Eminent domain shouldn’t be granted to Keystone XL pipeline

“In the Keystone XL pipeline’s newestadvertisement, the company comforts Nebraskans by declaring “We’re also ready to respond with a highly trained Nebraska-based response team standing by. We’re Nebraskans working for TransCanada. We wanna be more than a pipeline company. We work hard to be a trusted neighbor.”

Knock, knock. Can I borrow a cup of sugar and a few eggs, TransCanada? No, but you can help yourself to a heaping bowl of civil liberty violations and corporate tyranny.

While the personification of corporate entities has been controversial in recent years and, in some ways, is only tangentially related to the Keystone XL pipeline, the conflict between reality and the highly personal image that Keystone promotes can be seen to epitomize the debate surrounding the pipeline. Is this company really looking out for Americans? Can we consider this company a friend?

Despite the commercials starring a number of obviously trustworthy small town Nebraskans, I’m not totally convinced. The data seems to tell a far different story than the company’s official estimates. Far from the expectations of chummy neighborliness that the Keystone advertisements momentarily fill my heart with, the proposed pipeline will undoubtedly hurt Nebraskans.”

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Kahn, Shariq. Daily Nebraskan 15 April 2013.