29 Sep, 2011
Make no mistake: Nebraskans are fully aware of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Everywhere from cafes to churches to bars, schools, ranches and farms, people are talking about the pipeline. While various media portray rumors of indecision, the experience of cycling through the state has taught me that most Nebraskans do not want this pipeline.
To aid in my assessment, look no further than football. Nebraskans love their football. Along with that enthusiasm comes advertisement. Most advertisements in the Cornhuskers’ Memorial Stadium are mostly background noise to the action on the field. However, an ad promoting the Keystone XL pipeline prompted the stadium to boo in such earnest rejection that University of Nebraska’s legendary Athletic Director Tom Osborne pulled the ad.
This fervent opposition echoed the voices that I heard as I cycled through the state. In particular, ranchers in the Sandhills voiced their concern for both the fragile Ogallala Aquifer and for the pristine landscape of the Sandhills.
In the midst of my conversations, I learned that on the one day that I had scheduled to be in Lincoln, the State Department was having a hearing to examine whether or not the Keystone XL pipeline was in the best interest of both the nation and Nebraska. When I first heard about this hearing, I expected it to be a charged debate held by Nebraskan citizens that had come to their own conclusions about the benefits of the pipeline. What I saw was far from that.
TransCanada—the company proposing the pipeline—went through extra effort to make it seem like Nebraskans were undecided on the issue of the pipeline. They paid busloads of workers from as far away as Illinois and Missouri to come and pose as local laborers. I know this because I spoke with the workers at length. It was no secret. The busses were parked directly in front of the building, and a few of the Illinois folks wore their orange Rockfort, IL union shirts. (The Nebraskans opposing the pipeline dressed in Husker red. The TransCanada employees dressed in construction orange.) Toward the end of the evening, I was talking to some of the folks that had been bussed in from Missouri. While perfectly friendly folks in need of a decent wage, they did not even know the issue at hand. They thought it involved natural gas. In a sadly telling misnomer, they repeatedly called the Sandhills the “Tar Hills.”
TransCanada also paid attractive, college-aged girls to pose as reporters so that they could collect video of the most outlandish opponents of the pipeline. I spoke at length with one such faux-reporter who showed me the video she’d gathered. She knowingly called her pay “blood money.” As a result of this deceitful action, the girls collected rally cries that give distorted images of the hearing.
Here are some the images that dominated my view of the hearing: conservative ranchers concerned about the future of the land they work, live on, and love; 5th generation Nebraskan farmers for whom water quality is of the utmost concern; young children thinking about the future; elderly witnesses appalled by immoral shortsightedness and greed; mothers with their babies; Republicans and Democrats agreeing on the importance of the agricultural economy in Nebraska over oil; clergy in their collars voicing the concerns of their congregations; a wave of Nebraskans fighting for both present jobs and future sustainability.
This collection of concerned individuals had driven from all over the state at their own expense. Their concern was evident in the intent looks on their faces and their enthusiastic applause. That concern differed greatly from the looks on the faces of the executives from TransCanada, who sat in a back corner laughing to one another with casual glances. Those faces differed greatly from the folks in orange, who spent most of their time in front of the building smoking cigarettes while waiting for the day to end.
When I left the hearing, I was shocked. The underhanded behavior of TransCanada left me feeling ill. Across the nation, we are being told that Nebraskans are torn on this issue. We are being told that the debate is between objective Nebraskans looking toward a new horizon. This is not the case. I don’t blame the workers from out of state. I don’t blame the college kids who need spending money. TransCanada has the money to change public perception. But we all play a role in this debate. If we were to decrease the demand for oil, we might not have to risk losing one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the United States. We might not have to endanger the natural beauty of the Sandhills or the invaluable farmland that will be destroyed. Like many Nebraskans said in their testimonies, we can go without oil, but we cannot go without food and water.
In the time since the hearings, my initial shock has been tempered by my memory of all of the great people I’ve met during my time in Nebraska. I have been blessed by the presence of hundreds of thoughtful, mindful, and concerned individuals. I’ve met incredible Christian leaders like Betsy Blake Bennett, whose work on environmental concerns spreads across the state. Her blog http://nebraskagreensprouts.blogspot.com/ is a source of sage observation and informative changes. I heard stories of folks like Nancy Packard, a 67 year-old former teacher from Hastings who went to Washington DC and was arrested as part of the XL pipeline protests at the White House (see http://www.hastingstribune.com/news0822arrested.php). I think of John and Melissa Schere, who in addition to running a community hotspot called The Hub in Burwell and juggling the jobs necessary to restore that building also pastor a church. I think of Professor Dan Deffenbaugh, whose work at Hastings College is raising awareness of climate change in a new generation of Nebraskan Christians. I think of Rev. Eric E. Elnes, Ph.D., whose walk across America chronicled in Asphalt Jesus is a model for a new understanding of what it means to be a Christian. His work The Phoenix Affirmations is a textual representation of the great work he does as a pastor at Omaha’s Countryside Community Church and the online faith network Darkwood Brew (see http://www.onfaithonline.tv/darkwoodbrew/). I have met so many Christians actively and mindfully responding to climate change in Nebraska that I am at a loss for how to capture their impressive work in this medium.
I have seen things this week I wish I had never seen. This exposure feels like a curse. I have a more intimate vision of how our mindless action facilitates the destruction of the planet and one another. However, in the face of that deception and greed, the efforts of Nebraskans gives me hope.
Until we meet again
More actively hopeful
Than we thought possible.