Story taken with permission from Nebraska.StatePaper.Com Also see: Our April 21 cover story via Prairie Fire: Water Amnesia: Risking our most valuable natural resource for an oil pipeline could prove costly The Legislature gave second-round approval Monday to a bill that mostly gives lip service to the notion that the state would hold builders of […]
BY JULIE MEYERS, COURTESY OF PRAIRIE FIRE Scientists now know that ground and surface water should be treated as a single hydrological system, because that’s how they behave in nature. Since 1996, Nebraska has changed its law twice to finally recognize this profound connection of surface water and to bring coherency to its water law. […]
When State Sen. Ken Haar drives through Iowa or Colorado and sees the towering turbines that have helped make Nebraska’s neighbors national leaders in wind-power production, “It makes me think we’ve got this great energy resource in Nebraska and we’re not using it,” he says. Nebraska is among the country’s leaders in potential wind power […]
When it rains in Omaha, it pours raw sewage, industrial waste and toxic chemicals into nearby waterways. The city’s century-old sewer system is designed to either put it there or into your basement. Neither is an inviting option. But that design is changing thanks to a federal mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency. The oldest […]
For Nebraskans who felt powerless to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, a few state lawmakers have proposed an answer. State Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton introduced the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Notification Act, LB 340, Jan. 12 that would require pipeline operators to undergo an extensive application process and seek final approval from the Nebraska Public […]
The Omaha City Council voted 7-0 on Dec. 14 to approve a comprehensive new environmental plan that proposes changes to everything from how and where new buildings are constructed to luring developers to older areas of the city with new tax perks . Environment Omaha, a collaboration between the city and Omaha by Design, spent […]
TransCanada is digging up the original Keystone pipeline in 10 spots, including three in Nebraska, to look at anomalies in the line. A company spokesperson says the digs were part of a federally mandated audit, one of 55 already conducted, to determine if the pipeline had grown beyond limits established by the Pipeline and Hazardous […]
A new Nebraska Public Power District contract is helping to revive the state’s first wind farm. The Springview Wind Facility in central Nebraska — built as a demonstration plant in 1997 and retired in 2007 — is scheduled to operate again in the middle of next year, following a purchase agreement from the NPPD. The […]
The letters started coming in July. Canadian oil company TransCanada offered Nebraska landowners along the route of its proposed 1,073 mile Keystone XL Pipeline a “premium price” for easements on their property. The alternative? They’d take the land anyway, through eminent domain. The pipeline would carry 500,000 barrels of tar sands oil each day from […]
Nebraska state senators sat down with officials from TransCanada in Lincoln on Dec. 1 for a question-and-answer session centered on the Keystone XL pipeline that could lead to legislative changes next year. State officials came away from the meeting contemplating changes to eminent domain, landowner liability and environmental laws in the 2011 legislative session but […]
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