Issues

Keystone XL Pipeline - VICTORY AT LAST!!

WRITTEN BY KEN WINSTON

We are celebrating the fact that President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in his first day in office. The Nebraska Sierra Club played a vital role in stopping this bad idea, which would have increased greenhouse gas emissions, threatened our vast and vulnerable Ogallala Aquifer and infringed on the rights of Indigenous people as well as the rights of landowners.

This victory is a big deal. We were told repeatedly there was no way we could stop the KXL pipeline. All the odds were against us. TransCanada had the money and a lot of politicians in their back pockets. They had the entire fossil fuel industry, the entire Republican Party and several labor unions on their side.

I played many roles; organizer, advocate and attorney. One of my most important roles was helping empower the ragtag bunch of farmers and ranchers, Native Americans, grandmothers and young people who came together in opposition to the tar sands pipeline; finding solidarity in a cause, supported by many spiritual traditions that proclaim that water, earth and living beings are sacred and deserve protection from an abomination like this pipeline. And though TransCanada may have had the money, we had the poets, the artists and the musicians on our side.

We organized rallies, testified at hearings, engaged in litigation and kept showing up time after time regardless of the challenges we faced. Chapter chairpersons Dick Boyd, Candy Bless and David Corbin provided steady leadership throughout the 11 years we were fighting KXL and many Chapter volunteers devoted countless hours to this battle, personally sacrificing time, energy and resources in many ways in opposition to this tar sands pipeline.

The Chapter led the way in getting the governor to call a Special Session of the Legislature in 2011 and getting legislation passed in the special session. I am particularly proud of my work in this area, working with former Senator Ken Haar to get the Governor to get the special session called in spite of massive opposition from the fossil fuel industry and the politicians they controlled. The bills passed in that special session created important regulatory obstacles that helped prevent the pipeline from being built.

We were involved in opposition to KXL throughout the 11 year battle against the pipeline and our work helped provide a basis for President Obama to reject the permit in 2015. After Trump revived the pipeline in 2017 we continued the battle against KXL in proceedings before the Public Service Commission which were established by the legislation passed in the 2011 special session. Later we represented the voices of the environment in an appeal before the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Thank you to everyone who wrote a letter, testified, demonstrated, stood in line or took a stand for our land and water and our rights as living beings. Thank you all. We proved the naysayers wrong. And the earth will thank us for it.

After winning this long and hard-fought battle, our work to oppose fossil fuels and stand with people who are willing to stand up for a better world continues.

Photo on the left: David Corbin, Vice-Chair of the Nebraska Sierra Club with Susana Reyes,Vice President of the national Sierra Club Board of Directors and Lena Moffitt Senior Director, the Sierra Club's Our Wild America Campaign at the Give the KXL Pipeline the Boot march in Lincoln. Middle,and right photo: drone camera views of the Give the Keystone XL the Boot march in Lincoln, NE on August 6, 2017. Click here to see a larger image.

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Click here to see the full solid waste report commissioned by the Nebraska Sierra Club

Green the Stream Successes

Several major successes were achieved by your Green the Stream project. On Tuesday, August 27th, the Omaha City Council approved a series of ordinances. Because of the Green the Stream team's efforts those ordinances were significantly improved relative to Mayor Stohert's solid waste management plan to get the citizens to pay more and get less.

Reflecting on how conflicted the Council members were regarding this half billion dollar potentially 20-year waste hauling contract, their June 4th vote regarding FCC's 2 bin (weekly commingled garbage & yardwaste; bi-weekly recycling) proposal was 1 yes (Vinny Palermo) and 6 no, whereas their August 27th vote was 6 yes and 1 no (Chris Jerram). Pete Festerson and Chris Jerram continually sought our preferred 3 bin (weekly yardwaste, weekly garbage; bi-weekly recycling) solution regardless of whether the contractor was FCC or Midwest Sanitation.

Because of the Green the Stream team's efforts the Mayor's FCC 2 bin proposal was augmented by three major changes:

First, 12 weeks of peak season unlimited yardwaste collection was added to the contract. In all other weeks yardwaste is to be commingled with garbage and delivered to the landfill.
Second, all of the seasonally collected yardwaste will be composted. Composting will be done by OmaGro and others.
Third, FCC will have a program to collect and to recycle all of the existing garbage cans and recycling bins that homeowners choose to surrender.

The approved 2 bin contract has several glaring deficiencies:

First, landfilling of yardwaste generates more methane than can be captured and used as a fuel for electricity generation.
Second, the homeowner only can divert yardwaste by using a purchased large paper bag and affixing to it stamp purchased at a price of $1.90 per bag. This bag fee is legally suspect and might be the target of a future lawsuit.
Third, with yardwaste being added to the garbage bin, the garbage bin is more likely to be filled, prompting homeowners to put yardwaste into the bi-weekly collected recycling bin. Doing that will contaminate the recycling waste stream and further reduce its value at a time when all recycling firms are under increasing financial pressure.

Separate from the waste hauling contract, but contemporaneous with that process, the Green the Stream team brought to the Omaha City Council a proposed ordinance to ban single use at retail plastic bags. The City Council approved a ban the bag ordinance on a vote of 4 yes (Pete Festerson, Ben Gray, Chris Jerram, and Vinny Palermo) and 3 no (Brinker Harding, Amy Melton, and Rich Pahls). Mayor Stothert then vetoed that ordinance and it failed to achieve the 5 yes votes needed to override her veto. Consideration is being given to mounting a petition drive to adopt a ban the bag ordinance.

The Sierra Club - Nebraska Chapter and its Missouri Valley Group have been working diligently for nearly three years on the Green the Stream project directed by Cavanaugh and Associates, PC, LLC. Able leadership was provided by Chapter Chair David Corbin; and Sierra Club found frequent support from members of OTOC (Omaha Together, One Community).

Solid waste study provided to the City of Omaha by SCS Engineering. You can download the reports here.

The Nebraska Sierra Club's statement on the Hefty Energy Bag campaign

"The Missouri Valley Group Sierra Club considers the Hefty Energy Bag program to be greenwashing. Burning plastic is worse for the environment than burning coal. The solution to the proliferation of plastic is not to create even more and then use it as fuel. It is akin to increasing food production so we can feel good about all the food we waste because it can produce compost. " David E. Corbin, Chair, Nebraska Chapter Sierra Club

The Hefty^® Energy Bag Program (a program of The Dow Chemical Company) is an initiative that collects previously non-recycled plastics such as plastic wrappers and juice pouches that are usually thrown away. The intent of the program is to collect the plastics at curbside and “convert them into energy resources.”

The Nebraska Sierra Club has long advocated for the protection of the environment and for sustainable practices that respect human health and wildlife. In reference to the proposed Hefty Energy Bag program, the Nebraska Sierra Club recommends that an environmental impact study, to be commissioned by Dow Chemical and conducted by an independent entity, be conducted before any widespread implementation of the Hefty Energy Bag program. Such a study should include the energy costs to carry out the program, the content and health effects of the pollution that is created from burning the plastics, including the transport and use of the ash resulting from the Hefty Energy Bags, and a summary of the proposed use of the materials and the quantity and use of any recycled materials that might be captured after the plastics are burned.

Nebraska already has a poor record of recycling items that can and should be recycled – far behind many other states. How would the Hefty Energy Bag program either enhance or impede our current recycling efforts? We must weigh the benefits of improving the recycling of plastics and metals that already have a market value before we embark on an untested and unverified Hefty Energy Bag program. An environmental impact study is essential to being able to properly evaluate the Hefty Energy Bag program.

Click here to see the report about burning plastic for energy including the Hefty Energy Bag pilot program in Omaha.

Volkswagen Settlement

You can view the Nebraska Sierra Club's recommendations for the VW Settlement by clicking on this link.This Settlement can help to jump-start the future of electric vehicles.

Click here to see the NDEE plan for the VW Settlement