1 fuel poll uti on, reduce our contribution to global warming and pursue more sustainable energy sources. We all have a right to a cleaner environment and to protect our health, ultimately our very existence. Now, I'm coming to the end. to the end. Trust me. I'm coming
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The pipeline also exposes itself as an environmental justice issue as well. The
pipeline will not be built through pretty, gated, suburban developments. This pipeline
would not be next to private schools or prestigious universities. It will be built next to neighborhoods and homes of people whose no is not as strong. We can let - can we let the poor or minority population pay the price of a pipeline that will cost them their health? cannot. So knowing what we know about KXL, it seems remiss, irresponsible and selfish to burden the future generations with the We think not. We
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consequences of a pipeline that really is not all that beneficial in the first place. And we have an immediate obligation to help protect those unrepresented citizens that would feel the first environmental blow of this pipeline.
Join us and say no to KXL. and this is not just a civil right. And this - This is
our lunch counter moment of the 21st century. And it's our right to exist on the planet. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 104. That's me.
WILLIAM MATCHETT:
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My name is William Julia Matchett, last M-A-T-C-H-E-T-T. And I -- I'm -- I'm an activist. with Occupied. We camped in front of the No I I was
Nebraska State Capitol for 6-1/2 months.
bureaucrat ever came down and talked to us. camped there over well, like, 150 nights, 6 below zero. were there. Nobody came down to see why we So now I'm here.
I'm also a hippie. I
I could also
can prove that because on the way in, they wouldn't let me take in my granola or my sewing
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needles.
So, hey, we're all save now.
No
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worries here. Pollution is bad; right? bad. Pollution is
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The Keystone XL will spread pollution.
That's what it's designed to do, take it from up there and move it all around the world; right? The tar sands -- it's been called the dirtiest fuel ever. Isn't that great. They're
strip mining an entire province in Canada. It's going to be like a moonscape for hundreds of miles which is --to our jet stream; right? You know, like, that's bad. And they're putting stuff in it they won't even tell us what it is. It's the same
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stuff they were apparently putting in the deep well of Horizon's volcano explosion thing that dissolved the oil into the water before it even made it to the surface. Maybe that's not going
to be good when it goes into our aquifer. Like, oh, I was also a welder's apprentice growing up here in rural Nebraska. I know a lot about welding. If there had been
any welders 1eft here, I would 1ove to have had a conversation with them. There's a million
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things that can go wrong with welding. And that's - all the foreign pipe?
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Same thing, a million things can go wrong when you have no oversight over where it came from. So I guess my - here in Nebraska, we've
got, like, two things that are, like, really, really, really, really valuable, Warren Buffett and the Ogallala Aquifer. And if anybody
noticed, they didn't try and stick the pipeline right through Warren Buffett. Just saying. They were a little bit worried about the Sandhills; right? Because people complained. I don't know.
So they were going to go through two sovereign nations to get around it. I'm sure that the
people in Pineridge and Rosebud are real happy about that. Or not.
I also heard that when the oil actually makes it to the Gulf Coast, if it gets there, the 98 percent that makes it there, it's going to be refined in what? Some union guy was I'm
saying i t was, like, U.S. refineries.
under the impression, I've been told that it's on i nternati anal or, 1 ike, some quasi-international land on the coast of Texas
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that doesn't -- isn't monitored by our environmental laws. So that's kind of a I don't know.
problem if that's true.
I also heard that it's going to be -- a lot of it's turned into other fuels because it won't burn in cars, and we can't burn it here because it's too dirty, so we're exporting it's, that's why it's okay.
I heard a lot of it was going to China in the form of kerosene to heat their houses and to cook over. Like, okay, see, we owe I don't
China about $4 trillion, $4 trillion. even know how many zeros that is. That's a lot of zeros. Okay.
Seriously.
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And I've just got one little metaphor for you. If someone offered you a job and that
was -- if the whole place was full of children, five year ol ds; right? They walk up. The
union person hands them a glass. it full of water.
Farmer fills
Your job, Madam, is to drop
one drop of that tar sands bitumen and toxic oil in each glass of their water and they'll drink it. that job?
100?
Would that be okay?
Would you take
What i f it's was just 1 in 5 or 1 in
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What if they bui 1 t a machine and all you had to do was turn it on and you wouldn't know which kid got that poison. is. That's what this
It's Russian Roulette with children
forever. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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JOAN COX SCHWIMMER:
My name is
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Joan, J-0-A-N, Cox, C-0-X, Schwimmer, S-C-H-W-I-M-M-E-R. My affiliation today is a citizen and mother. I live in Northbrook, Illinois. I'm
here because I can't talk to the president. If I could, this is what I'd said, Mr. President, if we don't get climate change right, i t will not matter whatever else we do get right. If we don't do what we should do and can do now to slow and reverse this trend, our chi 1dren, yours and mine, Mr. President, and their children will curse us in 25 to 50 years. You have said, Mr. President, that the politics of climate change are difficult. Politics be damned. This isn't about politics
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or jobs.
It's about the future.
Do what's best for your children,

Mr. President, and you do what's best for all
our children. There are no good reasons to
build this pipeline.

Don't let your decision come down to
politics as you told those who voted against
the gun control law yesterday. You know more
than anyone how well that does for us. Stop this pipeline. It is the only
right, ethical, moral choice. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers with Nos. 106, 107, 108, 109 and 110, please come to the floor as your number's approaching. Speaker No. 106. SUSAN CONNOLLY: That's me. If you I
don't know if they'll hear me okay.
want -- while I'm speaking, if you would want to flip through, I'll get these pages. It's
going to show you a representation of what a tar sand s pi 11 is going to look 1 ike. Do you want to 1 ook while I speak? gave you a CD. So it's up to you. MS. HOBGOOD: The CD is fine. I
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Thank you.
SUSAN CONNOLLY: see if you look at it.
Okay. I'm Susan Connolly, S-U-S-A-N, I'm a resident of Marshall, Okay. We'll
C-0-N-N-0-L-L-Y.
Michigan, where close to 1 million gallons of tar sand spilled into Talmadge Creek in the Kalamazoo River. Approximately 40 miles of
freshwater, riverbank, wetlands, wildlife and hundreds of residents have been harmed by the spi 11.
The spill occurred in the middle of some of the most sensitive wetland areas in the state. Again, I given you a CD, so you can go
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through and see the impact to this day. We are approaching the three-year anniversary since the spill with questions left unanswered. oil remains. You speak about job growth during this whole afternoon. Before this spill, I had Residents' concerns linger. And
never heard of that or seen a single worker in our area. But for the last 32 months, we've
been inundated by workers. So when you talk about job growth, the
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only job growth that I have seen is them coming to clean up our spill. As everyone has said, it's not a matter of if or when, when will the next pipeline break occur and where, which I see now three weeks ago has already happened in Arkansas. These questions have to be on your minds. When the spill occurred in our hometown, first responders, county health officials were caught off guard, a lack of training, lack of communication, failure to evacuate residents. There are too many unknowns. For the well-being it's
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unconscionable to me that the health and well-being of our environment and our citizens has been set aside for the sake of tar sand oil which little is known about the effects at this time. I find it a negligent act, and I will point an accusatory finger at the pipeline company as well as our government. Our state and federal government, its elected officials failed to protect the people and the environment. I ask you why, why would you approve the
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construction of yet another pipeline when the existing pipelines have numerous defects and need to be corrected and fixed. Although, our
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regulations between the state and federal policies are lacking greatly. How could our representatives allow material such as tar sands fuel to flow through pipelines, whether new or old, when no one has any ide a how to clean it up, nor do they know the health implications when we breathe in the vapors.
As you know, Michigan, right now they are writing the book or, as I say, they're making it up as they go along, because, again, they have no idea how to clean it up. In Arkansas, they lost 20 homes. Still
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questionable whether or not they'll be able to return. We've lost 150 homes. And that doesn't
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include all the land in between those homes. Some of those homes are either, like, dormant. They were demolished, and the wells
have been capped.

We sti 11 have questions and concerns about long-term health, the destruction of our
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ecosystem. So before you vote on approving the Keystone, I personally invite each and every one of you, come to Michigan, please come and spend some time. the water. Look at the river. Look at
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Come in and take a swim and see how
safe you feel allowing another pipeline to come in. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 107. SUSAN DUNAVAN: Dunavan, D-U-N-A-V-A-N. I'm a landowner in York County, Nebraska, whose native pasture is in the path of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. Since 2008, I have lived the threat of this foreign corporation. TransCanada's export My name is Susan Thank you.
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oil pipeline will destroy what has taken our family over 30 years to build. I have been bullied and threatened by TransCanada. I have been told by TransCanada
this pipeline is coming through our property, whether I like it or not, because they can and nothing wi 11 stop them.
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Twice I have been sent letters threatening eminent domain condemnation within 30 days if I do not sign their easement. Our state legislature -- legislators and executive officials were elected to protect our 1andowners, our 1 and and our water. And I just
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want to add, how many state officials do we see here today? These officials took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the State of Nebraska. I have seen these elected officials
directly violate their oath of office over this pipeline issue by passing special legislation and giving away our citizens' right of due process. With very few exceptions, I have seen our legislators fail to come to Department of State hearings and Department of Environmental Quality hearing. Letters to senators,
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representatives, government officials and even certified letters to TransCanada over a period of four years remain unanswered. The Draft EIS, the Final EIS, Supplemental EIS and the Department of
Environmental Quality Report regarding the
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Keystone XL Pipeline are intrinsically flawed. Native prairie pastures, according to the Department of State documents, are among the most threatened native vegetation communities in the United States. It is of
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little consolation to me to know that according to the reclamation plan, my native prairie will not be restored. The 100 varieties of plants
growing on the proposed pipeline right-of-way will not be replaced. According to my easement offer, the pipeline right-of-way will only be reseeded. Looking at the construction and reclamation plan for tall grasslands, only six varieties of grass would be used. What about the other 12
varieties of grass we have growing on our pasture and the other 81 varieties of flowers, flowers and herbs that are growing on our prairie? An easement document is the controlling document for landowners. Have any of you ever
seen the easement document that TransCanada has offered this state? There are hundreds of
pages of mitigation and special conditions specified in the Department of State documents
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that TransCanada has agreed to. Unless these are mentioned in the landowners' easement, there is no way to enforce them. The only thing that TransCanada
offers to the landowner in this state in their easement is the element of risk. There is -- if -- is there anything in the Department of State documents that mentions anything about what happens if TransCanada fails to comply with the EIS, SEIS? Or is
there any mention of penalties or fines? This project will destroy our native prairie, that wi 11 destroy our water, our children's inheritance, our families' dreams. This foreign for-profit corporation will destroy private property for their own private gain.
The public good is being promoted by TransCanada and may amount to a mere 35 jobs. This good would destroy a lifetime of work for my family. And you can take this times the
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hundreds of families affected in our state. Please recommend the permit to the construction of the Keystone Pipeline be denied.
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MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 108. JASON DUBA: Duba, D-U-B-A.
Thank you.
My name is Jason
I'm from Chicago, Illinois, where it's been raining for more than the past 24 hours, which is not a normal climate event. I can't tell you anything new about the Keystone XL Pipeline. facts and figures. You've heard all the
You've heard all the You've heard fear
opinions and conjectures.
and hope and anger and passion. What I would like to do, Dear United States Department of State, is remind you of your job, your duty to the citizens of America and to the people of the world, why you are here today listening to us and why we are here pleading with you. Your mission statement is - and I quote - "Advance freedom for the benefit of the American people and the international community by helping to build and to sustain a more Democratic, secure and prosperous world composed of well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread
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poverty and act responsibly within the international system." With that mission to guide you, it is as plain as the nose on my face what you must do, reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. Tell
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President Obama to get this pipeline off the drawing board and into the trash bin. Your Draft Environmental Impact Statement is in direct opposition to your own mission statement. Keystone XL does not advance freedom for the benefit of the American people and the international community. It ties us to the
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dirtiest energy source in the world at precisely the time when we need to be moving away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. In fact, it enslaves us to the multi-national, multi-trillion dollar fossil fuel corporate gemini. If we are to have any hope of averting catastrophic climate destruction, we must start leaving fossil fuels in the ground and walking away from them. Keystone XL does not help to build and sustain a more democratic, secure and
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prosperous world.
This pipeline would move us
further away from our chosen Democratic form of

government, of the people, by the people and
for the people and moves us further along our
current trajectory toward a plutocratic
government, of the money, by the money and for
the money.
The only people this pipeline would make
more secure and help to prosper are oil executives like Rex Tillerson, Exxon's $100,000-a-day CEO who stated -- and I quote "My philosophy is to make money," end quote, not to provide living wage jobs to his employees, not to secure America's energy future, not even to run a good company. make money. If you do not recommend against the Keystone XL Pipeline, you're recommending for Rex Tillerson. Keystone XL does not foster well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread poverty and act responsibly within the international system. This pipeline would further entrench the To
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American government's responsiveness, not to the needs of the people but to the needs of the fossil fuel industry. The carbon that will be released into the atmosphere by the construction of this pipeline would add to the climate disruption already occurring, which scientists predict will lead to drought, famine and greater poverty. The ultimate injustice of this is the burden of this would fall even more heavily on the world's poor who have done the least to contribute to global warming. MS. HOBGOOD:
i t up,
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If you could wrap
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please. JASON DUBA: By failing to
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reject this pipeline, you are flouting every international climate agreement that has been made, not acting responsibly within the international system. In short, Dear United States Department of State, if you do not reverse your present stance on the Keystone XL Pipeline, you are refuting your own mission statement and discrediting any shred of legitimacy you claim
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to hold.
There is still hope, though. You can
turn around, reject the pipeline and reclaim the noble mission that is supposed to guide you. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 109.
MS. JOHNSON: Hello. My name is Thank you.
Chelsea Johnson, C-H-E-L-S-E-A, J-0-H-N-S-0-N. I'm a lifelong Nebraskan and I've been fighting this pipeline for four years. I would like to first dispute a claim made in the earlier testimony, that pipelines are safer to transport oil and that railroads are much more dangerous. That is a blanket
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statement that ignores very important details. Railroads may spill a lot, but many times the cars are empty or spill out substances like celery. We're not talking about celery here,
we're talking about diluted bitumen. The National Response Center database reports all of the nation's spills. In 2010,
after filtering railroad releases to only include oil, there were 18 instances of a train
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spilling out oil.
After doing the same thing
for pipelines in 2012, there were 435 cases of a pipeline spilling out oil. When pipelines spill, they spill big. According to a new study by the Association of American Railroads, from 2002 to 2012 pipelines released 474,441 barrels of crude, while railroad transport released only 2,268 barrels. But for me the biggest issue is which one is safer, pipelines or rai 1. For me the
biggest issue is that this entire permitting and regulatory system governing oil pipelines is completely flawed and in some aspects corrupt. Hundreds of pipelines have spilled
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thousands of barrels of oil per year and they all pass through the US regulatory process with flying colors.
Every single EIS that has been done on this pipeline has been done by a company selected and paid for by TransCanada. It's no
surprise that these companies have deep ties not only to the oil industry but with companies that will directly benefit from this pipeline, including TransCanada. TransCanada has complained that this
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pipeline review has gone on for too long. are right, it has.
They
For too 1 ong TransCanada
has been allowed to select the firm that is conducting its own environmental review. It's
no wonder that all of these reviews conclude there will be no significant environmental impact. Not only does the pipeline company get to pick their reviewer, but the third party reviewers are not subject to the same conflict of interest scrutiny as federal employees. There is an inherent conflict of interest in allowing pipeline companies to select the body that will conduct the environmental review for its own project, and holding these reviewers to a lower standard makes it worse. The regulatory issues with oil pipelines are not the fault of this administration. issues originated when the Reagan Administration installed a regulatory process that allows pipeline companies to regulate themselves. According to PHMSA, quote, federal The
pipeline safety regulations are written as the minimum performance standards, end quote.
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Because PHMSA does not regulate siting or routing of a pipeline, there is no federal process that guarantees consideration of the long-term environmental impact of oil pipeline routing decisions. PHMSA depends on the states to enforce its regulations and put into place additional regulations appropriate to its local needs. The problem is, most states haven't done this. According to the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives, as of 2011 only six states have put in place regulations above and beyond PHMSA's. Nebraska had no
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regulations and had no idea what its authority was until this project came to our doorstep, and many of our officials still don't know what their power is. If federal regulations are meant to be the bare minimum and states aren't using their authority, then there is no one to regulate pipeline companies but the pipeline companies themselves. MS. HOBGOOD: complete your statement. MS. JOHNSON: Okay. I will just If you can
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shortly.
I do not place blame on the Obama
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Administration for this inherently flawed regulatory process. But you better bet I will
place blame on this administration when the Keystone XL Pipeline leaks and so will hundreds of thousands of others. If this administration does nothing to improve the permitting and regulatory process governing oil pipelines, catastrophic, preventible spills will continue to happen. The Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act isn't good enough. It doesn't
get to the heart of the issue which is allowing the pipeline industry to regulate itself. During the Obama Administration, the biggest inland spill and the biggest offshore spill have occurred, but he wasn't president when those projects were approved. Approval of
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this pipeline is the decision of the Obama Administration. And When this pipeline spills
and fouls the lifeblood of the Midwest and turns the homesteads of families who have been stewards of their land for generations into destruction, Obama wi 11 own that spi 11. I would like to end my testimony with
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one question.
President Obama, do you want If not, I would
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that to be your legacy?
suggest saying no to this pipeline and fix this broken process. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 110. MS. LANE: Hello. My name is And I am here Thank you.
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April Lane, A-P-R-I-L, L-A-N-E.
today as a voice and testament for what has happened to my community in Mayflower, Arkansas.
I have worked in Mayflower over the last two weeks very closely to the spill, as close as any of the workers cleaning it up. I had
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not wanted to get that close, but there was a sense of urgency I had to warn the residents and collect air samples and get the central information about what is happening. cleared for entrance and have had the opportunity to talk with many other affected residents, both inside and outside of the Northwoods subdivision.
The facts are these. There were I was
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residents, both inside Northwoods subdivision and outside, that should have left. Some were
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allowed to bring family inside while air monitoring data was showing extremely high levels of toxins in the area. We know from samples we took independently, combined with the air monitoring performed by the industry, that there are 30-plus chemicals that have been detected and at levels that are far above health and safety standards. The fact is that this type of oil
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is so toxic that one drop of it in an Olympic size swimming pool is above the health standard.
There have been numerous misleading statements both by the Department of Health and Exxon and EPA Region 6 that have led residents to believe they are not at risk when in fact they are being chronically exposed to toxins that are known carcinogens and cancer-causing agents, and they are being put at risk for both short and long-term effects from exposure. The fact that eight children went home from the school with nausea and throwing up from the odors is proof that there are effects rampantly happening. sensitive than others. Some people will be more Children, elderly,
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pregnant women, and people with preexisting conditions are especially vulnerable. The school and preschool can be seen from the neighborhood and yet were never evacuated. And these children have been
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outside playing in the - playing in the yards daily. I have met and spoken with dozens of residents who have been experiencing symptoms that were brought about in the days following the spill, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, metallic tastes, respiratory infections, headaches, chemical burns, the list goes on and on. The silence of our agencies charged with monitoring and protecting our community has been deafening. This is one of the most the
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largest, most toxic releases we have had in our country and especially in my community. What they have gotten for it is $15,000 checks for the elementary school and offers from Exxon Mobil to compensate them for this inconvenience. We need to put to rest the days of allowing the health of our people to be bought by a company, foreign or domestic. Don't let
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this warning, this sacrifice of my community be in vain. We have a long, hard road ahead of us, but yours should be simple because you have the gift of seeing what the future has in store if we allow this pipeline to go through. let companies to continue sacrificing communities like mine for their benefit and the illusion of energy independence. Today isn't just a day for you to sit and listen to testimony and go through the motions. I pray that you let the people here Don't
today prick your heart, just like the people of Mayflower who are suffering right now have mine in a way that made me feel desperate to travel here today when I should have stayed home to help them. I'm almost done. I'm responsible for
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him and all the other children in Mayflower, just as you are responsible for them and your own. Show us that you feel that Say no
responsibility, too, and stand with us. to the Keystone Pipeline. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers with numbers 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115, may I ask that you please come to the floor as your number is approaching. Number 111 . MR. CARRUTH: speaker number 111. C-A-R-R-U-T-H.
I live in Arkansas and I serve as the vice chair of the National Wildlife Federation board of directors. I'm here this evening Good evening. I'm
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My name is David Carruth,
speaking on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation, our 4 million members and supporters and 48 state affiliates in opposition to the Keystone Pipeline. First the technical issues, we feel that the EIS and Supplemental EIS are flawed. To
cut to the chase, listening to the speakers talk about Mayflower in my home state, the Kalamazoo River, the Yellowstone River, those are not flashed out in the EIS to show what actually what happens when there is a spill. We do not feel this pipeline is in the public interest or the interest of the United States. There wi 11 be impacts, both to the
human and the natural environment in four
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phases of the pipeline. First in construction. You have heard
the landowners talk about what they have already felt through the heavy-handed policies of TransCanada. In addition, if the pipeline
is authorized, you will have the actual digging and construction, disturbing the fields. You
will then have impacts to wildlife through the impacts on wetlands and native habitat. The
lady that spoke a few minutes ago about how the right-of-way would be reforested or revegetated, and it will not be revegetated back to native standards. The second area where there will be impacts are in operation and maintenance. Those won't be as great but there will be impacts going out with reconnaissance to see what's going on on the ground, right-of-way clearing from time to time. And then if there
is a problem, digging i t up, cleaning i t up, the impacts of people around. The third area where there will be impacts comes from what you see in Mayflower, Kalamazoo and with spills. Those impacts
cannot be discounted because the industry has
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shown that they are going to happen.
Not just
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with this, but with the Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez, on and on. The oil industry has
not found a way to move oil without spilling it. It's just the nature of the beast. If
that's not incorporated in the EIS, this EIS is not complete and it's not balanced. The third area which many people speak about is the effect of climate change, the effect of tar sands oil on the human health. That is profound. More and more we are finding
out that it's going to be a very serious impact to -- well , you heard the young 1 ady speak about when it spills, what the impacts are to breathing. I have one contact in Mayflower that they can't move an 80-year-old lady back in the area because she's on oxygen. She bought a
house in the neighborhood, had moved in with her son and daughter because she needed help. Now she can't even sell her house to pay for her medical care because of the smell, because of the vapors in the area. be understated. In summary, we feel that the EIS is not The last one cannot
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balanced.
It's biased in favor of industry.
We would ask the department, before it makes a decision, make an unbiased, objective evaluation and, when it does, you will see that you should deny the Keystone Pipeline. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 112. MS. LANGAN: Hello. My name is Thank you.
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Marian, M-A-R-I-A-N, Langan, L-A-N-G-A-N. I grew up in Nebraska and I have loved the people and places of this state, like so many other people here today. And I'm also the
state director for Audubon Nebraska and I'm a vice president of the National Audubon Society. We've heard many stories today about this special place, this heartland of America. There is one more very special thing about this place that I want to share with you, and that's that the heartland of America has another river, only this one is a river of birds and it's called the central flyway. This
incredible highway in the sky is traveled by billions of birds each year as they fly north and south on that migratory flyway.
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And Nebraska's role in that is actually

very special because if you looked at the map
of North America, you see that in the winter
these birds spread out across the south, across
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico, and
then they fly north. Only it's an hourglass
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and the skinniest part of that hourglass is in

Nebraska. They spread back out. So it's just
an incredible thing. And in those birds that travel here is a very special one called the Whooping Crane. This stunningly beautiful bird is a very fragile symbol of our country's dedication to saving our wildlife for future generations. From a low of 15 birds, over 60 years of investments and efforts have that number up to 250 in the migratory pathway. The photo that we're showing right here is a photo of three Whooping Cranes that was taken less than two weeks ago on the Niobrara River between Nebraska and South Dakota, less than a mile from where the current route of the -- the proposed -- current proposed route of the Keystone XL will cross. It makes no sense to be working, as we
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absolutely should be, for decades through our Endangered Species Act to help these majestic birds recover and then put them at risk like this for the short-term profit of very, very few. And I don't want a picture of a dead
oil-soaked Whooping Crane to become the symbol of how we care about the wildlife in the central part of the country. You, Secretary Kerry, President Obama, are truly our last hope that truth really does matter in this country. permit.
Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 113. MR. TANDERUP: My name is Art Thank you. Please deny this
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Tanderup, A-R-T, T-A-N-0-E-R-U-P. My wife Helen and I farm north of Neligh, Nebraska. Our small family farm is in We are opposed to
the proposed pipeline route.
the building of this export pipeline for a number of reasons. However, this testimony
will primarily focus on the two environmental issues, the land and the water. Our land is sandy rolling hills. The
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proposed route will cross three sandy soil types as identified by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Most of the
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pipeline will pass through Thurman fine sand and Dager fine sand. There is a small strand
of Boelus loamy fine sand.

The soil survey of Antelope County Nebraska by Charles F. Mahnke, United States Soil Conservation Service, states that with these sands, soil blowing is a very severe hazard unless the surface is protected. Thurman and Dager sands have rapid permeability and low available water capacity. Boelus soils are rapid -- have rapid permeability in the surface layer and moderate permeability in the subsoil and underlying material. drifts. It blows easy in the wind, forming Liquids flow through it rapidly. It's
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a very fragile soil. Our land is located nine miles north and 11 miles east of the newly defined Sandhills. Other Sandhills maps included this area. always knew we lived in the Sandhills. To prevent soil erosion and destruction, we utilize a variety of research-based We
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conservation practices.
In section 3.2.2.3,
Nebraska State Department acknowledges, quote, in the northern section of Antelope County the soils are sandy loams that are frequently layered with very fine-grained ash layers that are susceptible to erosion by rain and wind, unquote. Any potential pipeline leaks will
permeate this fragile soil into the water supply. Water is one of our most precious resources. Aquifer. Our water comes from the Ogallala Our irrigation well is 120 foot deep
and test pumped over 1, 500 gallons per minute when it was dug in the 1990s. Our house well
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is 90 foot deep and pumps from about 70 feet. Above the bottoms of these wells is gravel and fine sand, both very permeable. When leaks
occur, it wi 11 not take 1 ong to contaminate this pure water supply. Section 3.3-5 of the SEIS states, quote, where present, the Ogallala Formation and associated alluvial aquifers are a primary source of groundwater for agricultural, domestic, commercial/industrial, and potable use along much of the proposed pipeline area in
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northern -- or southern South Dakota and Nebraska, end quote.

We know the importance of keeping our water pure and clean. Nebraskans were promised
that this pipeline would not be built in the Sandhills or over the Ogallala Aquifer. The
route was moved a few miles in a newly defined nonSandhills region that contains very fragile soils. There is no question that the route still crosses the Ogallala Aquifer. It still
only is 20 miles less of Sandhills than it was before. The Keystone XL Pipeline should not be
built through our fragile soils or over our pure water resources. MS. HOBGOOD: up, please.
MR. TANDERUP: Yes. Keep the If you can wrap it
promise, preserve our water, and save our future. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 114.
MS. LUEBBE: S-U-S-A-N, L-U-E-B-B-E. Susan Luebbe, Thank you.
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Hi.
My name is Susan Straka Luebbe.
I'm a cowgirl who lives in the Sandhills south of Stuart, Nebraska on the original route of the proposed KXL Pipeline. I am president of
the Nebraska Farmers Union Sandhills Region. I was arrested this past February in DC protesting against the proposed KXL. I am also
very proud to be one of the three plaintiffs challenging the lawsuit against our Governor Dave Heineman on his signature of LB 1161. I have been in this fight for five years this month. And as a landowner on the original
route that never signed, we have easements signed on either side of our ranch. me nervous for our children. For the future of all of our chi 1dren, we must take a stand. For the sake of our This makes
Ogallala Aquifer's water supply in Nebraska, we must take a stand. For the landowners from
Canada to Texas, we must take a stand to care about their livelihoods. Finally, for all
native and indigenous Indians that have suffered enough from Canada to Texas. At our group meeting we had this past February with the Department of State in DC, we
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were told that HDR was checked out and was not found to have any conflicts. Really? Are you
going to say the same thing also about ENSystem Energy and IFC International on this Supplemental EIS? Why don't you 1 et the
landowners and tribal members do .their own environmental impact statement? You know, from
real people that own the land and live off the water to provide food sources for all Americans. The bitumen in this proposed 36-inch China and India-made pipe is just too harsh when leaks happen to humans and wildlife. The
contamination that could happen crossing the Ogallala Aquifer on the reroute in Nebraska is too big of a risk for my home state. I would also like to mention the fact that there are no studies for anthrax in the soils like there is in the Alberta Clipper FEIS. I would like to see attention paid to
anthrax, which would affect all landowners and animals for this proposed route. care about the natives in Canada. You should The cancer
is rate is just too overwhelming at the mouth of this monster.
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This proposed 7 billion dollar project has no rewards for our nation. generate a grade four fuel. Tar sands will
Because of the
lower emission standards of the United States, this fuel cannot be burned here. Why should we
carry the liability for this company? This is a small list of why I care to say no. This proposed KXL is not in our When TransCanada redid our
national interest.
Sandhills map to fit their reroute, I got a whole lot madder. Will they stop at nothing to
brainwash citizens and you folks at the Department of State?

We see through TransCanada's mailing ads, and Lee Terry's idiotic speeches and pushing this on folks as a no-brainer. So
embarrassing that he's from our home state. Almost. change. I, for one, am sick of climate
I'm tired of ranching so hard in the
past floods and the past years of droughts and fires. This proposed pipeline just keeps on
creating more havoc and harmful emissions for Canadians and US citizens.
I promise you all , we wi 11 defend our state and shed our blood to protect what is so
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precious.
Please do not make a snap decision Please don't hurt these
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on this project.
people and all the generations that built what is so proudly our homes, farms and ranches of today. I ask that you advise the president to
deny this proposed KXL Pipeline. And thank you so much for coming back to Nebraska. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 115. MR. FELLOWS: E-R-N-I-E, F-E-L-L-0-W-S. County, Nebraska. I'm against the Keystone Pipeline. This I'm Ernie Fellows, I live in Keya Paha Thank you.
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thing just makes me so mad that I want to cuss. I won't. As far as I'm concerned, the draft Every subcontractor
EIS is flawed, it's wrong.
you have hired has had a very distinct conflict of interest. Washington? Is that standard policy in It should not be. That's illegal.
If I can, I'm going to sue you over that. I don't like the way that this has been We've been lied to by everybody. And I
am not kidding.
You don't have any idea how I
mad I am after six years of fighting this.
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i,
don't know what else to do except ask the State Department people that have worked on this to resign or they should be fired. leave your positions. You should
You are not worthy of
working for the taxpayers and voters of this state, because we run this state. Nobody else.
And if I have to give my life blood, I'm going to lay down in front of the damn Caterpillars and let them run over me to keep this pipeline from being built. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker numbers
116, 117, 118, 119 and 120, if you can come down to the microphone as your number approaches. Speaker 116. Speaker 116. Hello. 117. Thank you
MR. NORLIN: for your patience. Salina, Kansas.
I am David Norlin from
I'm a former college professor and a two-time state legislative candidate and the representative of Salina's Resilience Group, a group that is concerned about what will happen when we don't have fossil fuels and trying to construct a resilient future to meet that. I speak on behalf of the heartland, both
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of the indigenous people and the union workers. In fact, for the people and for all sentient beings, I hope. I'd like to address, if you can you have heard plenty of about oil But imagine if it really were to
spread somewhere other than just on the ground where it oozed out. I won't bore you with the But the world
description that I have written.
as you knew it is gone with no funeral to celebrate its former glory and only a black, bleak future as far as the eye can see. That's what you've been subjected to But this is only -- and I might note
that the first testimonies were about the safety of the pipelines. But the . 0001 percent
that are released of that 13.5 billion gallons is a 1 ot. You heard plenty about Mayflower, 200,000 gallons. You have heard about the more
than one million gallons in the Kalamazoo River in 2010. And in 2010 to 2011 after TransCanada
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claimed the Keystone wi 11, quote, continue to

meet or exceed world class safety and
environmental standards, the company saw 12 oil
spills from its brand-new state of the art
pipeline with once -- with one six-story geyser
dumping 21,000 gallons of oil in North Dakota.
This is the pipeline we're asked to
approve? A pipeline crossing more than 1,000
water bodies across three states and 875 miles? I think not. But we have to look at what is happening in Alberta, Canada as well. Even if no drop of
oi 1 ever 1eaked here, these tar sands release 475 million gallons of toxic waste a day, nine times more than the amount of oil produced. Unlined tailing ponds leak nearly 3 million gallons a day. They kill thousands of birds a
year, mistaking those tailing ponds for the lakes. It doesn't stop with the birds. The tar
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sands are responsible for the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet, second only to that of the Amazon Rainforest. Each
two and a half square kilometers of boreal forest supports 500 breeding pairs of migrant
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birds, home to wolf, lynx, cougar, black bear, grizzly bear, wolverine, bison, moose, caribou and beaver. Those forest kilometers are stacked, and you can find at Post Carbon Institute pictures of those stacks of wood. toothpicks from the air. entire arena. They look like They would fill this On top of that,
Imagine that.
they strip away 200 -- I'm sorry, I need to get my facts straight -- billions of rock -- tons of rock and soi 1 . MS. HOBGOOD: your comments, please. MR. NORLIN: I will do that. If you can wrap up
Toxins -- I don't need to give you all these statistics. Here the main point. We've been
talking about climate change.
The oil that's
coming is going to be nothing compared to C02 and its effects, and we're already feeling that. It's much more insidious and more quiet. So this to John Kerry. John Kerry, you
were once a man who, in the face of a war that everyone thought was perfectly acceptable, stood up and revealed it for the soul-stealing travesty that it was. We ask you now in your
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later years and as your last legacy, now as powerful Secretary of State, not just a returning soldier, to show your mettle and preserve your true absolute lasting legacy. Use your passion to do the right and righteous thing yet one more time. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 118. MS. OLSON: Andrea Olson. Wesley. Hello. My name is Thank you. Reject Keystone.
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And this is my youngest son,
We drove through a snowstorm from
St. Paul , Minnesota 1ast night, and we're happy to be here. He is happy to make some comments.
Si nee coming, I have met some 1andowners and it's clear that TransCanada is not playing fair ball. They have given reckless, reckless One landowner
contracts to the landowners.
told me that a pumping station needs to be over a half a mile away from a house. Well, his
proposed pumping station is within a half mile of three houses. TransCanada wanted land to
park their trucks and he said, well, can you park them at the pumping station? said, no, we can't rip up our sod. And they
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Dear President Obama, Secretary Kerry,

and representatives, I want to talk about the
long-term consequences of burning tar sands
oil. We're here to express our concern about
the Environmental Impact Statement which

completely ignores the long-term consequences
of burning carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.
I am here to speak up on behalf of the American
people who, like Wesley, cannot speak yet. The Union of Concerned Scientists and the International Panel on Climate Change have warned us that we must keep 80 percent of fossil fuel reserves in the ground or face irreversible and horrific consequences. A new pipeline is a short-term and short-sighted solution that pushes the problem of global warming into the laps of our little ones. If we decide to continue producing,
refining, exporting and burning, we sentence future generations to unimaginable suffering. We already see the devastation of disease, famine caused by climate change in our world already today. This pipeline represents a point of departure and an opportunity for President
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Obama and Secretary Kerry to fulfill their campaign promises to make America a global leader in clean energy production. And I have great respect for the union workers defending their jobs here today. Honest and good-paying work is hard to find and harder to keep. In 2004, 2008 and '12, I knocked on thousands of doors with union workers and we told undecided voters that Kerry and Obama are on the side of working America. We promised
Americans they would fight for the interests of the middle class and not the interests of multinational corporations. Let's fulfill these promises and invest in jobs that are sustainable employment and sustainable for the planet. change before it is too late. And when you make your decision, I want you to be able to look into the eyes of my son Wesley and tell him that he is more important than excessive corporate profits. tell him the bull stops here. Tell him We need to be the
Tell him he
won't have to struggle to survive because you saw the threats and you protected his freedoms
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as you are chartered to do.
Tell him you will
do the right thing for his generation because the best is yet to come. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 119. MS. PROCHNOW: My name is Robyn Thank you.
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Kennedy Weber Prochnow, R-0-B-Y-N, K-E-N-N-E-D-Y, W-E-B-E-R, P-R-0-C-H-N-0-W. I'm a landowner on the fringes of the Sandhills in Holt County. Nebraska. I reside at Friend,
I have been in agriculture for Oh, my God. Sorry about
nearly 50 years. that. times.
I forget I need to watch what I say at
Agriculture is my livelihood.
I have a
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son that is in college at Norfolk in the utility line program. for his tuition. in high school. Agriculture is paying
I have a son that's a senior He is planning on going to the Agriculture
Nebraska College of Technical Ag. is going to pay for his tuition. I'm a single mother. the University of Nebraska.
I am a student at I am working
towards two degrees, environmental studies and
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soil and water restoration. According to TransCanada web site, the composition of tar sand oils consists of clay, sands, DNAPL, which is dense nonaqueous phase liquids, which is denser than water and it will not dissolve in water. aquifer.
It
It will sink in the
also consists of NLAPL, light
nonaqueous phase liquids, that are dense less dense than water and tend to accumulate at the top of an aquifer, which rises at the surface, which can be transported through rain runoff. Contaminants, according to TransCanada web site, state that they have BTEX, which is benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. These are very volatile organic compounds. They also have a low flash point. And as we saw on the news this morning with a fertilizer explosion in Texas, that has a higher flash point than what these volatiles do. The explosion in Texas this morning
leveled three blocks of a community, leveled the houses out. A lot was said already about abutenton
Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476.-1153
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Let's do the health concerns.
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Benzene can cause drowsiness, dizziness, unconsciousness. Long-term benzene exposure
causes effects on the bone marrow and can cause anemia and leukemia. Benzene has been found in
at least 1,000 of 1,684 national priority list sites identified by the EPA. Toluene affects the nervous system. Toluene has been found in 959 of the 1, 591 national priority list sites identified by the EPA. Do you have want me to go on with the other two? Apparently not, because you just A lot I needed to
put up a sign, thank you. say.
But I think I need to ask.
I used to
have an aunt that used to say, if there is a wi 11, there is a way. Does our state have the
will so we can continue on with our way? MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 120. MR. MILES: M-I-C-H-A-E-L, M-I-L-E-S. I would like to testify about legacies. When a person gets to my age, if we're I am Michael Miles, Thank you.
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fortunate enough to afford it, that's what we contemplate. What you are about to decide is It's not about us sitting in
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about legacies.
this room, it's about the place we leave our children. I was once part of a small start-up company that developed the Live Scan fingerprinting system that is currently used throughout the country today. At a very early
point, I was the only salesman of our company and brought the ideas and needs back from prospective customers to our development group. Because of my work, the product that you see around the country in our jails and our ports of entry today is what we developed. But that is not my legacy. At the
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height of my career, I was traveling 50 percent of my time and seeing my family and my wife - the family of my wife and two daughters very little. Having been brought up by a single
woman who was a widow of a World War II veteran, I realized that my young family was far more important than my career, as this was my legacy. I engineered my own layoff, allowing me
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to collect a severance and become a full time father for the next ten years, for which I was terribly equipped and which I found incredibly maddening. When my first daughter was born, I wept, not out of joy but rather because I feared that I had made a terrible mistake bringing her into a world of cruelties that I fully understood. My two daughters are now 22 and 24 and I believe are well on their way to developing successful lives of serving society. What troubles me now is that I fear the world that they will inherent will be not one I would wish on anyone. The Pentagon is
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predicting famine and war in the developing world in fairly short order as a result of climate change. worse. You as a group are sitting at a very interesting point in history. If you decide What follows will be far
for this pipeline, you will probably assure yourselves of good paying jobs in the oil industry and will stand to make a lot of money, but you will contribute nothing positive for the long-term.
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If you decide against this pipeline, you will provide the president with a very powerful basis by which to negotiate with the real powers for the key to our survival, the price of carbon dioxide. With this, we have a chance of getting ahold of the tiger upon which we are riding. The choice is up to you. legacy? What will be your
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On which side of history will you be? MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speakers number 121 , 122, 123, 124 and 125, be prepared to come to the floor as your number approaches. Speaker 121.
MS. SMITH: Smith. Hi. Name is Carolyn
Thanks for hearing us today. First I wanted to show you a picture.
This is my husband Bob, who is a steel worker for a US steel company who has not been invited to build any of this pipeline, and my son Dr. Robert Smith. And they are holding their
trout that they caught from the Verdigre Creek right where the pipeline is predicted to go through.
I live in Pierce County in northeast Nebraska next to Antelope County. I'm opposed
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to the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. We cannot take the risk of a break occurring in this very sensitive area of our country. the breadbasket of our nation. Although the proposed reroute is said to be away from the Ogallala Aquifer, we all know that this isn't true. The new route is It is
projected to cross through the Verdigre watershed approximately 22 miles from my home. This area contains a rare fresh spring-fed trout stream called the Verdigre Creek. This
spring flows freely year-round with crystal clear water. My children grew up on this creek fly fishing. My grandchildren my granddaughter,
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who is seven years old, is one of the best open reel fishermen around. We spend summer Sundays
picnicking along the creek in this pristine, untouched breathtakingly beautiful area of our state. My children are Nebraska born and grew up learning to appreciate, love and care for the earth that they have been blessed with. This beautiful earth is the birthright of my grandchi 1dren and they, too, are 1earning to be
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grateful and appreciative of this gift. Our family feels an obligation to care for this beautiful land. The Good Life. Nebraska's motto is
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We know that we're known for We have an obligation
that for a good reason.
to stand up and fight to protect it. This pipeline should not be permitted because it is only a matter of time before the devastation is seen, as in Michigan and Mayflower, Arkansas. condolences. states.
Why should a foreign country be allowed to cross our border and use strong-arm tactics to frighten landowners? Why should our And you have my
Thank you for coming from those
landowners carry all of the risk and the eventual catastrophe of the poison tar sands oil? Our very livelihoods and our pure
drinking water will be devastated, never to be restored when this happens. We have seen the
proof of it in Michigan and Arkansas, among many other places.
If, as they say, this is to be such a
benefit to us, why then is it being routed directly to Texas to be sold to the open
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market?
If we want to be truly independent, Energy can be
this is not the obvious answer.
produced by means of safe practices that does not contribute to the destruction of our environment. We hold the responsibility to see that our children and their children will inherit an earth that has not been maimed by our very own hands. MS. HOBGOOD: your comments.
MS. SMITH: already been destroyed. Just look at what's I ask you, If you can wrap up
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Mr. President, to keep your promise and not allow the same horror to come to our beautiful 1and.
We ask on behalf of my husband -- who, by the way, again, works for a pipe -- a steel company that won't be building, my children and grandchildren, Melissa, Benjamin, Andrew, Breanna, Ashlyn, Natalie and, in two to three weeks, our newborn granddaughter, Hattie Mae. And let us not forget a little girl who died May 23rd, 1887, at age one year, six months named White Buffalo Girl, daughter of
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I,
Black Elk and Moon Hawk.
Her grave,
ironically, sits in the path of this poison pipeline. This gives the Trail of Tears a We made a promise to watch
whole new meaning.
over her grave in perpetuity and we must not break our promise to her. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 122. Thank you.
Speaker number 122. Thank you. My name
MR. GALVIN: is Peter Galvin.
I'm with the Center For
Biological Diversity and National Wildlife Protection Group. Our 600,000 members and online supporters are adamant in our opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline. We have heard a lot
today about the different aspects of what this pipeline would do from landowners to climate to wildlife to a variety of things, just a host of issues. Issues that I work on primarily are wildlife and species at risk of extinction. The tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth. This oil, added to the carbon that's already in the atmosphere, is unfathomable in the increase it wi 11 cause to climate change. Dr. Hansen
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has said this is the tipping point for us. And other people have talked about legacy. And I'd like to just close my comments And someone earlier
by talking about legacy.
mentioned Secretary Kerry when he returned from Vietnam and famously testified in front of Congress.
And I would like Secretary Kerry, who I know understands environmental issues fairly well, very well, to have the conversation with President Obama. And what I'd like him to say
to the president is exactly what he said so sagely when he came back from Vietnam, but with a larger focus. And that would be,
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Mr. President, how do you ask a planet to die for a mistake?

Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 123. 124.
MR. OSTDIEK: Hello. Thank you. I Thank you.
Speaker with number 123.
My name is Charles Ostdiek, 0-S-T-D-I-E-K.
am national co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Thank you.
The Green Party of the United States has
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already submitted a comment.
I'm not going to
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repeat it here except to say that they have already gone over the obvious conflict of interest for not just the first XL proposal but both of them. ask me. But also they talk about the overstatement of the capacities to clean up in case of a spill and they vastly understate the costs of clean up. detail. So I'm not going to go into This is Keystone Kapers, if you
You can look at their submission.
It's in a letter. I would like to talk about their response that they need this oil. don't need the oi 1 . They really
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That is, as people have
said, it's just to pay attention to the business as usual . What people need is better mass transit systems and they need to lobby their governments for better bus systems, better bike 1anes, 1 i ght rai 1 , wal kabl e neighborhoods, and communities so people do not have to drive. The dependence, the need for the oil is based on these horribly unliveable neighborhoods that we have, that people have to drive everywhere.
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And as far as vehicles, light weighting of vehicles through carbon fiber composite bodies, that makes electrical vehicles possible. underway. year. All of those technologies are They are having improvements each So
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As it goes on, things get better.
it's just nonsense to think that we will need this oil. minded. There is another point that they made, that they will just go ahead and mine this oil and put it out on the market anyway. Frankly,
If
That's narrow minded and closed
this is junky language and that is immoral.
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you see a crack house down the road, you do not just let it keep on operating, you work to shut
i t down.
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It's -- the amount of carbon that this will dump on the planet will literally burn the breadbasket of this nation. getting worse and worse. in point. The droughts are
Last year was a case
This year is already shaping up to
be another drought season. And the fact that you have extra rainfall due to global climate disruption does not makes it any better. That's just -- the
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water just slides right off and it goes right out, it does not recharge the aquifer. The
aquifer is being drawn down faster than it is being recharged through the rainfall. has just got to stop. the Ogallala Aquifer. Is -- the pipelines, are they safest way to transport oil? I really don't know about And And that
You cannot risk this to
that, but when they break it's a doozy.
there is no way to clean it up and there is nothing in place to clean it up. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 125. MR. BERNT: My name is Robert Thank you.
Bernt, R-0-B-E-R-T, B-E-R-N-T. I'm a certified organic farmer north of here in the Sandhills of Nebraska. sixth generation on this farm. I'm the
We homesteaded
it during the Kinkade Act, been a long time living there. property. The Cedar River runs through our
The nature, the birds, the
environment has been a way of life for us, and it wi 11 be and it always wi 11 be. I'm here on two things that I know
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something definitely about, organic.
On the
fact that we've got 11 organic producers that are going to be affected by this route. If
there is a leak on or adjacent to or into the water that is utilized on these farms, these farms' organic products wi 11 no 1anger carry the USDA certified organic seal. Number two, in the report that we referred to, it claims and I do know soil. That's
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That's our livelihood, and as yours is. where we eat from.
It states that if there is
a leak, that this leak would be contained or devoured by microbial activity. Now, soils below a six inch depth in Nebraska are dead. It's called anaerobic.
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There is no biological activity below the six inch level to consume anything. happen. I have got 12 kids. The future of this Not going to
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state and this nation is very vital and very important to me because of that. I have seen
things and heard things that hurt and concern me for the future of these children. And I
want to protect that like my dad and my granddad and my great granddad did.
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Another thing that I'm upset about, and I hope that the city council from the city of Grand Island can hear me say this, but I have shopped in Grand Island for close to 50 years. Groceries, motels, eats. I wi 11 no 1anger stop
and shop in the city of Grand Island because of what the city council said earlier today by backing TransCanada. You can't stand up in
front of two or 300 or 400 Nebraskans and tell them they'd rather have TransCanada's money than theirs. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speakers with numbers 126, 127, 128 and 129 and 130, will you come to the floor to speak as your number approaches. 126. Yes. Thank you.
MS. SALVATORE:
Izhazhe wiwitta the Barbara Salvatore. Wongithe, tha thi the udon. Everyone, it is
good you are here in Nibthaska. Over 360 unique plant species inhabit the preserves such Nine Mile Prairie and Spring Creek Prairie in Nebraska. On these Great
Plains, less than two percent of these original grasslands remain, and as Nebraskans it is our
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responsibility to preserve them from the construction, operation, and i nevi table failings of Keystone XL. I am student and teacher of endangered medicinal and indigenous plants. I speak for
the plants and they say no to Keystone XL. This land is crisscrossed by the Platte, Missouri and Niobrara Rivers. The Niobrara,
designated one of the ten best rivers for recreation in these United States, possesses outstandingly remarkable values that Congress has designated must be protected and boasts a unique crossroads where many species of plants and animals coexist unlike anywhere else in the world. This Missouri River Basin through which the Keystone Pipeline will cross is a fertile basin of rich, unique soils and its heart is the Ogallala Aquifer. I am here, too, to speak
for the water and say no to KXL. Living along the Missouri and the Niobrara Rivers, the Ponca and Omaha were once one tribe and shared the same language. student of the Omaha Ponca language. I am a
I am not
a tribal member, but my Ponca relatives and
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elders asked me to come here and say a few things. They want us to think about the Ogallala Aquifer. And if the pipeline breaks through to
contaminate that water, it will be too late. There will be an awful lot of people in trouble. KXL promises shutoff valves, but once
the water is contaminated it will remain contaminated. Companies make promises and yet use substandard materials. them. Companies sneak around
While the tribes are negotiating, the
oil company proceeds to lay pipeline the next county over and they have even - before they
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have even gotten required permissions, that they are sneaky and they lie. That we have got
to think of the damage to our next generations all for the sake of - industry and profit. We need to make sure the safety of our entire state of Nebraska is intact and that no one should be sold out or forced out of their land and homes. The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska should know. With many treaties broken, lands promised to not for the sake of
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the Ponca were signed away with the stroke of pen and they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma. After losing two-thirds of their people on this Trail of Tears, a small group escaped and returned north, were sheltered by the Omaha, immediately arrested as trespassers. And this led to the historically important trial of Standing Bear where the outcome being that the Indian was declared a person and his followers were free to return to their homeland, the Niobrara River Valley. The Northern Ponca Tribe was terminated in 1966. In 1990, they were reinstated with
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the condition that they would agree to make no 1 and claims. A quick step forward to today,
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they hold their pow-wow on tribal grounds by the Niobrara River and the waterways that are directly in the path of the Keystone. MS. HOBGOOD: your comments? MS. SALVATORE: Tears - yep. The Trail of Can you wrap up
The Ponca Trail of Tears is Today the Northern Ponca say
along this route.
no, their Omaha friends say no, tribes across the Great Plains say no, tribes from coast to
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coast say no, no to tar sands oil, no to Keystone XL. language. Less than 25 elders speak the
If they were here today they would
say onkkazhi. Today I speak for myself, my family, my chi 1dren, my daughter in Houston, the 1and, the plants and the water, for all my relations, and I say no. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 127. Thank you.
Can you state your name
and spell your name, please? MS. SPREITZER: Carole
Spreitzer, Carole with an E on the end, Spreitzer, S-P-R-E-I-T-Z-E-R. I am here from Chicago. I came with a I I'm
bus load overnight in the snow last night. came here today - oh, who do I represent?
here because I'm a mother and a grandmother and I have no special source of knowledge about this issue except that I keep myself informed and I care about this planet and I'm very worried about the future, and I had to come and tell you that. And I want you to recommend to Secretary Kerry and President Obama that they must say no
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to the Keystone Pipeline.
I didn't have a lot
of things to say, but I was going to mention some of the impacts. But I just need to say
all the people before have said such wonderful things, so articulate, I just thank all of you. I love you for all you have said, all your caring. it. I just hope Obama and Kerry listen to I
So I'm not going to try to outdo you.
can't. But the things that stand out to me that I care about are really climate change. That's
getting away from us and once it does we can't get it back. And it's happening. And I just There
don't understand why we would want this. is nothing in it for us. oil.
We don't need the Why are we
There is just nothing in it. No sense.
doing it? with us.
Canada will still be okay
And so I guess my point is that there are just too many unacceptable risks for us to take at this point with this. And this was
said by other people, but we have a rare opportunity to make a decision to protect this planet for future generations. Not that many
people know they are at that point where they
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can make that decision or not.

it.
So we must make
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And I am here because I don't want my legacy to my children to be that I did nothing to stop the expansion of dirty fossi 1 fuel. have enough tragedies that are beyond our control. This one is not. You can say no to a We
Keystone tragedy. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker number 128. MS. BENNETT: Hi. I'm Nancy I'm not a Thank you.
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Bennett and I, too, am from Chicago. Nebraskan. activist. I'm not
I've never been an
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And the only reason I'm here today We're at a critical point.
is the same reason.
I'm a mother, I'm a retired attorney, and my vested interest is in the future of my child and the world. And when I first heard about this hearing I thought, why go? It's a done deal,
there is nothing I can say that's going to affect anything, it's out of my control. And
there is nothing else, frankly, in the world that would have made me get on a bus last night
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in a thunderstorm, ride all night into a snowstorm, sit here all day and go back on a bus tonight. But it's that important.
And, you know, for whatever my comments might be worth. And, again, everybody has And I
spoken so eloquently, I'm just amazed.
do believe that we, like civilizations in the past, are kind of following a road because it's an easy road to be on and it's harder to change that. Like the inhabitants of Easter Island who cut down all their trees and realized, oops, our resources are gone, we've got no place to go. There are many examples of past And I
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civilizations that don't see the future.
feel like we are kind of blindly going that way because it's hard to change it. And we are at the tipping point. The
C02 in the air is at a critical point, it's past a critical point. And we shouldn't be
talking about how best to transport crude oil, we should be talking about how to stop using crude oil and develop renewable resources. I, too, agree it makes absolutely no sense. March 23 New York Times article Life And
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After Oi 1 and Gas states that we all think we need it in the interim, fossi 1 fuel, but we don't. It's absolutely not true that we need It's a myth, said
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natural gas, coal or oi 1.
Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, the main author of a study published in the journal Energy Policy. You could power American with renewables from a technical and economic standpoint. obstacle is social and political. wi 11 to change it.
He also stated that we could create a new grid, coordination of power sources would ensure a stable power supply, although a bit of natural gas would be needed. And he claims The biggest You need the
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that the plan would create 50,000 jobs, create energy security and ultimately stabilize electricity prices. The substantial costs of
the scheme could be recouped in under two decades, especially if you factor in the huge costs of pollution and carbon emissions. This is where we need to go to get independent from Middle Eastern oils, not the pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speaker 129. MS. SPRING: Hello. My legal
name is Janet Spring, J-A-N-E-T, S-P-R-1-N-G. I'm here on behalf of the Compassionate Earth Walk. I'm an ordained clergy member. grandmother. I'm a
And, when I had the opportunity, And I'm sorry more
I was a proud union member.
union people aren't still here. I would just like to incorporate everything that's been said so far and just skip right to the things that have not been said. The pro pipeline people insisted that there was no relationship between this pipeline and the continued exploitation of the tar sands. And they just made that statement with
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no backing and so -- with no backing except the awareness that around the continent, people are fighting pipelines, every single one of them. I say it does matter. If this is the
only pipeline, this will mean that the tar sands are exploited. And in addition, building
a pipeline, instead of letting them ship this stuff on trains, makes a commitment to
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long-term exploitation. So now I'm going to say that they have an idea that we need a certain amount of oil, which now a few people have mentioned. I'm
here to say that we need to -- well, to stop the tar sands, our job right now is about stopping this pipeline, whether or not there is enough alternative energy to replace it. In 1960, US citizens used -- created one-third of the carbon dioxide that we create now, less than one-third. 1960. It was fine. Now, I was there in We
There was no problem.
can go back to 1960 right now.
We just have to
give up a few things that are harming our health and making our children crazy, the electronics and the flying to Paris to go shopping, things like that, and certain industry things. So in my spare time, I think about how we'll grow food when the climate has destabilized. I'm not an expert but I'm going
to have to do it because we won't have these big farms based on fertilizers, that will be gone. food. We're going to have to grow our own
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Oh, so back to why we have to stop it now. Because if we don't stop it now -- and
right now people are trying to figure out how to deal with the droughts and the floods and the winters and winters not getting cold enough, all that stuff.
So the alternative is 20 years from now or 40 years from now, our children or grandchildren are figuring out how to deal with that stuff on a parched, destroyed, poisoned planet when they have cancer and brain damage. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 130. MR. BILL DUNAVAN: Good Thank you.
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afternoon, Ms. Teresa Hobgood, Ms. Genevieve Walker, and Secretary John Kerry. Bill Dunavan, D-U-N-A-V-A-N. in York County, Nebraska.
In Nebraska where land is bought and sold, often it is offered at public auction. Same with machinery, same with anything of value. And it's very common here. I'm not My name is
I'm a landowner
sure about DC, if you would have auctions in that location. However, they are usually
scheduled on days that have weather just like
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this morning. One item never seen at an auction, even though it's of great value, it's our rights as American citizens. These were given by God and Where do
spelled out in the US Constitution.
we go to bid on a new constitution once a great document is shredded? Look at the property rights we once had. Eminent domain procedures are a shambles nationwide. The 5th and 14th amendments to the
constitution grant eminent domain powers to the government but surely do not give these rights to foreign companies, to foreign deals with other foreign governments. This is blatantly
seen with the TransCanada Keystone XL project. When you take these property rights away in perpetuity, which is what the easement offered to our farm stated, was to the end of time, grievous side effects occur to the citizens of an area. The incentives to take Widespread lack of
care of land, they wither.
industry, reduced agricultural, economic, artistic activity, defeat of self reliance, pervasive depressed attitudes. Visit any
underdeveloped country where people should be
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free but where their rights to land have fallen into disrespect, and you' 11 see what's happened. Secretary Kerry, I doubt you wish to associate yourself with any precedent of this sort. The citizens of the USA lost the right
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to life in 1973, the freedom of religion in 2009 with parts of the Affordable Care Act, possibly losing our right to keep and bear arms in 2013. Now our private property rights are no longer protected from foreign powers. This may
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happen in 2013 if this permit is approved. Where is the auction where we can go buy ourselves a new original constitution? can't be found. Public officials who aim for the public good can stand up and save our constitution by denying approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. Thank you. It
MR. BILL DUNAVAN: MS. HOBGOOD:
Now what I would
like to do is to call numbers 131, 132, 133, 134 and 135. And as your number is called, if
you can come to the microphone.
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And after number 135, I'd 1ike to make a couple of remarks. I know you are wondering if
we're going to stop at 8:00 o'clock, have a break at 8:00 o'clock, continue. And I will
just provide you with a couple of remarks and instructions after number 135 speaks. Number 131. And if you can identify
yourself and spell your name, we'd appreciate

it.
MR. THOMAS DUNAVAN: evening.
Good
My name is Father Thomas Dunavan, I'm the son of Bill Dunavan who
D-U-N-A-V-A-N.
just spoke, and my mother Susan spoke about an hour ago. from them. I'd like to thank you, Teresa, Patrick, and members of the media who are still holding out tonight to be here to hear the rest of the story. And I address this to John Kerry and to President Obama. I am a Catholic priest and I And I get my quiet and shy nature
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was told by my boss to make sure that it was known that I don't stand for perhaps everything that the church teaches because there could be Catholics who maybe would be pro Keystone
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Pipeline.
So I do not represent the diocese of
Lincoln or Grand Island or anything of that nature. I represent landowners and citizens of I am against the
the state of Nebraska. Keystone Pipeline.
And I wrote an ode to our
government and to TransCanada. I greet thee in authority. thy attention. I ask for
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I use the Divine Comedy to cut In the eighth
through this extra tension.
circle of hell Dante places those who caved to avarice. Cacci anemi co is one who caved to He turned over his
greed and material wealth.
own sister to the Marquis de Este to curry favor and for love of gain he used his stealth and ended up suffering at the devil's whip. Move on, you pimp, you can't cash in on women here. And to our government, state and local and others in far-flung office who heed not letter nor voter or cries of sons or daughters but oft bow down to looney or greenback and union dues within their coffers. Is this greed
for jobs at the cost of citizenry worth the reputation? Was this not what caused our
ancestors to cry out against an unjust nation?
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Taxation without representation was a rallying cry and tea went in the harbor and blood was spilt and none here can deny. Yet when a foreign company comes with forms and lease and papers and no permit yet and still the threat of excavators and scrapers, perhaps it's been a living purgatory for those with rights beholden in a country vast and just as wide and laws that can be broken. A governor takes power in his hands
and wields an iron sickle and landowners cry foul with voice raised high, we are in quite a pickle. Dante with Virgil voice from their
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graves their blood at just a trickle. Purgatorio canto 8 tells how we see it from our token. My guide said, son, what are you staring at? I answered him, at those brilliant torches And he
lighting up all the polar region here.
to me, those four bright stars you saw this morning now are underneath the mount, and these have risen here to take their place. But then Sordello clutched his arm and said, behold our adversary over there. He
pointed to the place where we should look.
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Along the little valley's open side a serpent moved, the very one, perhaps, that offered Eve the bitter fruit to eat. Through
grass and flowers slid the vicious streak, stopping from time to time to turn its head and lick its back to make its body sleek. And so we live to fight this vicious streak, this serpent, i f you will, which winds it's way from north to south through grass and flower and till. And all we're told is to
close our eyes, there wi 11 never be a spi 11 . We are partners now, I guess that means TransCanada is our shield. Yet buy and sell
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and dupe and lie and pressure on the will and conscience laid to the side will open man to yield. Custodians are we of this tierra free, The gouge of steam
the Redman knows the drill.
and josseling black gold will give our fill. Custodians are we of this tierra free, the Redman knows the drill.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 132. MS. GUNTER: Good afternoon. My Thank you.
name is Ellen Gunter, E-L-L-E-N, G-U-N-T-E-R. I live in Oak Park, Illinois. I came with the
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rest of the Chicago Mafia today on a Sierra

Club bus through very bad weather.
I heard about the tar sands a couple
years ago in an emai 1 from Bi 11 McKibben, and
in short order found myself standing in front
of the White House and very shortly was one of
1,253 people that were arrested that two weeks.
And it's -- so the tar sands has been something
that I've been pretty passionately following ever since then. So I'm here today in gratitude, gratitude that you all held this hearing, and that I can add my words to the incredibly eloquent number of hours of comments that have come before me. I'm also grateful that so far I have not been personally affected by tar sands in my backyard or, to my knowledge, near my water sources. I haven't had to abandon my home the
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way the people in the Kalamazoo have or the Yellowstone or the people in Arkansas. And I
have not found it necessary to chain myself to an earth mover or a tree to prevent or at least slow down the pipeline for the proposed Keystone.
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But i f this pipeline is built, I will be affected, as each of you wi 11, as all of us will with every breath we take. We've all
begun to learn more about the part that processing and burning of tar sands will mean downstream to the increased C02 levels and the dangers to our watersheds. continues to unfold.
Two days ago a small online journal called Inside Climate News won a Pulitzer prize for its coverage of the rupture of the Enbridge pipeline that dumped a million gallons of tar sands crude into Michigan's Kalamazoo in 2010. The truth about tar sands has been cracked open and are under the global microscope now. results. We are seeing the appalling And that data
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The debate isn't just one between It is
treehuggers and the oil companies.
rather an appeal to common sense and sanity on everyone's behalf. The air we breathe and the
water we must have to drink and grow our food are vital to all of us regardless of political stripe. If destroyed, they cannot be replaced. You have heard and read the numbers and that includes comments by James Hansen and
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others that are connected with this pipeline. As troubling and destructive as they are, they are the first half of this story. The second
half is inextricably bound to the first because of what the pipeline will enable and the great risks to our planet it locks firmly in place. It's the knowledge that more than 300 million barrels of tar sands would flow down that pipeline through the heart of my country each year, no matter where it ends up being used, that got me to sit up all night in a bus and stand in line today in the cold to humbly ask each of you as fellow Americans, as human beings, to step outside the role you are playing as members of our government bureaucracy and listen to my appeal as parents, grandparents and certainly as patriots. Clearly, you carry a great responsibility to be clear-eyed and open as you consider these comments. You also have an
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opportunity that no one in history has been graced with. You have a chance to actually use
your power and influence to subvert a tragedy and to change history, because the tar sands are a disaster lying in wait.
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The degree to which we enable the burning of its payload by building this pipeline will be on us. It will be a forever
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shame on this administration and our beloved country. I pray - MS. HOBGOOD: your comments? MS. GUNTER: I will. I pray Can you wrap up
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that you are listening deeply today with your hearts as well as your heads. Believe me when
I say that millions of people on this planet are also praying you are wise. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 133. MR. MCcLELLAND: thank you. Hello, and Thank you.
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My name is Gary McClelland, common
spelling Gary, McClelland, M-C capital C-L-E-L-L-A-N-D. I'm here today representing myself and the Circle Pines Center of Central Michigan near Kalamazoo where we teach children social responsibility, cooperation and sustainability. I am on the faculty of Northwestern University Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry
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and Behavioral Sciences. For the past 25 years I have studied public policy, public health, child development and child trauma. For the past seven years I
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worked closely with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the top scientists in North America on childhood trauma. I'm not here today to talk about climate science and I'm not here today to talk about the future. I'm here to talk about what is
going on today.
Here are some things we know. Childhood
trauma is associated with long-term life course province. These include heart disease, stroke,
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eating disorders, smoking, substance abuse, poor work performance, domestic violence, mental disorder, and early death. behind this is robust. The science
We're beyond questions
of does it float or does it sink. These things we also know. The children
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of the Kalamazoo River Basin have been traumatized. The children of the Pegasus The children The
pipeline have been traumatized.
of the Gulf Coast have been traumatized. children in the emergency rooms in Chicago
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today because of particle-induced asthma are being traumatized today.

This is not the future, this is today. The time to stop hydrocarbons is today. ball is in your court, Mr. Kerry. thing.
MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 134. Speaker 134.
MR. ALLPRESS: My name is Doug Thank you. The
Do the right
Allpress, D-0-U-G, A-L-L-P-R-E-S-S. I grew up on the family farm homesteaded in Keya Paha County by my great grandfather. My family loved and defended their homestead through turbulent times. Our country at that time would never have considered allowing a foreign country to invade and my ancestors would have met any invaders head on defending our farm and our neighbors' farms and our way of live and with whatever means necessary. My ancestors actively served in the armed forces to drive out, defend and repel those who would take things that they did not rightfully own. I myself am a retired marine,
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and I take great exception to anyone who says I
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fought to defend foreign oil.
But, you know,
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I'd do it a hundred times again rather than allow Keystone XL through my property. My brother is also a marine, former marine. We raised our right hands and swore to
defend our great land against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We expected that our government that we faithfully served would defend our family's property rights from a foreign hostile takeover. I am sadly discouraged with those
who believe that the Keystone XL Pipeline is in our country's best interest and who are willing to place our beloved family homestead in harm's ways to benefit a foreign company. Imagine, if you will, the quiet, tranquil alkali creek that bisects our family farm from north to south and the meandering Keya Paha River that forms the southern border. Now imagine, i f you wi 11 , a foreign corporation ravaging the tranquil setting, ripping out hundreds and thousands of years of natural history. It should be impossible to Just 1ook at Kalamazoo,
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imagine, but it's not.
Michigan and Mayflower, Arkansas.
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When TransCanada met with the alternate route landowners in O'Neill in October of last year, they really were trying to prove that they would be good neighbors. When I asked
them if their huge multiple pumps could overpressure their half inch thick pipes, they stated that could never happen because their control systems known as SCADA wouldn't allow it. They still haven't answered that question.
They told me they would give me an answer. I went on to say if that did happen, could it overpressure the pipes and are their systems open. I'm going to skip a bunch of
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what I had to say because I know I'm going to run out of time. But they flat out lied to me
and to all the Nebraskans in that first meeting. Their SCADA systems are open, their SCADA systems are vulnerable, and you all should be scared of that. It's not just about
a spill, it's about an act of war or a script kitty who has the tools today to close their valves and keeps their pumps running. As recounted in a US Congressional Research Service report dated August 16, 2012,
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SCADA related problems were the primary cause and contributing factor in pipeline accidents which had catastrophic effects. That includes And
Marshall, Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
also TransCanada had a spill in 1995 that was caused by SCADA. MS. HOBGOOD: up. Thank you. MR. ALLPRESS: I will. It's If you can wrap it
been known, it's been studied, and it's of great concern. In last year in the global
pipeline conference in Europe, a paper presented stated that SCADA systems are more and more vulnerable. And what we're doing is
we're opening up our lands to a system that can be overridden by someone swiveling around in a swivel chair in eastern Asia, western Asia, wherever, or a script kitty who just wants to get access to those tools and cause damage, or to an insider threat who just wants to cause damage to his company because he's mad. that's happened. And
That's happened in Australia. It's something They didn't give
So it's a new threat. you really need to consider. me an answer.
They won't give me an answer
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because they know they are vulnerable and they know that there can be great damage. And I guarantee the president of United States is very aware of the advanced persistent threat, and I know you are aware of it, you have probably seen memos, because that's what concerns them today. That's why they are
dumping loads of dollars into to stop or to try fighting. vulnerable. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 135. Speaker 135. Thank you. And our infrastructure is
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It's -- I indicated after speaker 135 that I would make a couple of remarks and let you know how we will proceed. At the outset I mentioned that close to
8:00 o'clock we would make a decision in terms
of how long this session would go. scheduled to end at 8:00 p.m. We are here to listen to you.
It was
And given
the number of people here, we will not end at

8: 00 p.m.
We wi 11
we will, however, need to We have
take a short break at 8:00 p.m.
transcribers here and I'm sure they are going
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to need to stretch.
And we also have other
people here that will need just a -- just a short break of about ten minutes. What I'd like to do is -- it's ten minutes of eight. 136 and 137 in. I think I can get speakers But, again, our intention is
to hear as many of you speak who wish to speak. But I also want to emphasize that since many of you have written comments, you can shorten your comments, you can certainly speak less than three minutes. You can convey that your views And there
are similar to the previous speaker.
are any number of ways that you can get your point across. And, again, we take both oral
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comments and written comments into equal consideration.

So with that, if speaker 136 is in the room, if you can come to the microphone. Speaker 137. MR. COURTNEY: MS. HOBGOOD: MR. COURTNEY: Courtney. I'm from Minnesota. 136. 136. My name is Joe
And I would just like to reiterate. Earlier one of the proponents stated that we
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...
needed to build this pipeline to keep America moving forward. Now, I don't know what
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direction he thinks forward is, but I think he thinks that everyone in here has wool over their eyes. Looking back at these people, I
don't feel that anyone in here has wool over their eyes. They know which way forward is and
they know what is right.

The indigenous tribes, I would like to ask our government, haven't we done enough to them? Haven't we desecrated their land,
haven't we disrespected and lied and taken enough from them?

And one final note, one thing that I have learned in my 30-some years in life, you have to be careful who you go to bed with. If
you are not, you can have drastic consequences. I'll just leave it at that.
MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. I
think we can get another speaker in before 8:00p.m. Speaker 137.

MR. KOPECKY: Hi. My name is
Kerry Kopecky, K-E-R-R-Y, K-0-P-E-C-K-Y. I would have rather told some jokes today, but I think this pipeline is the largest
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and biggest joke already. my three minutes of fame.
So anyway, here is
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I live on a ranch near O'Neill, Nebraska in Holt County on an organic farm. And Holt
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County happens to be one of the biggest areas of organic farmers that there are as far as acres. I am married and have three beautiful I care about the land, the animals, This pipeline will
children.
the water and the people.
not go through or we will jeopardize all of these things. I sell many different crops and livestock organically and naturally with honesty. I don't manipulate what I'm selling.
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My products are grown and raised without chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. When I sell a product, I guarantee my products. I am never afraid to stand behind its quality. I will not stand behind this pipeline. These pipelines have a history of evil including gag orders, lying, and coverups. a good way to do business. Not
My family, and I'm
sure a lot of other people, have received TransCanada's lovely postcards telling everyone how great they are, along with other ads full
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of lies.
Why don't they show and advertise the
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wildlife drowning in the oil ponds or leaks into other water sources? advertisement. The Kalamazoo River in Michigan is still being cleaned today. was? Will it ever be what it That's good
Why the hell would we want to jeopardize I won't.
our land, water, animals and family?
I think we need to put what really matters into perspective. need to survive and exist? Which ones do we Clean water and
food come first in my mind before dirty oil. Dirty oil, a killer of wildlife and people by cancer, a destroyer of beautiful land. Drought across this nation last year, and it's still continuing, should have helped open everyone's eyes. even drinking oil. Try washing, bathing or
Just ask the wildlife who
drown in these oil spills and toxic holding ponds. Not that great. I said in my speech at Albion, Nebraska, I will bring this statement up again. are facts. Facts
This pipeline and others have I say the We
spilled and they will spill again.
American people and others deserve better.
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demand it. I'm tired of products being sold due to manipulation or monopoly, using our government officials against us. What happened to the
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good old days when businesses competed for customers by giving them what they wanted or needed. We need clean energy. Let's make
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things better. I have a pickup almost 20 years old that gets the same mileage as new pickups. stop playing these silly games. Let's
We the people
deserve more, we want better products that are cleaner and safer. I want my children to grow up knowing we wi 11 -- we 1eft the 1 and better than i t was. Look into your children's eyes. Can you tell
them you fought for their future or destroyed it for money? I know where I stand. And I'll
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have no regrets.
Wrong is wrong, right is
right, and that's a fact. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.

It
looks as if we still have a couple more minutes before 8:00 o'clock and so I think we can get one more speaker in. Speaker 139. Speaker number 138.
Speaker 140.
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MR. GALLAGHER: evening. Gallagher.
I'm 139.
Good
I'm the Reverend Doctor Terry That's G-A-L-L-A-G-H-E-R, just like
the guy that smacks watermelons, but I don't know him. As a person of faith, I go to sources to find out what are life's values, what am I called to embrace. And one of the core values
I come away from is that humankind is put here to tend and care for God's creation. care. We haven't been doing that very well. If we've been listening to the stories and the signs and all the reports that have been coming on, it's rather obvious we haven't been doing that. Particularly with my generation. Us Tend and
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gray hairs, or those who would be gray hair if we didn't synthetically alter it, we've blown
it.
So you have got to ask why.
Why do we
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continue to do behaviors that are the opposite of tending and caring? destroying? addiction. If you know someone that's been an Why are we intent on
And I would suggest it comes from
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1
I, - -
addict or if you yourself have been an addict, one of the first things an addict has to is develop a great capability to lie to themselves and to others, to be enabled. And so you can make statements out of that addiction that a pipeline won't add to global warming. You can make a statement out
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of that that this pipeline won't cause more tar sands to be harvested. enabling. In our good days, in our bright moments we know what we're doing is wrong, deadly wrong. And so what we need is an intervention. We don't need to be And we call that
We need an intervention. enabled.
Putting in this pipeline is like
taking an alcoholic to the 1ocal beer hall and tell him, go have a good time. We need an intervention. We need to be
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awakened to the fact that we are not tending and caring, we are destroying. How else can we
look our kids and our grandkids and our God in the eye?
The president knows this. knows it. it. We all know it. The secretary
It's time we admit
We need an intervention.
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Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: it's 8:00 o'clock, if we Thank you. Since
c--
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we will take a very
short break of about ten minutes and then we will resume with number 140. (Recess from 8:00p.m. to 8:15p.m.) MS. HOBGOOD: come to the microphone.
CAROLYN ROFFENSPERGEN: going to be 140. Roffenspergen.
MS. HOBGOOD: If you can state My name is Carolyn I'm See if No. 140 can
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your name and spell your name, please. CAROLYN ROFFENSPERGEN: sorry. Oh,
I was going to take your place if you
weren't here. MS. HOBGOOD: And if you could
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state your name and spell your name, please. DUANE EDIGER: D-U-A-N-E, E-D-1-G-E-R. I'm a member and congregational chair of First Church of the Brethren of Chicago. I'm a Duane Ediger,
reservist with the Christian Peacemaker Teams and a member of the Illinois Coalition for Moratorium on Fracking.
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Eighty-five years ago the leaders of what would become Exxon, BP and Royal Dutch Shell got together in secret in Scotland and formed an oil cartel to set prices and carve up oil-producing areas for their mutual financial benefit. In league with the military industrial complex developed after World War II, this still-secret cartel set up and toppled governments at will. What's left of this cartel, what's left of fossil fuel supplies, what's left of God's good earth and climate survivability and accountable government are all at stake in this fight. I'm going to put a few numbers on some climate change that has been talked about. Today from the earth emanate at a rate 1.8 times the rate the atmosphere is capable of dispersing them, greenhouse gases. putting out way too much. Per capita the United States' contribution is still four times that of China or India. Unless we set as a baseline for purposes We are
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of environmental impact the 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that are needed by 2045 in order to avoid irreversible catastrophic harm from climate change, our system - our - excuse me, our situation is like being on a train headed for a known bridge out and letting the drunken engineer put the throttle all the way and not his hand on the brakes. The drunken engineers of our train are telling us to ignore climate change, build more pipelines and hurry headlong into our biosphere's destruction for their short-term profits. A determined effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over the next three decades must serve as the environmental standard for acceptable versus nonacceptable impacts. We need to focus from now on, first, on taking control of the train that we're on from the climate train - change profiteers in oil, gas and associated industries. This includes either undoing the Halliburton exemptions from oil and gas
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industry so that they can no longer foul up Clean Air, Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts or if Congress is unwilling to do that, the executive branch and the State Department and Justice Department need to start charging them with something, whether it's littering, aggravated assault, terrorist threats or whatever works.
Second, we need to put the brakes on greenhouse gas emissions. Third, we need to form and rapidly implement a survivable energy policy and survivable energy practices, including conservation and conversion to renewable energy production. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers No. 141, 142, 143, 144 and 145. 141 .

EMILY PAGE: Correct. Emily
Page, P-A-G-E, as the last name. I don't have much original to say. The
list has been really eloquently put by other people.

But I guess one of my main concerns is to reiterate a point from somebody else that
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they made asking the government, haven't the indigenous people suffered enough. And to me
it seems like they're still paying such a high price. Things on reservations can be very difficult. They struggle in so many ways. And
to impede on what little we have given back to them, to take from the few lands that we have let them have, which it just seems to me so brazen and just - didn't we learn anything from the past 100 years? unfair and very unjust. And then, also, in terms of the pipeline, the oil that we'll be making is a gasoline that we don't allow to have burned here in the United States. to export it. And so we're going And it seems very
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And that makes us implicit
where - so we won't burn it because we're not allowed to, but it's okay for us to facilitate this oil to give to other nations that are developing. And I just feel like, you know, China, Beijing, the smog is so bad some days children can't go outside. problem? We want to be part of that And doesn't
We'll be contributing.
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that, once again, make us implicit? do we want to fall on that?
And where
That's -- to me I think that that be, being on the wrong side of this. And I think that then obviously the environmental factor. I think that it would be
hard to dispute that it will have environmental impact.

The carbon emissions will go up an incredible amount. And I think if there's
anything that Hurricane Sandy, the massive snowstorms in the northeast, the drought that really hit the Midwest, I think that we need to start paying attention to what the earth is telling us. And if we don't, then we only have
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ourselves to blame.
And I really ask that you take that to heart when you make your decision on the Keystone and please say no. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. 142.
GENE NEMIROVSKY: Gene Nemirovsky.
My name is
It's N-E-M-I-R-0-V-S-K-Y.
I come from Chicago with my wife, leaving two children behind to be cared for by their grandparents at the time that we come
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here to fight for their future, actually. I want to say a few things. Of course,
I'll probably repeat a lot of ideas that have been already expressed. But I want to say that
I'd like to extend greetings to those that are here right now and those who are left. them were people that expressed views advocating the pipeline. So dear friends, those who will agree with us value the most long-term sustainability over short-term monetary benefits and those who won't, even though those advocating pipelines here -- pipeline here, there was barely any person or actually not a single person who was not interested in the pipeline in some sort of monetary way that would advocate for it. And most of us have no vested interest either way. So I encourage you to consider Most of
credibility in terms of testimonies in that regard. But, anyway, those who advocate for permit for the pipeline value the temporary jobs and oil. They come from the point of view the world is coming from
that it's okay for
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a friendly country to take a small risk and
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it's worth it.

And those of us who feel that the earth and everything that we stand for environmentally is the highest value and cannot be at risk at the small term benefit price. I would say history will show who is right in this debate and who is wrong. But I
challenge everyone, those who advocate and those who oppose the pipeline, to vote who they would see who they would like to see history I feel like even those
to be proven wrong.
advocating the pipeline would rather us be wrong than them. Lastly, I wanted to say I have great reverence to all of the Native American speakers here, having addressed such inspiration, the issues that we've discussed today and remind you of two, I don't know, possibly modern -- possibly old Native American pieces of wisdom that some of us are probably familiar with. Anyway, they're probably very
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applicable here.
One goes like this, when the last tree is cut, when the last fish is eaten and the last river is poisoned, only then we will
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realize that money cannot be eaten. And, second goes like this, we borrow our earth not from our ancestors but from our children. So, Dearest State Department People, President Obama, to whom you hopefully will pass these words, this or another, Secretary Kerry, come on, do the right thing. damn thing. It's nonsense. Kill the
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Save our child and
save our future. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. Thanks so
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GENE NEMIROVSKY: much.
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I have a personal request to you guys. Try to send the energy which you perceived here tonight, try to deliver that energy which cannot be written, cannot be e-mailed but what you felt from us, the heart energy. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 143. ROSE GOMEZ: Rose Gomez. Hello. My name is Thank you.
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And I'm from Chicago.
And the reason why I'm here is because this issue is very, very important to me. It
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has touched my heart and soul.
And it's the
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reason why I traveled to be here overnight last night and the reason why tonight, again, I'm going to travel throughout the night. I also had to take off from work. And
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that requires me to be off from work for two days. At the same time, I'm doing this because of my son, and I cannot say that I never did enough or I never did anything in the wake of everything that's going on with this threat of this pipeline being built when so much is at stake. And this pipeline is not the answer.
It is the wrong thing to do. And I really implore, out of the goodness, out of everything that has been said up to now, out of the hearts and souls of all of these people that have already spoken, especially the Nebraskans. I've never heard so
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many people being so eloquent and so articulate on this matter. My heart goes out to the Nebraskans because they have so much to lose. But there
are so many people besides them that also have their heart and soul in this - regarding this
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issue. There were 35 to 40,000 people that went to Washington, D.C., and rallied there. this was in February, in the teens. was there, too. And
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I myself
And we withstood the cold, But it was
cold, bitter, wet weather.
necessary in order for us to get the point across that this is not the right thing to do. The right thing to do would be say to - would be to say no, no, no tar sands pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 144.
ALICIA CHRISTEN: Hello. My Thank you.
name Alicia Christen, A-L-I-C-I-A. is Christen, C-H-R-I-S-T-E-N.
Last name
Today we've done a lot of speaking about the environmental impacts. agree with those. And obviously I
People have done a lot of
speaking about the jobs impacts. And I wanted to quickly touch on a report that I come across online from Cornell University which refuted the numbers that the pipeline proponents had put forth and, in fact, talked about four different ways that Keystone XL could be a jobs killer.
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From the report, I quote, "The industry-generated jobs data are highly questionable and ultimately misleading. this is only part of the problem. These But
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industry-generated data attempt only to tell the positive side of the KXL job story." There's evidence to suggest that the effects of Keystone XL construction could very well lead to more jobs being lost than are created in -- in that the following section, that they go on to talk about the four ways that they could be lost. The higher petroleum
prices, talking about environmental damage such as spills, the impact of emissions on health and climate and the effects of Keystone XL on the green jobs industry.
And jobs mean a lot to me. In the past
few weeks, I've been taking my daughter, Tessa, who's a junior in high school, to look at different colleges. And I'd like her to be
able to enter into a job market and find something.

I think we all want our children to be able to grow up and to go out there and to live a wonderful life doing something that makes
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them proud, something that makes them feel good, something that contributes to the economy, something that contributes revenue, you know, to be a good taxpayer base and ultimately that our children are living out these good lives in an environment that we don't have to worry about the air quality or the water quality.
And that's all I have to say. you for your time. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 145.
TONYFULLER: Tony Fuller, F-U-L-L-E-R. I came, once again, with the Chicago bus through torrential downpour, snow and ice and jackknifed trucks to tell you that I oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline.
I oppose the pipeline because I feel the future -- I fear for the future of this planet. The pipeline will accelerate greenhouse gas emissions and help push the earth toward a climate tipping point.
With runaway global warming and climate disasters like super-storm Sandy and Hi. Myname's Thank you. I thank
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record-breaking droughts becoming more often, this pipeline is a disaster in the making. Last summer sorry. excuse me. Oh, I'm
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Building this pipeline will create The
jobs, but so do natural disasters.
question is, what will be the good created from creating those jobs? And I think the point is that we need to look at the long-term impact, what is the impact for future generations. And to illustrate that, I'm ready to tell a story about my grandfather. My He
grandfather worked for oil refineries.
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lived in Galveston, Texas, and made a decent living there. But he also had a family. He raised my
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mother and 14 other children, very large family. He was a religious man. He was a
strict man.
He was a pillar of the community.
But I admired him greatly because he believed in doing what was right. Okay? He
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believed in being responsible for his family. And he saw there were explosions and fires at these oi 1 refineries, and he realized the job he was doing was not right. It was not
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right if he was going to provide for his family. He was jeopardizing his own safety and
the safety of his family by working at that job. So he quit. He got out of there and found another job. He found another way to make a living to
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take care of his family because that was his duty. So I'm asking the State Department, the president, to take care of me, take care of the State of Nebraska, take care of the United States, take care of this planet. Do
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what is right, do what is responsible and say no to the Keystone Pipeline. came for. This is what we
The risk of spills are too great.
There -- you just have to say no to the easy money sometimes and do what's right for future generations. Pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. Please reject Keystone
Speaker Nos. 146, 147, 148, 149 and 150, i f you can come to the floor as your number approaches.
146. 147.
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MARGOHAMILTON:
Hi.
Mynameis
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Margo, M-A-R-G-0, Hamilton, as in Alexander

Hamilton.
I apologize. I've lost my voice. I
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have, however, not lost my zeal for stopping

this pipeline. I'm a lifelong native Nebraskan. And
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several years ago, I talked to you fine folks.

And I told you that many people that I love and care about who I have known all my life have moved away from this great state. They now live in lots of places like San Francisco and Palo Alto; Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, I 11 i noi s, and all over the world. I have
friends in India and Japan who serve in the military. I stand here today as a Nebraskan. And I stand here representing all of my expatriate friends because this Keystone XL Pipeline that they are proposing to run through our beautiful state, though many people don't live here, will impact the rest of the world of my friends who live in Palo Alto and who served in Afghanistan and who live in Washington, DC.
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This is not in our national interest. This will not lower our gas prices. This will
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not do anything but harm the world that we live in. Thank you so much for braving our horrible weather. And I hope to never see Safe
either one of you again in this capacity. travels home.

MS. HOBGOOD: 148.
149.
BETTY GOESER: In our spare Thank you.
147.
time, while we're waiting, I'd like to say that we are driving toward a cliff at 100 miles an hour in the fog. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: 149. Can you Thank Just say no.
state your name and spell your name. you. MATTHEW CRONIN: name is Matthew Cronin.
Thanks.
My
That is C-R-0-N-I-N.
I want to thank you all for coming out here. It's nice to see our representatives
actually representing themselves and not having a company that is formally hired by TransCanada
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doing that.
It's a nice change of pace.
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We've been told that this is a matter of unions versus the farmers and ranchers, that it's jobs or the environment. illusions. But these are
Divide and concur dichotomies that
don't reflect this war. The ranchers, farmers and all folks here now and in spirit stand with the unions and organized laborers. We believe in their skills
and their trade and support their right to provide for their families but not at the detriment of our own. We cannot, will not swallow the lies that are in this pipeline because perfection is impossible by the hand of man. Only the divine
and beautiful creation, the very same that we want to contaminate and divide can claim perfection. If we ki 11 the earth, then no one will live. TransCanada and all the companies
implicated in the tar sands extraction and distribution continue to engage in criminal acts, racking up debt that never can be repaid or repaired. When a tar sands company removes the
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Boreal Forest, then plants, some trees, it doesn't bring back the forest or the diversity. When a tar sands pipeline tears up the last of the pristine prairies and spills into our water and promises to fix the impossible, we are left with a hopeless future. Terrorism is defined as the use of threats or violence for coercion, especially for political purpose. TransCanada has
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committed endless fraudulent claims that they had the rights of our government to use eminent domain to scare landowners and did. But we in Nebraska stand together and are not afraid. We wi 11 not back down.
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The bribed our governor, David Heineman, and our attorney general, David -- the other Dave. We did not stand for it. These are the
true environmental terrorists. The law in the land locks up the man and woman who steals the cattle from the commons with full force. But the greater villain who
steals the commons from the cattle, intentionally or not, remains a much greater crime, regardless of jobs created. John Kerry and President Obama must
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consider national security beyond the myopic

obsession with the financial economy. If the
economy is the body that moves this country

forward, then water is the backbone, and XL is
a fingernail.
Water security is national security.
Water security is our national security. Our
Constitution is a national security, both of

which are a threat with this pipeline. These environmental terrorists are waging a war on Democracy. And if these
terrorists win the battle through bribery and 1egal coercion, then we wi 11 meet TransCanada on the land and in the water every inch of the route. That's no promise -- that's a promise,
not a threat. Anyways, I have one last thing to say. These reviews you have all created or paying people to create are undergraduate-level quality. I read through the hundreds of pages,
and our representative Lee Terry claims that having hundreds of pages makes it quality. But
much of the basis -- most of the basis that you all are assuming are based on assumptions and lies told by TransCanada.
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So please do another review or do it yourselves, for God's sake. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speakers with
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Nos. 151 , 152, 153, 154 and 155, if you can come to the floor as your number approaches. 151 . 152. PAUL SCHROEDER: MS. HOBGOOD: last name, please. PAUL SCHROEDER: S-C-H-R-0-E-D-E-R. The pipeline just needs to be shut down. We gain nothing out of this. pipeline. Shut down the Paul Schroeder.
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Can you spell your
It's -- we already got failing oil
and gas infrastructure. Labor can get just as good of jobs, they're probably better than working for five weeks on a pipeline that 50 years from now is going to be ruining our soil, our water and our land and our ability to feed our country. We need to build wind turbines. to build solar panels. whole system. We need
We've got to rewire the
We've got to work on the
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electrical grid. cars.
We've got to build renewable
Auto is labor.
Labor -- we -- turn down the Keystone XL
Pipeline, labor wins, agriculture wins, and the climate wins. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. 153.
JoELLEN POLZIEN: My name is JoEllen Polzien. MS. HOBGOOD: your last name. JoELLEN POLZIEN: need my first spelled, too.
Good evening.
Could you spell
I think you
It's capital J-0
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no space, capital E-L-L-E-N; Polzien, P as in Paula, 0-L-Z, as in zebra, I-E-N. that before. You've heard all the science. know the facts. all of that. And you I've done
And I'm not going to repeat I would not
I'm not a scientist.
be eloquent with that. But I want to tell you a little bit about my story and why I decided about 2007 that climate change was critical and we had to do something. Excuse me. And my grandparents came to Nebraska In fact, it was more like 2005.
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on -- I'm a lifelong Nebraskan. here my entire life.
I've lived
And my grandparents came
to Nebraska in the late 1870s or '80s.

And my grandfather was so passionate
about William Jennings Bryan, he named one of
his sons after him. And he bred dogs and gave
two of them to William Jennings Bryan who

accepted them.
I come from a long history of people who fight for what's right. And that's what my
grandparents were doing way back then. I marched on the streets of Chicago with Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson as a young person. I walked the streets of Lincoln -- talk about stupidity and futile optimism. I walked
the streets of Lincoln JFK, for John Kerry for Barack Obama and for some others. And, of
course, I'm sure you realize how futile that was. Nonetheless, I did it. I lived two years in North Platte, which is west of here. I understand -- not like the
rest of these people do who live out here now as adults, but I understand the fragility of this land and how important it is that we speak
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up and do what's right. My daughter is in Cameroon, Africa, with the Peace Corps right now. finish. She's about to
I had the fortune of visiting her for I saw what it looks
three weeks last summer.
like when the environment's destroyed, where there's no infrastructure, when there's total chaos. Total chaos, that is what our future is
if the climate change moves forward. Keystone is - has potential of being the worst climate disaster in the history of the world. Please, please, please tell John
Kerry, tell Barack Obama not to do this. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 154. CATHY DOBIAS: Cathy Dobias, Thank you.
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C-A-T-H-Y, D-0-B-I-A-S, a concerned farmer. We are very concerned about what the pipeline is going to do to the agricultural economy of our farming community. A leak in the aquifer would be devastating as our livestock and crops use a lot of water, and people won't want to eat food produced with water contaminated with
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carcinogens and oil.
What will it do to the
prices of land as it has already affected the sale of some land in our area. And I'm going to stop now. Last night
as I was redoing my testimony, I came across an article from the York News Times written by Greg Awtry called A Half Inch of Steel. "Senator Ben Nelson's weekly column for the last week of June 2012 says, Nebraska is an agriculture state. Our economy and thousands
and thousands of jobs, depending on how well agriculture is doing, discussing the new farm bill, Nelson talks about Nebraska's corn, beans, beef, ethanol and even popcorn. "He says in 2010, commodities alone brought cash receipts to Nebraska totaling more than $17 billion. Over a 50-year period, that
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number in today's dollars explodes to 850 billion. And that is just the cash flowing
into Nebraska from the sale of crops and livestock.

"That incredible number doesn't include the commerce associated with agricultural operations like jobs, equipment, sales and taxes.
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"It is safe to bet to say Nebraska's past, present and future are dependent on agriculture. How is this possible? Wasn't
this land called the great American desert? President Jefferson called it an immense and tactless desert -- trackless desert. ''What happened? what happened. The Ogallala Aquifer is
Well, it didn't just happen. But it
It had been formed -- forming for eons. was discovered in the mid 1800s. the rest is history.
As they say,
"Nebraska became and still is one of the most fertile food-producing regions on the planet. Now, what are we thinking when we even
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consider running a toxic oil pipeline right over and right through in some cases the only thing that keeps Nebraska from turning into a desert again?"
I think I lost part of my paper. Anyway, farmers now have to put containment under fuel tanks to keep it from leaching to the water. Yet, the pipeline that isn't
helping the U.S. at all can.

Since it is an export pipeline, we will get very little. It is unprocessed oil with
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carcino
carcinogenic chemicals.
We have problems with nitrates because
of porous, permeable soils in our area.
It
leaches through the soil much faster than

heavier soils, and it happened before we
realized it.
We have been working with the Natural
Resources District to use it through the
irrigation, to reuse it and get the nitrates out and prevent more problems. It can be cleaned out with reverse osmosis, which the tar sands can't. We have
learned that we need to prevent contamination, and we don't want a foreign company coming through with no benefits to the U.S. that the pipeline will contaminate it. don't want it. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 155. DR. THOMAS HEATHERLY: My name is Dr. Thomas Heatherly, II, H-E-A-T-H-E-R-L-Y. So William pointed out after the break, the union guys all just completely walked away. They put in their hours, and they split. And Hello. Thank you. We know And we
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they left the hearing to us and to you. And it really struck home that, you know, after two years, they can just slap this pipeline in the ground and then they're going to disappear. And then for the rest of our
lives we're going to have to deal with it, and the government is going to have to deal with
it.
And that-- yeah. So I want to deal with one of the really
insidious lies that's been coming out of TransCanada. And this lie is the fact that the
claim that the development of tar sands won't be slowed if this pipeline is denied. The processes that make tar sands extraction and refining so much more energy intensive also makes the profit margin that much smaller. There are serious doubts about new developments going forward without Keystone XL. And the only up side that I do see, potentially, is it will generate tax dollars to fi 11 holes in state budgets. And I do not
understand how we can risk so much to our communities just because some flip-flopping governments can't balance their budgets.
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And, finally, I've read the reports and papers about climate change through the eyes of scientists. And I just want to say there is
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absolutely no debate about climate change. What I've read has literally kept me up at night. So, I mean, we really need to keep these fossil fuels in the ground and denying the pipeline by itself won't save us from climate change. We have a 1 ot of work to do. But it's
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my serious hope that by denying this pipeline, that this will create a real catalyst for a new environmental movement because I really want to see - because I really want to have a silent screen-type moment in my lifetime. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speaker Nos. 156, 157, 158, 159, 160. 156. CORA KOEHLER: My name is Cora And I'll be
Koehler, C-0-R-A, K-0-E-H-L-E-R. brief.
I'm from Chicago and a student at Elmhurst College. Yet, here I stand with my
Nebraskan brothers and sisters.
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It is no secret that our planet is

warming. And it is no secret that Keystone XL
Pipeline encouraged our planet's already rising

temperature and destruction. So I will make my
feelings on the pipeline no secret.

I believe -- I believe Nebraska,
Chicago, the United States and the entire globe
deserve better than the Keystone XL.
I am an antibody fighting the disease of
disregard for the Planet Earth and its people
and because of that, I vote no to Keystone XL
and yes to a cleaner form of energy.
Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 157.
158.
159.
160.
161 .
KATIE QUIRING: My name is Katie Quiring. Q-U-I-R-I-N-G.
And I -- thank you all very much for
staying and giving us this opportunity for a few more of us to share with you our thoughts Good evening.
Thank you.
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and feelings on this topic. appreciate that.
I just really
Thank you for that.
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I would like to say, first and foremost,
that I am proud to be an agricultural education instructor in the great state of Nebraska.

I
teach 7th through 12th graders and enjoy them very much most days.
One topic that we discussed that was very interesting last quarter in my wildlife management and natural resource class, we talked about soils. We talked about the
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aquifer specifically in Nebraska, which, of course, led us to the topic of the Keystone XL Pipeline. My students did about three days' worth of research, pros and cons, for this topic, the pipeline. And we came together as a class and
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debated and weighed the pros and cons. And I can honestly tell you as an educator, it was extremely concerning to me to have a roomful of 26 high school seniors, juniors and seniors questioning me, wondering what they could do to stop this, feeling helpless, telling them that the state government had already decided, that it was up
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to our president to put a stop to this Keystone XL Pipeline. That being said, my students decided to take it upon themselves to write letters to Senator Kerry. One of my students was bold
enough, he decided to address the president himself. So they were very excited to send
those letters off. And I appreciated their willingness to do that and told them that all we have left to do is pray and let the president who we elected to that position to take care of us, to 1 ook for the country's best interest, to make that decision and stop this pipeline. I come to you now speaking as a fifth-generation Nebraskan farmer, farm wife, and soon to be mother for the first time. My husband and I were both born and raised in York County. We are both
agricultural advocates and excited to welcome our first son to the world next month. We really - it's really concerning becoming a mother for the first time. I think
and worry about things that will happen in my son's life, things that he will have to face,
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decisions he wi 11 have to make.
And I really
don't want his water quality to be one of those things that I worry about. I want to instill in my high schools students, as well as my chi 1dren, the importance of being stewards of the land, good stewards of the 1and, agricultural advocates, believing in this legacy that has been a part of Nebraskan farmers for so long. If you've never been on a agricultural - on a Nebraskan farm, I encourage you to go. The people you will meet
there are some of the most hard-working, sincere, genuine - genuine people that you wi 11 come across. And they believe in that
legacy for Nebraska. So I thank you very much for your time and this opportunity to speak with you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Nos. 162, 163, 164, 165, as I call your number, if you can be prepared to speak. 162. 163. 164. RICHARD SILVESTRI: Hi. I'm
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Richard Silvestri. Florida.
I'm from Fort Pierce,
The last name is S-I-L-V-E-S-T-R-I.
My next birthday I'm going to be 70 years old.

Ten weeks ago I woke up in the hospital
bed, my second knee replaced. sitting over there. My wife is
We've
She has COPD.
come -- we flew up here yesterday from Orlando

to Omaha. We rented a car and drove the 150
We arrived last
miles over here to be here. night.
We put the trip -- no one pays us to be here. We have never received money. Never
have asked for money. cost about $1,000.
This trip has already
We're paying for it ourself
because we want you to know, all these Nebraskans that I have listened to this morning, that I've stood in line in the snow this morning with, they're not alone. Florida knows. that you're not alone. fight in Nebraska. United States. I'm here to tell you This is not just a
This is a fight for the
This is a fight for the world,
for the people of the world. I have my notes here. off at the door on my way out. I' 11 drop them What I wrote
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here you've heard all day long. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 165.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speakers No. 166, 167, 168, 169 and 170,

please come to the floor as your number is
as your number approaches.
166.
167. 167. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you
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for coming to the great State of Nebraska from Washington to hear us people. We are and we
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we are putting our trust i n you, President Obama, and all the other officials that wi 11 have a hand in this. I just turned 75. I'm not here tonight. I'm not going
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This is all going to be ad lib.
to be near as eloquent as some of the speakers have. But everything I tell you is going to be
clear from my heart and for my children, my grandchildren and many generations to come. I think it brought it home, most of us, since we've been in this fight -- we had people from New York and Chicago at our place just last week. And they interviewed my wife and I
and taped us way too long.
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They wanted to meet our daughter and son-in-law and the grandkids that run our place now. My great-grandfather tree claimed that place. We have the deed that was signed by
Grover Cleveland. We are not here for the short haul . But
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it got put to us so great, he didn't even plan on interviewing any of our children or grandchildren. him. But they got to visiting with
So they started. When they got to our eight year old, he
said - this is not rehearsed, President, or any of you that are making a decision on this. They asked our eight year old, what do you think about the pipeline. He says, I need freshwater, my ani mal s and pets need freshwater, our plants need freshwater so we can live, we cannot live on saltwater. That came so true.
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I sympathize with the union that were here before. I wish they were here for me to
answer some of their questions or comments. They said it's so much safer a pipeline. I will agree a percentage of spills. If
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the whole railroad upsets out here, I don't care whether it's next to our house --we have a railroad - or where it's at, in just a matter of a few minutes, there will be construction people there cleaning that up. I don't believe TransCanada or anybody else has the means to get SCUBA divers even to volunteer to go underneath and clean up our water, because their paper towels are going to be soaked before they ever get down there. There is no way of cleaning it up. We have to have our water exist. just a given fact. Somebody said it before, that we're 80, 90 percent water standing here. much of me here. There's too It's
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But I'm only 80 percent.
There's only 10 percent of me that's not water. That's just the water I've got to get rid of. I think you people that are taking your time and staying with us, we appreciate it. I'm going to try to wrap this up. with me a minute, will you? Look out at the crowd. with you? Who's staying It Please bear
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It wasn't the pipeline fitters.
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wasn't TransCanada.
These are the people that
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made this great land of Nebraska and the Midwest.

And we have people from Chicago. We
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heard just a man from Florida a minute ago. This is a national issue. Protect our water. If we lose our
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water, our defense is going to be in trouble. I am a veteran, too. I could go on and on. time. Thank you for yours. I'll give up my Please give this
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message to the president and Mr. Kerry. MS. HOBGOOD: No. 168. TERI HLAVA: Hello. My name is Thank you.
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Teri Hlava, T-E-R-I, H-L-A-V-A. I've lived in Nebraska all my life. And
someone brought up the topic of gainful taxes to be brought to Nebraska. And it jogged my
memory -- I wish I would have brought the article, but I recently read something. was And i t
it involved representative Adrian Smith,
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who is the representative from Nebraska of our third district of where I lived for 40 years. And he's on the House Ways and Means Committee. And this involved -- there was an op ed
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article.
And it involved what appears to be
the fact -- and I would like to encourage you to look more into this. And I'll try to But
forward that source on via e-mail to you. the fact that because what is going to be flowing or would be flowing through the
Keystone Pipeline is so full of bitumen, that that does not qualify as oil and, as a result, TransCanada would not have to pay into the tax fund for cleanup, that instead, it waul d be required of the United States to pay for the cleanup, TransCanada would not have to do that. And I think that's an important element that maybe we should think about. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 169.
KAJA REBANE: Rebane. My name is Kaja Thank you.
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That's K-A-J-A, R-E-B-A-N-E. I'd like to speak to the idea that the
pipeline is going to create jobs and, therefore, we should build it. heard a lot earlier today.
And I have a bit of a different perspective on this than the pipeline workers That's one we
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we heard from earlier this morning. I'm an active union member and a very proud union member. I've spent a lot of my
time fighting for better wages, better benefits for our members. I've worked from the steward level up through co-president of my union, state and national as well. identity. This is a part of my
And it's an important one.
And I can say that those folks do not speak for labor. They do not speak for the men
and women I know in Wisconsin who are fighting for a better life. Also, I'm a graduate student currently in applied economics. And because of that, I So I wanted
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know a little bit about economics.
to speak a bit about this idea about jobs. So, first off, as many people have already discussed, it's doubtful that the pipeline is actually going to create net jobs. So I'm not even going to talk about that. That's been discussed.
But for the sake of argument, let's just say it does create jobs. say that. Just -- let's just
I think it's really important to
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realize why jobs are a good thing.
This is But a
really a fundamental part of economics.
lot of people don't think about it even up to the policy level and don't really - I honestly don't understand it. Jobs are basically good because they create value. If, you know, Joe the Baker down
the street bakes a loaf of bread, society is now one loaf of bread richer. And if I go and buy that loaf of bread from Joe, I get the bread, I give him money, he's able to then go and buy the fruits of somebody else's labor. better off. And society becomes
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That's the whole idea.
But let's say that we just want to create a job and we don't care what kind of job
it is.
So I take a gun, and I say, hey, you
know, you, Fred, whatever, Fred, come over here, I'll pay you if you go down, walk down the street, point that gun at people's heads and shoot them. It's a job; right? No? It's good; yeah?
I mean, it seems like from what I've been But I say it's
hearing all day, maybe it is. not.
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And the reason it's not is because it's not adding value. negative value.
And Keystone XL is very much like this. We all have a big gun pointed at our heads right now. It is called climate change. And It is adding damage. It is
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it's pointed at our children's heads and our grandchildren's heads.

And right now if we lay that pipeline and we pay people to work on that pipeline and lay that pipeline, we're basically paying them to pull the trigger on that gun. And I don't
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think that's what we should be doing. We need jobs. We need clean energy
jobs, energy efficiency job, good, solid jobs with good wages. But you don't need to be
destroying ourselves to do it. So, please, I urge you to deny this pipeline. Don't help pull the trigger.
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And I thank you very much. MS. HOBGOOD: KAJA REBANE: Thank you. And just one final
thing, I think it -- I'm really grateful for the opportunity to come and testify. I really
wish that there were more hearings across the
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country because this is something that is important to all of us and not just folks in Nebraska. MS. HOBGOOD: JORGE ARAUZ: Speaker 170. Good evening. My
name is Jorge Arauz, J-0-R-G-E, A-R-A-U-Z. Thank you for being here. about you. I'm worried And I
You have had a long day.
worry, also, because I hope this is not a reflection of the process. I wish - I wish we
had had more of you here and that you had not been subjected to this grueling long day of testimonies, which for me, however, have been very uplifting. This is an important thing for me and my life. Five years ago today my mother died. He
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And today is my father-in-law's birthday.
said to me, you go, Son, I used to do that when I was young, now it's your turn. I grew up in Ecuador, South America. Small farm. And the land in my family taught
me a deep respect for the ground that support our life and supported the life of the creatures around us. There is a great crime being perpetrated
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in the tar sands forests of Canada.
Our
government must not become an accomplice to this crime.

In 2005, I served as a Red Cross volunteer in the Gulf Port Biloxi area of the Gulf Coast. When Karina -- Katrina struck and
I witnessed the destruction of property and nature and the suffering inflicted on people by climate forces driven out of what? Because of
our economic practices, our consumption, overconsumption, overreliance on fossi 1 fuel. Please let me tell you something more before I go. us. I want to share a story dear to When I went to Katrina,
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I'm a christian.
it was my great good meeting that supported me that job. There's a story that this
foundation, tradition -- to our faith tradition.

When God created creation, he saw and he said, that is good, very good. And then something happened. Human kind
started to act in ways that were offensive to his eyes. He decided to destroy it.
But still saved one family and only one family God saved, a pair of every creature on
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earth.
Do not let those creatures go extinct. And after that event -- and I will
conclude with this. patience.
Thank you for your
These are the words that are
recorded in this book, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood and never again would I destroy all living creatures as I have done." We -- we be the ones who destroy the lives that my God and maybe your God, too, and our God strove to preserve.
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Speaker Nos. 171, 172, 173, 174 and 175, when I get close to calling your number, if you can be very close to the microphone, I think that would save us a little bit of time. MIKE GOODMAN: MS. HOBGOOD: MIKE GOODMAN: Goodman, G-0-0-D-M-A-N.
Rather than continue to repeat the ideas that have been so well expressed by many others all day, first of all, I wanted to raise a few Okay. 171. 171, Mike Thank you. My -
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procedural concerns that disturbed me today. I attend numerous hearings and public information sessions at various levels of government. And I'm really concerned about the I really
extreme level of security today. don't feel that it's necessary.
And just the fact that we have State Department personnel here, I really don't think that's justification for putting people that have traveled long distances through all the delays and inconveniences and discomfort that at least I went through and I think many others this morning. keep of mind. Also, since you all work for the State Department, you're doubtlessly aware that the U.S. has an embassy in Ottawa, Canada. That So I think that's a point to
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embassy is located just across the street from Parliament Hill. And I think that role that
the State Department should be playing through that embassy is to be sending a message to the Canadian government. And that's very simple.
And that's if you wish to exploit your tar sands -- if you wish to exploit them, then you should build your own refineries on your own
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soil and do it there and if you wish to export the product that was tar sand to China, then you do it by building pipelines on your own territory and exporting it via Canadian ports. The track record of Canadian resources and energy companies is not a good one at all. There's been environmental damage caused by Canadian mining enterprises in El Salvador, in Columbia and elsewhere in Latin America. And
that's a precedent that we certainly don't want to see repeated in this country. So I think that's the type of message that we should be sending to Canada. And it's
time to we revive the old slogan of 5440 or fight. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 172. BRUCE NOBLE; B-R-U-C-E, N-0-B-L-E. Good evening. service. Thank you for your I'm Bruce Noble, Thank you.
And thank you for the overtime you've Overtime sports It wasn't that
given us in this big arena. arena. good. You got it. All right. Okay.
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I have come to Nebraska with three of my friends from Wisconsin to be in solidarity with the State of Nebraska. be here. I represent the Grandparents Alliance to Stop the Pipeline. of it. You've probably never heard And I can assure you And I'm very proud to
But it's there.
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that the president does not want to mess with angry grandparents. That's not too bright. And I
I'm a 78-year-old grandparent.
I made this trip to be an elder or kind of a model for protecting the earth and all grandchildren to follow the Iraquoin idea of making sure decisions protect seven generations, not just foster monetary profits of the moment. Two of my grandchildren live in Nebraska. Their grandmother, uncles and aunts I implore the State
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ranch in the Sandhills.
Department and President Obama not to make a decision that would increase the risk of environmental calamity for my grandchildren and the many generations to come. I support unions and job creation. this project comes with substantial health But
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cost.
3-1/2 years ago, I was diagnosed with throat cancer. alive. I'm fortunate to still be But I pledged to
The tumor is gone.
make my life count for the remaining years that I have.

My goal is to protect our grandchildren as long as I live, to guard them with my life. Build this pipeline, and you will see grandparents along with me here to stop it. My daughter was born in the same year as President Obama, in 1961. He could be my son.
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His daughter -- daughters could be my grandchildren. I would be proud of that.
President Obama, please protect your grandchildren. Stop the pipeline.
Thank you very much.

MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 173. MIKE PAGE: Good evening. My Thank you.
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name's Mike Page, M-I-K-E, P-A-G-E. I come here from Boulder County, Colorado, what you might know is the home of the National Center for Atmospheric Research where I used to work.
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A group of people, large group of people I used to support shared the Nobel Prize with Vice President Al Gore.
It's also home to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NITS, National Institute of Technology of Standards and University of Colorado. In Boulder, Boulder County, I think there's 100 percent agreement that climate change is real and it's anthropogenic. Backwards in my 1 i fe, I served four years as a local city council-level person in Hamilton County, Ohio. And prior to that at a very young age, I was born and raised in Oklahoma who I'm sometimes ashamed to say has elected one of the dullest crayons in the senate, Senator James lnhofe, who says climate change is a hoax. There's six points that you are considering this pipeline under, energy security, health, environment, cultural, economic, foreign policy. talking points. I just have some
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I apologize for the cliches.
It's been a long day. I think the proper name for this
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pipeline project is Keystone export pipeline because there is no energy security from this pipeline. All the refined product is going
overseas to places, 1ike, Asia, Europe and South America. There's no obligation to
reserve this fuel for American consumers. In terms of health, Denver itself had its own pipeline spilled, tar sands oil in 2011, that caused the closure of a technical service facility at Suncor Refinements Refinery, in Denver, caused workers to wear respirators. Their risk to drinking water,
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agricultural, wildlife habitat and chemical release of these tar sands oils released benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, both carcinogens, hydrogen sulfide, which has a very high acute toxicity, and bitumen, which is very harmful to the environment. The first EIS done by the EPA on this project had an inadequate rating because of the lack of information on the diluents. The
Keystone I pipeline had 30 spills over its 3-year lifetime. It's only three years old.
The predicted spill rate was once every 7 years, but they've had 30 in 3 years.
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Keystone XL is a fuse to North America's biggest carbon time bomb. It's going to be the
largest contribution to climate disruption in the history of the planet. We've heard a lot today from the indigenous peoples. They really do. their viewpoints. Kaja just talked about some of the economic aspects of job creation. fiction, foreign policy. Pure They have my respect.
And I understand and support
The U.S. needs to
lead the climate change policies instead of following. Can I just have one more minute? got a resolution from the Boulder County Democratic party executive committee that I'd like to read into the record. "Resolution on prohibiting tar sands oil shipments, whereas, there continue to be a high number of high profile oil spills on a regular basis; whereas, there have been spills of tar sands in Arkansas, Michigan and Denver; whereas, the Michigan oil spill that polluted the Kalamazoo River took place in 2010 and is still not cleaned up; whereas, tar sands oil I've
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pollution is more toxic and harder to clean up than standard crude oil due to the density, chemical additives necessary for its transport; whereas, the industry has not demonstrated that the knowledge and skill to clean up a tar sands oi 1 spi 11 exists; therefore, it be resolved that the Boulder County Democratic party request the United States federal government place an embargo on the transportation of tar sands oil within the United States until such time as the capability exists to clean up and restore the environment to its original state in the event of a tar sands oil spill. Thank you very much. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 174. 175. BILL MOORE: Before I start, I Thank you.
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just wanted to say other than thank you for staying late, I appreciate the fact that you stayed awake all the time and have good eye contact. You actually look like you're
interested in what we have to say. I also appreciate that you're being very polite and letting people speak a little bit
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longer and allowing for applause, which is not

the case in many situations like this. I'm Bill Moore, M-0-0-R-E, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. with five others. Drove here overnight
Slipped and slid on the way.
We knew of the forecast but came anyway. In response to a previous speaker, we came in a fossil fuel-burning vehicle because there is essentially no other way to get here, a situation created by the automobile, road building and oil companies' billions of dollars. We came because, as the Nebraska Sierrans said, we care and came for love. We
came because we care about the future health of not only each other and our children but of the earth and all its inhabitants, including those without a voice. I realize decisions on situations like this pipeline are normally made on technical and scientific bases and should be but really are made with politics in mind. But I ask the State Department to consider the most important scientific factor, what is the best decision for the longest
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period of time and for the greatest part of the planet. For instance, what is our experience with manmade objects? There are no dams that
will not eventually be breached, no buildings that will not collapsed -- collapse or being abandoned, no road that will not return to nature, no nuclear plant that will not have radioactive waste, no car that will run forever and no pipeline that will not carry nontoxic oil and will not burst. There is no fossil fuel that doesn't pollute. madness. So the only answer is to stop the We must put our resources into clean And even the U.S. military
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energy now.
recognizes this in opposition to the general who spoke earlier. My daughter and son-in-law are in the Peace Corps in Panama working to help the natives improve their lives. They live like
the natives, without electricity and use very little energy. stark. We use 25 percent of the world's energy with less than 5 percent of the world's The comparison with the U.S. is
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population. energy.
We don't need to use that much
And certainly we need to wean
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ourselves off of dirty fuels which are creating global warming and climate change. I was interested when Nebraska was concerned with the original location of the pipeline. What that proves is that the
pipeline leakage is a probability and a problem no matter where it's located. And, lastly, jobs. clean energy. There are jobs in
We must put our energy into
creating jobs producing that energy because our planet's future will depend on those jobs. No to dirty energy and no to Keystone. MS. HOBGOOD: 177, 178, 179 and 180. Thank you. 176,
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And please come to the
floor as your number approaches. 176. CHRIS ZAPF: Zapf. Frank. I'm a court reporter, too. you're going through. And ditto Bi 11 's, thanks to you also for hearing us still tonight. It's very late, I I know what Hi. I'm Chris
That's Z-A-P, as in Peter, F as in
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know.
I'm from Waukesha, Wisconsin. missed a few days of work to be here. such a critical moment. I just -- I'm here because I'm scared. I'm really scared. In our state of And I This is
Wisconsin has even had some fuel -- fossi 1 fuel problems of our own.
Last July the town of Jackson was hit by a really bad spill, contaminating the water and the environment. Residents had to leave their
homes and move into hotels.

Although it took some time and great amounts of money, they're back at home. they still can't drink their water. great concern for their health. Many now want to leave their homes. They want to sell them but can't. wants to buy that property. So this spi 11 has several -- has severely affected all these people in a very big, bad way just like the other spills we've seen before, Arkansas, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and so many other areas, by either tar sands or other fuels. Why? Nobody But
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So what in God's name are we doing to this beloved earth? I'm sure He would not be
happy with what's happening. I realize many of us are suffering financially these days. I know it's jobs
environment always seems to be the argument. But -- I know we want to work. way. This is an ugly way.
Please put an end to this dangerous tar sands boon and bust industry. sustainable employment.
When you take a look at the map of the pipeline -- pipelines that are spreading across the country, it so appears to be an out-of-control cancer that will leave us with devastation, permanent scars and put us far deeper into debt, i . e. , cleanup costs, sickness, many more extreme weather events. We can't afford this. a clean energy America. please.
MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. 177. Let's turn toward It's not But not this
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Deny the pipeline,
178.
TERRY WIGGINS: Hi. My name is
Terry Wiggins, T-E-R-R-Y, W-I-G-G-I-N-S.
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And I'm another one of this gang of five who drove overnight from Milwaukee to come here to tell you about our concern. The -- but before I do that, I want to say thank you to you for your being here now. I think I saw you also in Kansas when I was - when I testified there a couple of years ago. Before that I was in D.C. in August of 2011. And I was one of the 1,253 who was
arrested to try and bring attention to the issue. And I'm certainly heartened how much attention this issue has gotten in the intervening time. I'm also worried that there are relatively very few of us in this room compared to how many there are in this country. that -- that concerns me. I think that the major issue out of the tar sands really is the contribution to climate change that will be made. I had come with a whole list of things that I was going to talk about of all of the problems. But they've been well talked about And
prior to my getting up here today.
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And I think that the most important

thing to say is what this pipeline is, that
it's a means of intergenerational theft.
If we allow i t to be built, we will be
stealing life, stealing life from our children
and our grandchildren. And I have to ask, do
I don't
we want to cook our grandchildren? think so.

MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 179. MARK GILL: name is Mark Gill, G-I-L-L.
Thank you.
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Good evening.
My
And I'm not a court reporter so -- but I'm one of the Milwaukee group, Milwaukee six that drove through the night, 12 hours, through all sorts of inclement weather to be here and stayed to deliver some kind of rambling sentiment that I feel is important. And I think it's -- an important point is that of our group, none of us have an economic incentive to be here. In fact, it
cost us money, time and effort and effort - you know, a lot to be here. And when I listen to the scintillating testimony of both sides, it occurred to me that
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the proponents of the pipeline almost by and large had an economic self-interest in raising that point. They were -- it was for jobs or
for their union or for the API. And when I looked at the other side, it was rarely about self-interest, about economic self-interest. It was more about the commons
and caring for our world and our planet and doing the right thing so that future generations have a liveable planet. Climate change is a huge issue for me. That's my primary reason. There's lots of But for me,
reasons not to do this pipeline.
the climate change is -- it's just huge and just very scary. We've seen so many storms. And every
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year we are seeing -- the evening news, it's another story about drought and what wild fires and -- in the west and the Mississippi River is at flood -- record flood stage, and next year it's down at record
1 ow 1 evel
s.
And now my
guess is we're going to be back with crisis again. And this is new. we haven't seen before. This is something that And if we build this
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pipeline, all we're doing is exacerbating the situation.

And I just -- I've been in my right
mind I say how on earth can we possibly do this? I believe we have the solutions. know what to do. We
It's not -- it's not, you I haven't got much sleep
know, brain surgery. last night. things to do.
But we have all of the levers and And, yet, economic self-interest
for little groups is tripping us up and stopping us from achieving, you know, really what -- what's possible for our planet. We could have done so much. still can do so much. forever. And we
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But we don't have And this is
The window's closing.
our time to make a stand.

And I want President Obama and John Kerry to do what I know is the right thing. And, you know, people, when I said I was coming here, they said, this is foolish, they're not going to listen to you, what they've got big corporations and multi-million dollar, you know, donors and politicians and those are the people that count.
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And my hope is that you really hear us and hear about the people that really care about the future of our planet and our world and our future generations and really take that message back and do what you can because we need all the help we can get. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 180. MICHAEL ARNEY: is Michael Arney, A-R-N-E-Y. I'm also here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I'm the head of the Milwaukee Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby. So I want to follow up with something Mark just said about we don't have much time but, you know, thinking about climate change and this pipeline proposal. Burning fossil fuels is 1 ike running hot sludge into a bath without an overflow drain. The warning light on the tub says 350. got there in 1989. It's at 396 now. And we The Okay. My name Thank you.
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sludge is sloshing around.
We don't know just
when it's going to overflow or how bad it will be. Now TransCanada is asking us, mind if we
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put in another spigot.
I mind.
The Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement has a theory that this new spigot wouldn't add any new sludge to the bath. Bu.t $7 bi 11 ion of TransCanada' s money says it wi 11 . New spi gats, be they coal plants or this pipeline, must be fought. pipeline. Say no to the
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Yes to clean energy. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speakers 181 , 182, 183, 184 and 185, i f you can come to the floor as your number approaches. 181 . JOSH KOLESZAR: Koleszar, K-0-L-E-S-Z-A-R. I'm going to begin with a reading from the journal of Henry Stimson, Secretary of War during World War II. On June 1st, 1945, says, in quote, "I had General Arnold, who was commander of the Army Air Force, and discussed with him the bombing of B-29s in Japan. I told him there My name is Josh
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was one city that they must not bomb without my permission and that was Kyoto," unquote. What's missing from this journal entry
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and from his justification for not sending the atomic bomb down on the Department of War's No. 1 target is that he and his wife had stayed at Kyoto for their honeymoon. In essence, what was silent and is explicit justification is what is most glaringly missing to me and all of the government reports concerning this Keystone XL Pipeline. And that missing piece is beauty.
c-
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So what could beauty add to the report that we don't already know? Beauty shows us What
the value of things beyond the numbers.
kind of dollar amount can you attribute to the place where you spent your honeymoon or the breathtaking history of that city or the people you met while you were there? Numerical analysis and market values break down when you consider the beauty of something. And we desperately need beauty in
this report because so much of what is being put at risk by this pipeline is immensely beautiful, yet relatively worthless in the eyes of shareholder reports, on product move, product refined and product sold. I have been fortunate enough to meet
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with some of this threatened beauty over the last few years. And it is a brave and
beautiful group of people that have come together to challenge this pipeline. Landowners' stories I've heard through the hearings and meetings and on buses together break my heart when I think of the future they may have to face.
I grew up drinking well water from an underground aquifer. I have walked the
invaluable beauty of an untouched Nebraska prairie. These are things we must protect, not
because our GDP is dependent upon them, but because they hold a worth far greater than material wealth, and it is their beauty that informs us on just how severe of a risk we are taking.
Still, I am not qualified to comment on the whole of this pipeline. I know only a very
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small part of a very small part of what is at risk. In fact, Ken Ilgunas may be the only
person who can comment from that large of a perspective as he is the only person I know of to walk the entirety of the Keystone XL route. He knows more of the route more intimately than
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any other single person here. He has seen, heard, smelled, felt and probably even tasted what is missing from an abstract, two-dimensional map. I would think it's only reasonable that the Keystone executives proposing this pipeline would take up the gauntlet he has thrown down by his excursion and walk their own route before asking anyone for the use of their land. For who can say what it means that Nagasaki was destroyed until you have walked its streets, met its residents and slept in its embrace? And who can say what is at risk until you have met the landowners, laughed with their families, danced in their circles, drank from their well, helped birth their calves and worked their fields.
Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. 182.
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D'SHAWN CUNNINGHAM: words spoken), welcome to Nebraska. MS. HOBGOOD:

If you
(NonEnglish
D'SHAWN CUNNINGHAM:
My name is
D'Shawn Cunningham, D, apostrophe, capital
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S-H-A-W-N.
Cunningham is the common spelling.
There is a Hopi Indian prophecy that says at the end of one age and beginning of another, which we are currently in, the world will be in a state of chaos following destructive teachings. To fight for the
benefit of the world, a new breed of people will walk the earth called the Rainbow Tribe. What we have seen at this hearing today is just a small fraction of the new Rainbow Tribe of earth. People of all colors and
creeds from Nebraska and beyond are united to stop the evil this pipeline would bring. To quote another message from the Hopi, we are the ones we have been waiting for. The
people of Nebraska will be the ones to stop the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline is bad for the environment, and it's bad for people. The final decision on the Keystone Pipeline does not rest with the State Department, nor President Obama. The final say
on the pipeline rests with the people of Nebraska. Regardless of what you do as a
result of this hearing, know that choosing to
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be on the wrong side of hi story wi 11 result in all peoples of Nebraska rising up against the corporate environmental assault. promise. That's a
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(NonEnglish words spoken). MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
Speaker No. 183. 184. 185. SUE MITCHELL: My name is Sue
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Mitchell, S-U-E, M-1-T-C-H-E-L-L. I am a lifetime Nebraskan cowgirl. And
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I'm very proud of my folks that brought me into this world. We live in the Sandhills. I have ridden
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my horse miles and miles and miles over these Sandhi 11 s, through the aquifer, through the cricks. I've drank this water. Artisan wells,
the water comes up and you just drink this cool water. I went to school in a little town called There are two flowing wells right in And when went -- we were
the little town.
going to grade school, the big thing for us girls and kids at school, our teachers made us run down to the well, get a drink of this cold,
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cold water, run back to the school house. then we were refreshed. running. We were tired of
And
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And we sat down in that school, and
we learned. That water is so valuable to us. four little grandchildren. I have
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My eight-year-old
grandchild has a little pony that's called Thunderpants. Mason and Thunderpants has gone with me through this whole fight against this pipeline. He has more common sense than a lot of these people. He knows that this water is good for
him and his pony and that's how they're going to survive. I want to teach my grandkids - I've taught my children. I've - I'm trying now to
teach my grandchildren the stewardship that my folks have taught me. those Sandhills. granted. You have to take care of
You can't take them for
You can't open them up and expect
them to come back to the original place, original pastures. I want them to - I want to go horseback riding with them through these Sandhills, not through the Keystone Pipeline, not through the
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tar sands, the lovely cricks. And I don't know what to say. Ditto
from everybody else that was here that said all those wonderful things. Please help me live with my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren and let me teach them the stewardship that we need and the land that we love. Thanks. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Nos. 186, 187, 188, 189 and 190. DAVID DAVIS: MS. HOBGOOD: DAVID DAVIS: try not to repeat. My wife and I operate a Illinois corporation. morning. And we also ice skated here this
186. 186.
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David Davis.
I'll
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We have no financial interest in the
fossil fuel industry or in the renewable energy industry. But we do have an interest in 1 ogi c. And the day that you posted the Draft Supplemental and we started reading it and we didn't understand the logic. to us. It was confusing
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I'm going to summarize it. paraphrase.
I'll
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You said anthropogenic global You said tar sands oil
warming is real.
extraction produces significantly more greenhouse gases than conventional oil extraction. However, since the sands below the Boreal Forest will be harvested with or without KXL, the U.S. should approve the project. didn't make much sense to us. And others have pointed that out this evening. Or today, I guess. And partially That
because of the financial problems that Canadian a tar sands development has had. I just want
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to add one more thing, one more event, and that Total 's decision a few days ago to take a $1.65 billion loss to abandon a tar sands development. I think probably that makes the
conclusion not - not a good conclusion. We did, however, discover the logic, unfortunately. We went on your website again.
And we discovered that you had chosen ERM and EnSys. sense. And I think I - I'm - I don't want to And that kind of made the 1ogi c make
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repeat what other people have said.
I think
someone else has already said EnSys has sized Koch Industry, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil. I don't think they mentioned ERM as -- it was pretty married to the tobacco industry at one time.
So, unfortunately, i t does explain the logic, but I think it also indicates the Draft Supplemental is taken, that it's clearly biased and it must be scrapped. Someone also mentioned earlier, the clear water of Ontario, I believe. tell a little story about the lake that my wife and I have experienced. In 1968 while going to graduate school in Cleveland for the summer, we swam in the filth of Lake Erie, not realizing that the Great Lakes at that time were near dead or dying -- and dying. Now, we observed after that our country attack the problem and pretty much take care of it. It was something we attacked. And we took I'd like to the lake
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care of that.
And we were proud of that.
And then we also observed a short time later our country joined the rest of the world
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in attacking the holes in the ozone layer. We're now facing another global problem. However, this time our own State Department, rather than attempting to solve the problem, is working to exacerbate it. change that. MS. HOBGOOD: No. 187. NELSONBOCK: Hi. I'mnotone Thank you. Until today. Please
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of the seven, but I just wanted to let you know that there are about 60 of us from the Denver area of Colorado who are -- have to leave because our bus is leaving shortly, and none of us got a chance to speak, but we're all opposed to the pipeline. Thank you. Thank you very much. If I can just
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MS. HOBGOOD:
reiterate that your written comments will be considered just as equally as your oral comments. 188. 189. JUSTIN OREM: Justin Orem, 0-R-E-M. First of all, I'd 1ike to thank you 189. My name is Thank you.
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folks for your patience and your poise on this long cool day of heated testimony. I approach the hearing today as citizen of the State of Nebraska, member of the Nebraska Farmers Union with roots in Boone County, Nebraska, along the pipeline route. And I urge you to deny the production of this pipeline. What we have here is what we call the good life in Nebraska. While it is a good
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1 ife, it can be a hard one, as well, as the weather, even in mid April, can be fairly brutal . This is a place where generations of families thrive through hard work and resourcefulness, a place my family will continue to call home for generations to come. And for this reason, I urge you to deny this permit. For us the waters of the high plains aquifers are the catalyst for which we can invest our families, our futures and our fortunes on these plains, feeding our nation and our globe through our honest toil. The Keystone XL Pipeline is a direct
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threat to that pursuit of life and livelihood. The aquifer is the life-giving resource for us, not just an obstacle to be crossed. Therefore, I urge you to deny the permit for this pipeline. Eventually all things manufactured will fai 1 . That is i nevi table, from the finest
automobiles to the most advanced pipeline systems. But when your car gets a flat, it won't be as devastating as the inevitable failure this pipeline will be. And TransCanada has proven repeatedly that they're not very good at building safe pipelines. Therefore, I urge you to deny them this permit. Even beyond the environmental travesty the extraction and use of tar sands goo is on the global environment, I urge you to defend the property, rights, lives and livelihoods of those of us directly affected by this pipeline. At citizens of this nation, we look to you to protect our interests against this foreign invasion and hostile takeover of our
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way of 1 ife. And I urge you to deny the permit for this pipeline. Rather than follow the lies that have been reported about energy resources from our friends in Canada from this export pipeline that runs through but not to our country, we should give more heed to the developing feud with our friends and neighbors in Kansas over water rights on the Republican River currently developing. When water is more a valuable resource than the antiquated fuel sources we temporarily use, your failure to uphold the convictions presented today by so many of us here with so much to lose from this disastrously bad idea, history will remember that this administration had the chance to leave our heartland and our planet a better place but failed. Therefore, I urge you to deny the permit for this pipeline. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 190. Speaker Nos. 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, if Thank you.
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you can come to the floor as your numbers are approaching.

191 . JIM MURDOCK: Jim Murdock, M-U-R-D-0-C-K. And I'm from Ames, Iowa. mathematics professor. I'm a 191. My name is
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And so I'm interested
in the logical structure of arguments. And I noticed that the arguments that were given for the pipeline earlier this afternoon all had a common structure to them. No one argued that the -- the world would be a better place if the tar sands were burned. They just took it as an axiom that the tar sands would be burned and then proceeded, based on that axiom, to argue that the pipeline was the safest way of using them. reasonable to question the axiom. And it seems to me that if we are able to stop this pipeline here, that other people in other places will be able to stop the next proposal to use the tar sands and the next one after that, and that undoes the axiom that all of these arguments were based on for the pipeline. It doesn't matter which is the And so it's
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safest method of using it if it isn't going to be used.

Then about the arguments that were used on the other side, there was a wide variety of different arguments. instance, the We've heard, for
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about the geology of sand in And we've heard
various parts of Nebraska.
about analogies between alcoholism and the use of oil. And we've heard about beauty and we've
heard about the concerns of native tribes. It seems like there were a vast number of arguments against the pipeline for everyone that was for it, when you add -- look at it from the point of view of the structure. And one additional argument against the use of the pipeline -- against the pipeline and the use of the oil sands that I didn't hear but I can't say that nobody said it because I wasn't here all day, and that is that if the pipeline is not built and if the oil -- tar sands are not used, there wi 11 be some hardships. invention.
And there are all sorts of new technologies being developed, some of which are But necessity is the mother of
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in testing phases, and some of which are nowhere near testing phases. But there are buildings that don't use any fossi 1 fuel. There's a city being designed that doesn't use any fossi 1 fuel. And if we have the hardships from not using this oil, then there will be a greater incentive to develop new -- what's the word I'm thinking -- I'm looking for? Sustainable ways
of living and sustainable technology. Thank you.

MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 192. PATRICK GERHART: Patrick Gerhart. My name is Thank you.
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That's G-E-R-H-A-R-T.
And I am the policy outreach director for the Platte Institute for Economic Research here in Nebraska. We support the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Much of the discussion about the Keystone XL Pipeline is centered in the environmental impact. We know we have -- we
know people have legitimate concerns about the
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integrity of the pipeline.
The process to
protect our Nebraska -- to protect Nebraska's ecosystems has included special session, a bipartisan compromise and the reroute in question to address these concerns. It's important to not let the controversy overshadow the positive economic effects of the pipeline to the State of Nebraska. Recently the U.S. State Department published their report on the environmental impact of the KXL. In the report, they state
that the project would have minimal environmental impact. The report also estimated there are other alternative transport scenarios, all of which would not be more costly and less productive but would also increase the probability of accidents and spills, undesirable possibilities that would actually decrease with the building of the KXL. As for the carbon dioxide emission from the oil sands, they would amount to an increase only 0.07 percent of the current global emissions. This number would not even be
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measurable above the background noise of global temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations. In Nebraska over 7,500 jobs would be created during the construction of the KXL. And these jobs are critical to workers, communities, families and our economy. Building the pipeline would result in more than 465 million injected in the state economy, increasing personal income by about 314 million and exchanging state and local tax - enhancing the state and local tax revenues by more than 11 million. Building the pipeline would increase Nebraska's gross state product by an estimated 390 million. And contrary to the claims of some out-of-state critics, these jobs are not only construction jobs. Maintenance of the pipeline will ensure that jobs remain long after construction is completed, and the revenue from the property will support local communities along the pipeline route for decades. The oi 1 transported by the pipeline refined in the United States in - is part of a
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strategy to reduce America's dependence on oil from hostile foreign countries. There's no
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economic incentive for the oil transported by this pipeline to go anywhere but the American consumer. An increased domestic supply will
place downward pressure on our gas prices. More importantly, KXL includes an on-ramp to accommodate 100,000 barrels a day from the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana, an undeniable move towards American energy independence.
We appreciate the process and the effort by the State Department. We urge you to move
forward quickly with alternative Nebraska route. Building the Keystone XL Pipeline is
good for Nebraska and good for America. Now, to finalize on a personal note, I'm a fifth-generation Nebraskan. My ancestors
came here, and luckily they homesteaded in Platte County, not far from this pipeline. We still have that land in our family. We've also acquired land in the route of the KXL Pipeline. If it gets approved, we will
accept the pipeline on our land. Thank you.
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194.
TOM PIRNIE: Pirnie, P-I-R-N-I-E.
Thank you.
Hello.
I'm Tom
I live here in Grand Island, Nebraska. A few reasons I believe we need the Keystone Pipeline are it will be a boon -- a boon to our economy. Thousands of jobs will be Communities along
created during construction.
the pipeline will benefit economically during the construction period as workers will need a place to stay, eat, fill -- fill their vehicles and use other services. Keystone XL will increase trade with our important trade partner and ally, Canada. The U.S. will have to rely less on imports from countries that can be politically and economically unstable at times. And, most importantly, putting the- putting in the pipeline is the right thing to do for our environment.
Currently this oil -- currently this oil is being transported by trains. And the odds
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of having a train wreck are substantially
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greater than having a big spill from this pipeline.

Plus, the pipeline does not generate greenhouse gases moving the oil from the origin to the destination like the railroad does. So I believe approving the pipeline will improve our environment.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 195.
MIKE GROENE: Groene, G-R-0-E-N-E.
I'm for the pipeline. I'm a native My name's Mike Thank you.
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Nebraskan, born and raised in eastern Nebraska on a farm. now.

I have -- I do have a financial interest. living. Without fossi 1 fuels, I can't make a Without fossil fuels, you folks would I live in North Platte, Nebraska,
take weeks to get back to Washington, D.C., would affect your income and your prosperity. We all have a financial interest in fossil fuels. It took me 2-1/2 hours to drive from
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here -- from North Platte to here.
Without
eminent domain, it would have took me weeks. If 5 percent of the individuals -- 95 percent of the people in the first pipeline route did their fair share and agreed to help this country out and allow eminent domain. If
5 percent of the people say no and are allowed to say no, it would have took me 10 hours to get here because I'd have had to drive around their personal selfish interest and not had eminent domain take that interstate right to this town. We are Americans. We work together.
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Without this fossil fuels, we would not be the greatest society in the world. I've heard people throw labels out there about 1 percent, 99 percent. Everybody in this
room is the 1 percent of the world's population and this standard of living because of fossil fuels and America. We keep going forward. There is not one
person in this room does not belong to the wealthiest 1 percent in the world's population, compared to Africa, Asia. we need to keep going. We are there. And
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As far as the pipeline breaking, it's going to break. Americans do. Back in the 1800s when they came up with boiler and steam power, boilers blew up. People were killed. kept going. Lots of people. But we Fine. We fix it. That's what
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We relied on our educated people
and our education system to create better engineers and to build better boilers. what America does. This is very important. going to be They say it's That's
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I want my infrastructure of this
country for my grandkids to keep improving. I've got a pipeline running past my house in North Platte that was built in 1955. It's called the Platte Pipeline. It's been
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bringing 55,000 barrels of oil a day past the place since 1955. I've got to believe
technology is better today. I don't care if they ship every barrel to China because this world is a mess. Secretary of State Kerry isn't here because he's trying to solve the problems of the world to keep things under control. What happens when this -- what mess hits
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and that oil from our allies in Canada ain't foreigners. neighbors. When they bring that oil to our They're our friends and
they
refineries and the world goes to heck, I am glad that that petroleum, it's here in America. And I don't live in a city. I live in a
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rural area with 2 percent of the rest of the population. Folks. I need fossil fuels to get places,
I can't live in this dream utopian city
where people walk around. I work 12 hours a day, 14, 15. isn't late for me. Approve this thing. Kerry to do the right thing. Democrat or Republican. America. Those union members who vote Democrat, they need these jobs. on, forward. We've got to continue Tell Secretary This isn't This
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This is who we are in
Forward we go.
Speakers with Nos. 196, 197, 198, 199 and 200. Speaker 196. 197.
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198. 199. 200. 201 . JUSTIN HORNBACK: Justin Hornback, H-0-R-N-B-A-C-K. I live in Wisner, Nebraska. I'm a My name's
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pipeline welder and a certified welding inspector. 798. I'm a member of the Local Union
And I'm proud to have had my
representation here speaking on behalf of our membership and the men and women who are working currently and couldn't make it out. I also appreciate the members of the UA that made it out to speak on behalf of hundred and thousands of members that are part of this organization. I speak very personally. I personally I
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believe this project is something we need.
don't believe that the only reason is for jobs. I believe this is the environmentally safe and friendly way of transporting this oil. These groups here that want to remind you that without this pipeline, with -- we would be a better society, but this oil is
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being shipped. They failed to mention that just a few weeks ago, there were 14 railcars that derailed in Minnesota carrying this oil. This is being transported. I'm not
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contending saying it's all right i f it's in Minnesota, as long as it's not here. I'd
rather take a mitigative risk here and do the safe and efficient means of transportation. I do want to point out that our representatives were here. behalf of TransCanada. members, the workers. representation. They don't get paid from TransCanada. We supply them with money to make it out here. I was lucky enough to be laid off of a job a week and a half ago so I have time to be down here. I was glad I was able to come in They don't speak on
They speak for us, the They are our
and voice my opinion. I appreciate the time. And, 1 ike you And
said, No. 1 or 201 gets a chance to speak. you kept up to your promise. MS. HOBGOOD:
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker Nos. 202, 203, 204 and 205.
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202.
203.
204.
SHANNON GRAVES: My name is
Shannon Graves, S-H-A-N-N-0-N, G-R-A-V, as in Victor, E-S.

I just want to say that on an environmental 1eve 1 , my carbon footprint is about a size 10. trash. I drive a big SUV. I burn my
And a lot of it is probably recyclable.
And because I'm just kind of lazy, I use a lot of paper plates.
I'm a wife. business owner. I'm a mother. I'm a And
I'm a lifelong Nebraskan.
I am opposed to the Keystone Pipeline because

i t is the risk to me,
to my family, past,
present and future, the risk to my home, which I'm going to tell you about, and the risk to my country is just too great. Should they be given the go ahead, TransCanada would build that tar sands pipeline with just 275 feet from my home. My house was built to be the showcase in York County. It has three stories, 17 rooms.
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The limestone foundation was cut from

the banks of the Platte River just 22 miles
from the farm.
And since there were few trees in
Nebraska in the 1800s, the wood came by train
from the eastern U.S. to the to Omaha and
then by wagon to the homestead, which is
literally just 35 miles from where we are
today.
It was not an easy ride.
And it would The carpenters
have taken weeks to get there.
and workers and even the guy who carved the woodwork by hand actually lived on the farm for over a year during construction. So I'm telling you that this is not a This is not a Sears Catalogue home. The building itself,
This is irreplaceable.
the history of my family, the history of York County would all be lost should something like happened in Mayflower, Arkansas happen just 270 feet from my home. My children are the fifth generation of Graves to live in that house. And at 17 and
20, they are at an age where they could be married and make a sixth generation to live and
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thrive there.
My husband and I, along with his 1ate
sister's heirs and his late brother's heirs,
hold 400 acres of family farm land in York
County.
There are two wells that this pipeline
would go straight between. feet to the east. the west. One of them is 165
The other one is 480 feet to
Should an incident like occurred in
Mayflower on Easter weekend happen there and that sludge were pushed just a mere 165 feet, it would have a direct line straight down into the aquifer. And ours is not the only well on the pipeline. If -- and I do realize this is a big
if -- there should be a spill into our aquifer, it wouldn't just be Nebraskans suffering the consequence. Many of our neighboring states
get their water from the same aquifer for drinking, washing, gardening, growing, farming, pets, livestock. Name it, all is in danger.
And it makes me sad to picture our beautiful United States with a huge scar straight down the middle of it because if you've ever dug a hole and you try to fill that
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hole back in, it just never looks the same again. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 205. KEVIN GRAVES: G-R-A-V-E-S. I'm one of the landowners standing between TransCanada and their ability to transport, refine and export the tar sands of Canada using the resources of the United States. I'm the current custodian of farm land that has been in our family since 1876. It's Kevin Graves, Thank you.
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my duty to protect, conserve this land, improve it if I'm able and leave it as it was left to me. Allowing any entity, foreign or domestic, to endanger this land while using it for nothing more than their own obscene profit motives is not acceptable. TransCanada's use of eminent domain to secure easements for Keystone XL is simply throwing the intent of the Constitution right out the window.
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Unfortunately, our own Supreme Court has made eminent domain such a convoluted issue that the phrase public use can barely being be applied. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled on a landmark eminent domain case. Justice Clarence
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Thomas in his dissent of Kelo versus the City of New London said, something has gone seriously awry with the court's interpretation of the Constitution. Though citizens are safe
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from their government in their homes, the homes themselves are not.
So before anyone signs off on this pipeline, they will have to decide if we are to become a country where we take the property rights of one group, a people, to the benefit of another group.
Not one of us opposed to this pipeline wants to keep anyone from making a living. But
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I do not feel that I should have to give up my property rights so someone can have a job. Can we quantify the number of jobs that are worth my property rights?
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Is it one?
Is
Is i t 35? No landowner on the route of the
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Keystone XL should be expected to bear all of the risk for nothing more than a pie in the sky crush for the United States' economy. Thank you.
MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you.
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Speakers No. 206, 207, 208, 209 and 210.

Speaker No. 206.
207. 208. 209. PAUL SWANSON: being here. I'm Paul Swanson. Thank you for I am retired
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emeritus from the University of Nebraska and an organic farmer. As I listen to the testimony today and reflect on what I've heard, one would think that the tar sands in Canada were a tremendous oil resource. When we first discovered the oil in 1859
in Pennsylvania and from then until well into
the 20th century, for every unit of energy
input, more than 100 units of energy were
returned.
By 1970, it was about 30 units of energy returned for every unit of energy input.
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Bitumen tar sands promised to have three units or less. Wow. Doesn't that tell us Perhaps at the
something about where we are? end of an era?
The end of the petroleum era,
when we need to be thinking of other sources? If we don't make the decision, it will be made for us. unit of energy. Wind has 18, without the externalities. For those who think there is no environmental damage, I would challenge you to spend a week's vacation at the oil sands source in Canada which was once a pristine area or at the end of the line in Texas. We heard testimony today about what that was like to grow up in that area. And this is Three units of return for one
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far more contaminating than the oil we've had in the past. I would ask you - I would ask secretary
and President Obama to reject the Keystone Pipeline and make a seventh-generation decision that will be to the benefit of seven generations as opposed to a 50-year decision that will be an albatross around the necks of not only Nebraskans, the people of the
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United States and the people of the world. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker 210. Speaker Nos. 211, 212, 213, 214, 215. 211 . 212. ALEXANDRIA KERIAKEDES: MS. HOBGOOD: floor. ALEXANDRIA KERIAKEDES: Well, 212. 212. Thank you.
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You have the
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you have - you have every right to our kudos for your patience, your charm and your endurance. What do we want? alone. We want to be left
I am up to here with TransCanada, tar
sands oi 1 , arguments pro, arguments contra. William O'Douglas once said, the freedom to be left alone is the beginning of all true freedom. Very good words, I thought.
And another thing we want is to see TransCanada in our rearvi ew mirror. Now, I
intentionally spelled that word with an M, replacing the N, because I do not like to see the great country of Canada being dragged in
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tar sands oil dirt, simply because the province of Alberta is stuck in the middle of the wart on Canada's nose. When do we want this? than today. Why? Rather yesterday
Well, the answer is inspired
me to borrow and build on some inspired text. Oh, thus be it ever, when patriots shall stand, between their loved homes and tar sands' desolation. Blessed with victory and peace be
our heaven-rescued land, praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, while our cause it is just. trust. And this be our motto, in God is our And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph
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shall wave over fossil-fuel-free lands, the home of the brave. And there's a very popular melody in Nebraska, known to virtually everyone who cares a fig about football that fits very amply with the - my - my words: No, we don't want any They
tar sands.
Tar sands are bad for you.
stink and they poison the girls and the boys un, our water yet pure through and through. Keep your sewage in your own land and donate it to Iran, to Russia or China, now what could be
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finer. Ughh.
TransCanada you should be banned. Tar sands, no tar sands, no tar sands. No pipeline, no pipeline.
No pipeline.
I thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: No. 213. 214. 215. Nos. 216, 217, 218, 219, 220. If you can just 1et us know your number. Thank you. BILL KLOPPING: Bill Klopping, K-L-0-P-P-1-N-G. I've been in business for 41 years. from New York. world. I've traveled all over the I'm 217. My name's Thank you.
I've worked all over the world. I've worked through the former Soviet
Union.
I've worked in Taiwan.
I've worked in I've
Saudi Arabia. worked in -
I've worked in Europe. all over this country.
I work in the chemical coatings business. I coat things for corrosion I work with
protection, for UV protection. chemicals every day.
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about is keeping these chemicals out of the

water and out of the land. I'm also supported by almost every agency in the country for DECs and DEPs. deal with their regulations. One of the things that concerns me about these tar sands is the fact that there's -- not xylene. There's benzene in it. And benzene, And I
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the threshold limit value for benzene set by the EPA is zero because benzene cannot be effectively removed from water. You can't
remove to zero, it's at five parts per billion, which is very, very small. removed. And it can't be
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So that has a big concern.
So even though I work on the other side of the table, I can't support the fact that this water could be damaged. Nebraska. I mean, this is
This the middle of our country.
This is where our food is grown. I'm from New York. I don't live here.
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We can't risk the water under this ground. I did a little bit of math. because I had a hard time putting in perspective what 830,000 barrels of oil is. 830,000 barrels of oil at 42 gallons a barrel And
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is 34,860,000 gallons a day, 1,452,000 gallons per hour, 24,208 gallons per minute, every minute. So in round numbers, that's 25,000 gallons a minute. around. So I understand the people here in Nebraska understand football. So at 7-1/2 That's hard to put your head
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gallons per cubic foot, 25,000 gallons is

333,000 cubic feet every minute.
If there was a breach in this pipeline from some idiot with a bomb, a tornado, whatever could possibly breach this pipeline, that's a football field every five minutes, six inches deep, if this was breached. This is the heart of America. spread oil across this 1and. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD:
219.
220. 221 . 222. 223. 224.
We can't
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Thank you.
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225. 226. 227. 228. 229. 230. 231 .

232. 233. 234. 235. 236. 237. 238. 239. 240. 241 .
242. 243. 244. 245. 246. 247. 248. 249.
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250. 251. 252. 253. 254.

255.
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256.
257.
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LORI FISCHER: never get to me.
I thought you'd
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My name is Lori Fischer.
It's L-0-R-I, F-I-S-C-H-E-R. Okay. Well, everybody's tal ked about a So I'm just
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lot of things I had on my list. going to wing it here.
I live about 10 miles from the first Keystone Pipeline. And now that the route is
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moved, the second pipeline is going to go on the other end of my county, in Polk County. I have done research at the county courthouse. I've been keeping an eye on all of
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the land agreements that TransCanada has made. And so far in our county, they've only recorded three out of Polk County. ago. So they're not -- they don't have all I checked two days
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the 1 and agreements.
And I know where the
with the landowners group we have here in Nebraska, there's a large number of landowners that are going to fight this. To the guy earlier that said he came on the interstate, I'm from North Platte originally. good. And that interstate is for public
But this pipeline, as far as I know,
there's no on ramp for any Nebraska oil going in this pipeline. Nebraska? It's -- it's taken -- it's using eminent domain for private gain for -- you know, for a private corporation. And it's just so wrong. So what good does it do in
I got involved in this because when I heard I didn't even know they were going to
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build that first pipeline until after I saw the ditches being dug. And I asked, you know, what was that. And they said it was a gas line. Nobody really
knew except it was just over the -- the county line right next to me. was going on. And then after I found out, then I started researching it. And I had no idea what
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And I've been married for over 35 years. And I haven't done too much against my husband, that I didn't tell him ahead of time that I was going to do or that he would disagree with it if I did it, but I went to Washington, D.C., after I researched with the pipeline. And I got arrested for - been arrested in my whole life. I've got one speeding ticket. important to me. And I - and I voted for Obama twice. I've never I've never But it was that
And my husband didn't agree with that either. But I'm hoping that it's going to make up for it when Obama does what he says he's going to do and that he does care about the environment and that he does care about the water for the people in Nebraska because it's so important to us. I also know that they're doing studies on tar sands and the corrosiveness of the tar sands. And you're going to - if you permit
this before that study's completed and we know for sure all of the bad things about tar sands and how corrosive, if it is more corrosive than other regular oil, they're going to be exempt
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from it. And it's just not right. to rethink this. pipeline. MS. HOBGOOD: 259. 260. 261 . 262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267. 268. RICHARD HENDRICKS: My name is Thank you. 258. So I want you
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And I want Obama to deny this
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Richard Hendricks, H-E-N-D-R-I-C-K-S. I live in Holt County. The pipeline
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will go within about two miles of my place. There's a lot of things I don't know about the benzene and all of that. you what I do know. my place. There's an elevation difference of about 120 feet from the low point on my ground to the I' 11 tell
The pipeline will be above
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high point on my ground. cross above me.
The pipeline will
The water table on the highest point of my ground is 60 feet to water. On the lowest
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point of my ground, it runs out of the wells. The construction of the soil is gravel from the top, clear to the bottom. The well
is -- we have one well at the very top that's 112 feet deep. We drilled the well. We hit
water at 60 feet.
We did not get out of water. We quit.
At 112 feet, we were still in gravel. Okay.
I have lived on that place my entire life. My dad was born there. My granddad was
born there.
My great-granddad moved there and My great-granddad's dad So we've been there The 1 and is
married there.
homesteaded the place.
for -- si nee 1890, approximately.
still in the same condition it was at that time. I do not believe that with the pipeline there, that it can be maintained at that. we have a leak, it will be in my water. My meadows are low meadows. As dry as If
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it was in Nebraska this last year, my ground
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produced a ton and a half of hay to the acre. There's water standing on the -- on the ground now. pipeline. I am on the east side of the They say that the Ogallala Aquifer
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is on the west side of this line. Now, I don't know why I sti 11 have water
i f it's
if I'm on the other side of it.
If
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I'm out of the Ogallala Aquifer, why do my wells flow? I have two watersheds that run off from my place. They both go into the Niobrara
Rivers which runs to the Missouri River shed. That water wi 11 be contaminated. into that. So another thing I know, we also live in a large -- high concentration of cancer area. The experts don't always know what is right. My son was diagnosed with testicular cancer this year, a very low expectancy of 1 i fe. rounds. They said chemo was the way to go. First round almost killed him. The experts said we can't Okay. Two It wi 11 go
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Experts didn't know. do the second round.
They also told him that he would not be able to have children. Two weeks ago, we were
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told that his wife was pregnant. do not always know. Okay?
The experts
They may be able to tell you that they don't think the pipe will leak. does, it will be in my water. place wi 11 be ruined. And our family has donated to the economy of the state in that my wife has a master's degree. My son has a BA degree. a - in agriculture. He also has But if i t My value of my
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He also has an
endorsement in industrial technology. My daughter has a degree in home and consumer sciences, English and science and a master - almost a completed master's degree in science. We've contributed an awful lot. And
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it's all been paid for off from the ranch. I am the least-educated one in our family. I hold three patents right now. I am
currently in the process of getting six more patents. We contribute a lot to the economy of our state and to the economy of our country. Please keep the pipeline out of our
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area.
We are still in the watershed and in the
Ogallala Aquifer.
270.
271.
272.
273.
274. 275.
276.
277.
278.
279. 280.
281 .
282.
283.
284. 285.
286.
287.
288.
289. 290.
Thank you.
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291 . 292. 293. 294. And if you can say your name and spell
it, please.
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WYCONDA WALSTROM: name is Wyconda Walstrom.
Okay.
My
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And it's
W-Y-C-0-N-D-A, Walstrom, W-A-L-S-T-R-0-M. Before I begin, I would like to say the speakers who were 291 and 292 before me were my parents, Julie Walstrom and Mike Mattison. they had to leave to go take care of a sick horse and a diabetic cat. So I hope you really do take their written comments to heart, along with those of everyone else who had to leave before they were able to speak. This pipeline will go through Verdigre, Nebraska, which is where my grandmother has lived since she was 20 years old, where my grandpa had his veterinary practice for many years, where my mother grew up, where my father's grandparents lived. This is their homeland. And it's my And
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hamel and, too.
This 1 and is my soul .

And
My name is Wyconda Walstrom.
tonight I would like to speak to the president

of the United States. I thank you for being
here tonight to give my message to him for me.

President Obama, the earth is our
mother. How could you allow something that
Without her, we have
will poison our mother?
no home, no life and no future. President Obama, i f I have to, I wi 11 stand on the path of this pipeline until TransCanada withdraws their plans or until they destroy me as they are destroying this earth and I can no longer stand. President Obama, my mother is not for sale. Mr. President, I'm here as the voice of my generation. I am 20 years old. There are
so many people just like me who have the rest of their lives to live. destroy our environment. we have nothing. President Obama, there are so many students just like me who are struggling with huge amounts of college debt and cannot find a This pipeline will And without our 1and,
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job after they graduate to pay it off. people cannot benefit from temporary construction jobs. generation. direction. Please, think of my
These
This pipeline is the wrong
President Obama, investing in clean energy is what our country needs. is what the world needs. Clean energy
Every biologist,
chemist, engineer and environmental scientist can find a job in renewal energy. President Obama, the earth needs clean energy. Please listen to my generation. We
need your help. So, President Obama -- I don't know if they still have cameras going on in here or where they are, but if I could, I would ask you to look into my eyes through this camera lens. How can you assign away the heartland of my Mother Earth? I -- this last election was the first time I've been old enough to vote in a presidential election. And I voted for you,
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President Obama, because I trusted you with my future and the future of everyone else here. President Obama, please don't let me
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down. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. And
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for purposes of the court reporter, I just wanted to make sure you're No. 287? number? WYCONDA WALSTROM: MS. HOBGOOD: 295. JASON HESTER: Hello. My name 294. 294. Thank you. What
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is Jason Hester, J-A-S-0-N, H-E-S-T-E-R. I'm from -- my hometown is a small town called Stromsburg, 1,242 people, in Polk County. And I'm here on behalf of the next
generation as a friend of your children and as someone who loves life that I lead in this beautiful state and on this beautiful earth. I stand before you deathly afraid, terrified and even shaking because of my fear of public speaking. of you. I stand because my fear, deathly noted, is nothing in the shadow of this monster that's looming on the horizon, this Keystone devastator. Yet, here I stand in front
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I speak for all of those who could not travel here to speak to you today. And I hope
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my words can carry the weight that is charged me by not only the people in my life but by the earth itself. If you've truly listened to the people today, you have heard a vast, enormous majority opposed to this pipeline. of the people. Do not let money sway you. The poison Listen to the will
it carries will stay with you until you die in your conscience and your memory. Do you really want to know that you, you, you are the ones responsible for the devastation to the earth and its future inhabitants?
That's me. That's every young person in
this room, every -- your daughters, your sons, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren. We are speaking. All you have to do is We want Why would you
listen and relay our message. preservation for our future.
want to endanger the future of our land that we farm, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink that makes up over 75 percent of our
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bodies?
As an anthropology student, I know humans. That is my study. If you approve
this, as one human being to another, good luck drinking the water. It's poison. And it will
ki 11 you, slowly, painfully with cancers and chemical imbalances.

Do not forget, though, this is only a hypothetical situation at this point. You have
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the power to stop this where it should stop before it's even started.
I was born on this earth to two amazing people, Tom and Audrey Hester. just chance. But that was
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I could have been born to anyone
anytime anywhere. I beg you as someone who could have been your son, your last child, your dear baby, please do not choose this for me. Please let
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my voice ring through your ears and in your hearts as people, as fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren. Do not deny my words for you know they ring true inside of your mind and in your spirit. If you cognitively choose to approve this pipeline, you will remember my face and
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the faces of all the people who have spoke before me and after me who have told you their will, the will that you denied and you will carry that with you to your death. You have the power to stop this here and now and forever. Please, if not for me, do it
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for you and the parts of you that are inside of me and the parts of you that are in everyone else here. Do not close yourself to humanity and life on earth for money. your well-being. The risk is not worth
Please preserve this earth
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for generations to come. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: LILLY BLASE: Blase. Thank you.
296.
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My name is Lilly And
That's L-I-L-L-Y, B-L-A-S-E.
that's S, not Z.
And the Scan stand for
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Sandhills, sustainable and also stewardship. But I'm here to give testimony for someone else that I work with at my church. have her picture, Reverend Kim. her testimony. we go. Good afternoon. So - I'm Kim right So I'll read There I
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Let me stick this away.
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484 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 now. "Good afternoon, I am Reverend Kim And I speak to you as a representative I serve as
Morrow.
of the faith community in Nebraska.
minister of Sustainability at First Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ, Lincoln, Nebraska. "And on behalf of the scores of faithful environmentalists I interact within the community each week, I offer this testimony in option -- or in opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline. "What is all too often lost in our public debates is the moral dimension of our decision-making. We can say that the decision
about this pipeline is about jobs or about oil or about energy or about land. something far more meaningful. "The reason you see so many people here today wearing black armbands, it is about the moral dimension of how we as Nebraskans and as Americans are being called to live upon the earth. "In the second creation story from the Book of Genesis, God calls forth creation from the ground itself. All of 1 ife, plants, But it is about
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animals and humans have their common origins in the sacred and fertile ground. "God puts Adam in the Garden of Eden to ti 11 and keep it, not to exploit it but to keep
it.
"In Deuteronomy, we hear the Lord, your God, is bringing you into the good 1and, a 1 and of flowing streams, a land of olive oils and honey where you will lack nothing, where you will bless the Lord, your God, with the good land he has given you.
"In these examples, we are reminded that we are only here but for the grace of God who brought forth all creation in God's image, the land on which we have been entrusted to us the gift of life and we've been asked from the beginning to be stewards.
"Tar sands mining has turned fragile ecosystems in Canada into toxin wastelands. The Keystone XL Pipeline will carry toxic oil sludge filled with chemicals through the most fragile water resource in our state. ''There are bound to be spills. And
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there are bound to be ineffective methods to clean them up.
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"This pipeline will be responsible for emitting billions of tons of additional carbon
dioxide into our atmosphere each land."
And Kim goes on -- I will leave you with
this and not go over here. But she concludes
in saying that, "We will take a stand against

doing business as usual. We will take a stand
against God's precious earth being exploited

for corporate gain. We will take a stand
against greed, selfishness and apathy because we know that what God promised us in a world is that -- any world that is powered by love and justice. For a future in which we have solved
our challenges with courage and compassion, I urge Secretary Kerry and President Obama to stop this pipeline." Thank you for your time. MS. HOBGOOD: Speaker No. 297. 298. 299. 300. 301 . MARGARET WILLIAMS: didn't think I'd get to talk. At 4:15, I Thank you.
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Thank you very much.
My name is
Margaret Williams, M-A-R-G-A-R-E-T, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S. It was my intention to come here today the moment I heard it was in Grand Island. was going to let my presence be my voice. then I started to listen to the broadcast thank you, NET while at work. And I I And
thought, my blood is boiling, my blood is boiling. And that Cindy Johnson from our Chamber of Commerce got up to speak. And she was pro.
And I was deeply saddened to hear this. And so my purpose to be here today is to not -- I want to give you my impression of Cindy Johnson via the Grand Island Independent because this is how Cindy Johnson views economic development. I'm going to read from the Friday, December 4th, 2009, Grand Island Independent. "Grand Island's economy got a big boost on Friday as Governor Dave Heineman delivered the good news that a new business will create as many as 200 jobs in the next three years, with an with an $18 million economic impact.
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"This is a project that will initially create approximately 130 jobs with plans to expand to 200 jobs within three years, Heineman said. "Structured Solutions said it will hire approximately 30 engineers at a starting wage of 45,000 to $90,000 a year, 57 customer operations employees with wages of 36 to $72,000 a year, 22 managers at a pay rate of 68 to $96,000 a year, and 20 administrative employees at a rate of 25,000 to $36,000 a year. Total annual wages will exceed $5
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million.
''Cindy Johnson, president of the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce said, 'Structured Solutions brings a perfect type of jobs for Grand Island because it adds to the diversification and mix that we already have. One of the types of jobs that we want are jobs that don't dilute the existing workforce but rather build it up are important jobs into the community. '
"She said, 'The rate of pay for skilled labor needed at Structured Solutions will increase Grand Island's wealth, adding new
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businesses, new homes and other economic benefits. It has such a - it has such a
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ripple effect within the community,' she said." Three years later, Structured Solutions has declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. three people. They hired
And the City of Grand Island was
out the $600,000 they gave them. I don't trust Cindy Johnson's ability. I don't trust - I don't trust Tom Cerny. I
don't trust Pat Gerhart.
I don't think we can This was a waste
trust some of these promises.
of taxpayer dollars, money we'll never get back. Now, I sat here all night. few more things. And I had a
I was so glad that Pat and
Tom and the gentleman I didn't get to write down their names because after eight hours, I was getting a little complacent because I was only hearing people who agreed with me. they had my brain going again. I can't compare boilers blowing up and killing people to possibly poisoning the earth. That's not a logical comparison to me. Earlier in the day while listening via NET, Andy - and I didn't catch his last name, So
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but he said pipelines deliver 13.5 billions of gallons of oil and gas across the United States.
But how much of that was sold to the
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United States?
How much of that was used by That's what he didn't tell
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the United States? me. Let's see.
I have notes to myself
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because I kept changing and growing. Okay. Oh, I wanted to say I thought we
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were a country and I'm a citizen of a country that was governed for of the people, for
the - of the people, for the people and by the people, not of the people, by the corporations and for the wealthy. I'm just - I'm so tired of the corporate greed. own, own, own. I'm so tired of we have to You know, I don't need oi 1 to I take reusable containers
turn plastic forks. for to my lunch. and reuse.
I take flatware I can wash
I am giving these things up because
I want less oil. And thank you all and thank you for being here to hear me. I wasn't sure anybody
would hear me at this hour of the night.
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So I thank you all. MS. HOBGOOD: 304. 305. 306. 307. 308. JACOB MORRIS: Morris. My name's Jacob Thank you. 302.
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You know how to spell it. Just last year, I returned. I did a They walk
the Australians do a walk-about. around, explore new places.
I did a bike-a-by.
Took 9-1/2 months to ride my bicycle 5,500 miles around the country. I met a lot of really good people, who opened their houses to me, helped me out any way they could. I was working along the way, It was great. Saw
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(
stray hobo, making i t work.
a lot of good in people and became aware of a lot of laws that they followed and helped me, not laws fabricated by man to corral the cattle but to -- the laws that we were born with, do good things, and you will feel good. things, and you wi 11 feel bad. By doing these bad things, the Do bad
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pipeline -- pipelines do have problems. spill. It's inevitable.
They
It happens with time.
Putting it over the aquifer is a bad idea. It's putting our water in jeopardy. That's what we
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That's what we need to survive.
need to continue our human experience, and our quality of life will deteriorate if the Keystone Pipeline gets put in. Thank you. MS. HOBGOOD: And the last number, 310. JORDAN SCHLUND: I'm 311. MS. HOBGOOD: 311. You're the Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. 310.
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last number I have on the list. JORDAN SCHLUND: honor, actually. My name is Jordan Schlund, J-0-R-D-A-N, S-C-H-L-U-N-D. Thank you all for staying and letting me speak. turn. I didn't think I was going to get a Nor did I know I wanted one. But, I guess, yeah, I'm a -- I'm Jordan Schlund. addict. And I'm a recovering alcoholic/ And what Reverend Gallagher said That's quite an
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earlier kind of hit the nail on the head.
We
need to release our dependence on oil, period, not just foreign oil but oil, period. And the pipeline's just -- it's a needle in the vein of America, this beautiful country, just destroying it. And I didn't really have much planned to say today. I felt like compelled to speak.
And I learned in treatment that the definition of insanity is -- you know, Einstein's definition is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. And that seems like that's what
President Obama is doing if he approves this pipeline. Just the devastation and destruction that we've seen from the burning of fossil fuels, we've got to stop the insanity. And just, I guess, the motto I live in my daily life is do the next right thing. I think that's not only saying no to the pipeline but condemning it and not having to come back here again. The fact that we're at this point and moment in time scares me, that it -- I don't And
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know.
It scares me for my five-year-old
daughter and future generations to come. And I'll pay 5, 6, $7 a gallon - per gallon of gas if my daughter has clean air and clean water to drink and my grandkids have that to drink, you know. Turn off my lights. right thing to do. But this is not the
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So I urge President Obama
and Secretary of State Kerry to please do the next right thing. MS. HOBGOOD: Thank you. I
would just like to make one comment. this comment earlier.
I made
And I just wanted to
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make sure that everyone is aware that there will be another opportunity for public comment during the national interest determination. I mentioned that earlier in the day. I
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wanted to repeat it because I know that this is an issue of interest to so many of you. Thank you for coming. concludes our public meeting. And this Thank you.
(Meeting concluded at 11:03 p.m.)
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Transcript: U.S. State Dept. Public Hearing On Keystone XL Pipeline (2 of 2)

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Transcript: U.S. State Dept. Public Hearing On Keystone XL Pipeline (2 of 2)

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177

PROPOSED KEYSTONE XL PROJECT

APRIL 18, 2013

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

you can spell your name, we'd really appreciate

MICHAEL MURPHY: challenging spelling my name.

It's It's Michael

It was built by our

Those are good There were 1 ots

of trucks off the road. are all okay.

I hope those people

I - but I'm against the pipeline.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

wife couldn't be here.

But she's right here.

My wife just recently passed away from cancer.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

But this pipeline is not in that direction at

I hope we get something other than

beautiful young 1 ady officiating us.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Speaker No. 62.

And I stand here today in

support of the Keystone XL.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

are the best at what they do.

We don't raise beef.

about the reward that happened when it did come to my community.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

helped build roads.

It helped all of our men It went

Speaker No. 63.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

And we're based out of

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

You know, we go out there. together. Our welds are x-rayed.

know about the Mayflower spill. about it.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

want to thank the

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Darrell Turner, D-A-R-R-E-L-L, Turner,

workers that will build this pipeline. 46 years' experience.

I might tell you that I'm a 1 an downer.

And I am a part of these

distances to protest against KXL.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

show up in buses, trucks, automobiles.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

all U.S. refineries share equally in.

of what they produce.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

And we also risk the very stability of

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

fuels must be left in the ground.

scientists argue that it should be more like 80 percent.

get left in the ground.

which people are asked.

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

Latimer Reporting, Lincoln, Nebraska (402) 476-1153

side by side with our father made us who we