The whopper of the week comes from TransCanada’s Keystone XL boss Corey Goulet, who says his company respects landowners:
We achieved that record of success with a simple formula: treat landowners with respect as partners, recognize that some may have concerns, and provide them with honest answers [Corey Goulet, “TransCanada Respect [sic] Landowners,” The Hill, 2015.08.06].
Goulet is responding to South Dakota rancher and Keystone XL eminent domain victim John Harter, who tells The Hill that TransCanada treats landowners like dirt:
TransCanada has never negotiated in fair and good faith. This is due to the state of South Dakota granting them the use of eminent domain, despite them being a foreign corporation building this pipeline for private profit. Lying, bullying, and coercion were all used to attain easements from South Dakotans, and to say that landowners have willingly handed their land over to this corporation is a total mischaracterization [John Harter, “Setting the Record Straight about Keystone XL,” The Hill, 2015.08.03].
Miner County farmer Sue Sibson gave the Public Utilities Commission further evidence of TransCanada’s disrespect for landowners this week. I told Sue and Mike Sibson’s story of TransCanada’s rape of their land back in 2009 as TransCanada laid the first Keystone pipeline across their land. TransCanada’s violation of Sibsons’ land continues: Sue Sibson says TransCanada has failed to uphold its promise to restore the land:
Sue Sibson of rural Howard told members of the state Public Utilities Commission that invasive plants the family’s cattle won’t eat now grow in place of the native pasture that was torn up to lay the oil line underground through Miner County in 2009.
Her husband, Mike Sibson, brought a sample of spikeweed from the easement area to show the commission.
“The cattle leave it alone. They don’t touch it,” Sue Sibson said.
Spikeweed is widely considered a pest grass.
“It’s not native. It never should have been planted in the first place,” she said.
TransCanada contractors have seeded or sprayed and sometimes done both every year since 2009. None of the efforts produced any significant growth of the types of grass that the cattle will graze.
“There’s no grass growing there. I should say, very little,” she said [Bob Mercer, “Landowner Tells of Problems along First Keystone Pipeline,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.08.05].
Respect is actions, not words, Mr. Goulet. TransCanada tore up the Sibsons’ land six years ago, and TransCanada still hasn’t lived up to its agreement to make them and their land whole again. If TransCanada can’t respect its past agreements and the land it takes from us, why should we respect TransCanada’s request to commit more disrespect against us with Keystone XL?
Some landowners in iowa have said the people pushing the Bakken pipeline through iowa to Illinois have lied to them about neighbors signing easements so they will sign as well. Must be an industry pecadillo.
TransCanada’s Corey Goulet has not only lied about showing respect for landowners he has lied about the taxes that counties will receive from the Keystone 1. TransCanada had claimed that counties would receive $9.1 million a year. They are receiving around $3.55 million a year for a five year average. This is around 39% of what TransCanada had claimed they would pay before the pipeline was built.
County commissioners seem not to care that there is such a discrepancy in the actual numbers Mr. Seamans. They have stopped working for you and the rest of the folks that live in the county as they can see there wallets getting fat from the outside interests. Money is a funny thing that makes your head go against what your heart already knows.
The first time that TransCanada’s people came to my place to talk easements they handed me their easement and the payment offer, they told me that this would be their best offer and that the next offer would most likely be less. Oh, and by the way, we have the power of eminent domain and we can take your land through condemnation. This is Corey Goulet’s interpretation of what respect is? Hopefully, Corey has gained a little more respect for South Dakotans after the PUC hearing.
Gained respect? Paul, I hate to be a pessimist, but do you think Goulet was listening to the South Dakotans in the PUC hearing room?
Cory, probably not. I should have said that he is maybe a little less arrogant rather than saying that he has gained respect. These TransCanada people have no shame in fabricating their lies. About the only witness for TransCanada that was straightforward was their last witness who answered questions about the mancamps. He was more like a construction worker than being one of TransCanada suits. All the rest of TransCanada’s witnesses were evasive and would say that “I’m not aware” or similar non-answers.
An oil pipeline a few feet below the ground will permanently change the land. No contractor will ever be able to replace the dirt in the trench in a manner that even remotely represents structure of the soil before construction. Tilth is destroyed. The heat given off by the pipeline is another issue, the ground over the pipe will be warmer, allowing invasive species that would not have otherwise survived in SD to survive here. The heat from the pipe will dry out the ground near the pipe and cause it to experience the effects of drought sooner than it would otherwise. Rodents will be attracted to the pipe because they want to curl up next to a nice warm place.
Nick,
I never realized how much of a negative difference in the immediate area a pipeline would make. Your description is excellent! Loss of value and future options with the land besides production loss?
Nick, I don’t know if you have seen the stories of Sue Sibsons testimony at the PUC hearings but she echoed much of what you had said. One of Sue’s main points was that she and husband Mike had requested all native grasses for reseeding on the easement in their native grass pastures. TransCanada added thickspike wheatgrass, native to the southwest. Mature thickspike wheatgrass is very tall, very coarse and of virtually of no use to the Sibson’s. It is a bunch grass and forms huge clumps, it is similar in size to common reedgrass and probably of similar quality for forage, which is basically useless. The Sibson’s ask for a native mix, TransCanada gives them native grasses that are of no use for our area.
Methinks Paul and others need a Paul Wellstone type of senator to go to bat for them. Your current crop of doofusses sure as hell won’t.
Why would TransCanada be so pigheaded? Is that Southwest grass mix cheaper? It shows they certianly don’t respect the native ecology or local residents’ knowledge about it.
Nick, given what you said about invasive species and heating from the pipeline, if we did clear that pipeline right of way and plant it with native prairie grass, would our native grasses be able to hold their own against invasive species in that altered soil?
Mike, yes, our current Congressional delegation has ignored landowners, ignored eminent domain, ignored the environment, and been 100% rah-rah for a private Canadian company. We need to change two-thirds of that delegation in 2016. (Hey, Paul Seamans, ever thought of running for Congress?)
Corey, I think that TransCanada’s problem is that they don’t know squat about reclamation. When I went to college I was 2 1/2 years in civil engineering so I know a little about that. Then I went 2 1/2 years at SDSU and graduated with a BS in Range Management so I know a fair amount about grassland plants. One of the first things that they teach you in Range Management is when planting seed mixes you do NOT mix non-native grass seed with native seed. Non-native, or tame, grasses will out compete the native grasses. TransCanada not only added thickspike wheatgrass, which is not native to this area, but they also added smooth bromegass which I believe came from Siberia. Smooth Bromegrass is so competitive that it is taking over pastures across the state as evidenced in the Ft. Pierre Grasslands. And yet TransCanada added this to the grass seed mix on the Sibson’s. This should be the basis for a lawsuit.
As for running for congress, nine days of sitting through the PUC wore me to a frazzle. I couldn’t handle handle much more than that.
Paul, I heard just a snippet of Sue Sibson’s testimony that was included in a SDPB radio report. In the bit I heard they talked about the invasive species planted.
Cory, even if the right of way was planted to native species it would still take generations for the land to return to pre construction shape. The tilth of the soil has been altered forever and the thick layer of sod that took thousands of years to develop will not come back in our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our grandchildren. I can’t stress enough how the heating of the soil will change the environment over the pipe. Hotter and drier. Maybe that’s why Trans-Canada planted species common for the Southwest rather than ones common in the northern plains, our native plants might not be able to survive and maybe Trans-Canada knows this. I would like to see studies that address the soil heating issue, and not studies from Trans-Canada but ones done by an unbiased researcher.