namelesstavern.net

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nebraska ... truck-down

Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that the law passed in 2011 improperly allowed Heineman to give Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. the power to force landowners to sell their property for the project. Stacy said the decision to give TransCanada eminent domain powers should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates pipelines and other utilities.

fuck. yes.

thompson v heineman will be appealed to the NE supreme court, of course, but hundreds of thousands of huskers pumped their fists today

Eminent domain sucks. They used it on me and took half my property away, except I got nothing for it. They said there was a right a way, which is BS because it went up through the woods. All to put a road to no where in (a road that literally leads to no where, no one has bought any of the dev land yet). Fuckers.

just saw this /high five

continuing on this thread

last month on good friday the white house said that since there is still no legal route through nebraska, the overall federal permit decision will be delayed until such time that there is. in the meantime, they said, the public commentary period is also extended. they didn't give any sort of time frame but it's widely expected that the ruling won't happen until after the elections

the cool thing is actually that the permit issued by SD will actually expire on 6/20 so the pipeline company will have to duplicate their efforts there again too - not to mention they're still at square zero here in NE

but overall i didn't find much cause to celebrate. first of all, though the surface rationale for the delay might be valid, there's a lot of politics involved in pushing it past the elections - the main of which is that doing so provides cover for pro-pipeline dems to campaign on their support for the project. also, making the announcement at the cusp of easter weekend was a shrewd way to make sure the move got little attention.

beyond that, i am having a hard time figuring out whether obama is being an idiot or a coward on this matter (or both). first of all, if he denies the permit, what's really gonna change? it's not like the GOP will suddenly hate him MORE - i don't even think that's possible. he'll get a lot of loud applause from the far left, and maybe some donations and downticket support for his party

if he approves it, the left will turn on him forever and downticket candidates will lose a lot of easy votes. and for what? is anyone dumb enough to think the GOP will pat him on the back and say "good job"? bitch please, they'll just rake him over the coals for taking so long and being uppity


more recent update: the senate tried to pass a bill that would sidestep BO's authority and approve the project without him, but it died in committee yesterday