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Former Jackley Spokeswoman Flacking for TC/TransCanada

By Cory Allen Heidelberger on 2019-06-14

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe kicked someone off the reservation Monday, but it’s unclear whether the trucker (or truckers—the early press referred to “vehicles“) was working for TC Energy/TransCanada on something related to the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, as implied by Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier’s press release on the action, or was just some poor guy hauling fracking gear up to the Bakken


But Arielle Zionts’s responsibly patient report on the fracas does bring up one certain point about TransCanada’s increasing interweaval with South Dakota’s powers that be: the Canadian pipeline corporation’s spokesperson in Pierre is Marty Jackley’s old public information officer, Sara Rabern:

But Sara Rabern, a spokeswoman with TC Canada, said the truck has no relation to the company or pipeline.

…TC Energy denied the truck was hauling a load for the company.

“We work closely with our crews and contractors on their schedules to ensure their safety and ensuring the safe delivery of our materials,” Rabern said. “In addition, we currently do not have any activity in the region. We build pipe and are not an oil or gas producer that would move its products by truck.”

Rabern indicates she moved straight from state government to TransCanada in January [Arielle Zionts, “Semi-Truck Escorted off Cheyenne River Reservation,” Rapid City Journal, 2019.06.13].

Despite last week’s court victory, TransCanada still lacks several state and federal permits necessary to begin construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. But their pipeline into the power structure of South Dakota is well underway.

Published in South Dakota

4 Comments

  1. Debbo 2019-06-14 15:33

    “their pipeline into the power structure of South Dakota is well underway.”

    Excellent line and SOP for the SDGOP. In fact, a lot of businesses have a direct line into the SDGOP, just not the citizens. Hence their laws making initiative and referendum so much more difficult. The last people the SDGOP wants having any say in state government is the people. Horrors!! 😱😱😱😱😱

    SIGN THE PEOPLE POWER PETITIONS EVERYONE!!!

  4. leslie 2019-06-14 19:07

    “President Trump’s move plucked the issue out of the courts’ hands for now, essentially nullifying a judicial review process that had been underway for over two years.
    The reality is that this unnecessary abuse of power by the President won’t get Keystone XL built any faster. Courts in Nebraska have yet to rule on the validity of key permits issued in that state, and several key federal permits have yet to be issued. Even state level permits that TransCanada needs to continue pre-construction activities like building worker camps have not been granted.”

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