While Nebraska officials search for an alternate
route for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which could avoid burying the tube
for transportation of Canadian tar sands oil in the grasslands and hilly
marshes overlying the all important Ogallala aquifer which supplies fresh
drinking and irrigation water to much of the south central United States, Washington
D. C. politicians are once again threatening gridlock to most federal
infrastructure funding by threats and counterthreats respecting temporary
extension legislation for the federal Highway Trust Fund. The current Highway Trust Fund band aid
extension will expire June 30, and House Republicans are seeking to attach a
requirement mandating construction of Keystone XL to another temporary
extension bill which would keep highway, rail, transit and waterway funds
flowing from Washington through September 30. President Obama yesterday
threatened to veto any highway bill including a Keystone XL Construction
mandate.
The $7 billion Trans Canada project received
authorization from the Nebraska legislature for the Nebraska Department of
Environmental Quality to evaluate new routing options, rather than the state’s
elected Public Service Commission. Governor Heineman is expected to sign the
bill. The bill authorizes what opponents characterize as a “rubber stamp”
approval of any alternate route proposed by Trans Canada, and gives Trans
Canada eminent domain powers to acquire rights of way once the new route is
established.
Of course, since the pipeline will cross the
U.S./Canada border, Trans Canada will also need federal approval for the
project, and President Obama recently rejected the company’s application for
the required federal permit. The Highway Trust Fund extension amendment
threatened by House Republicans is intended to overturn that Executive Branch
decision. Once again, election campaign talking points have trumped intelligent
policy analysis, and the bankruptcy of leadership in both political parties is
exposed for all citizens to see.
