Michael Bishop, a self described “ultra conservative” Texas landowner, discusses the attempt to take over his property for the Keystone XL pipeline.
His jarring experience with Transcanada, the pipeline builder has caused him to rethink his stand on a number of issues, including climate change. Many climate deniers claim to be conservative – they’re not. Forcing the largest change in the earth’s atmosphere in 60 million years is not conservative. Neither is taking private land and threatening to put an honest citizen in jail if he resists.
“..So I’m fightin’ em, we’re going to win, and they’re going to have to dig the the damn line up, period.”
UPDATE: More about Michael’s fight from EcoWatch:
Dogs are territorial and bark at the wind blowing, leaves moving, sounds miles away, strange vehicles and people coming onto your property. I don’t care where you live in the world. That is their nature. My dogs are scared to death of these giant machines and bark every time the workers crank up. It is a constant “parade” of TransCanada’s vehicles up and down the line. The construction of Keystone XL is only 120 feet from my house and aside from the rumbling and noise from the engines, the dogs barking for almost 10 hours per day is irritating, to say the least.
Recently, two of my grandchildren, who are used to playing anywhere in the front they want, wandered into the work area, which caused my heart to drop. I’m telling you, these people don’t care about anyone or anything now, but by God, they will.
I came to East Texas nearly 30 years ago after spending all of my teen years and most of my adult life along the Houston Ship Channel, working in the oil refineries and chemical plants. I see beauty everywhere but I really like East Texas in the springtime. I bought this property to leave to my children and grandchildren—a legacy, if you will. With my sons, and now my daughter, I have done my best to instill in them the responsibility of stewardship and how to properly take care of Earth and its creatures. I went outside to check the fruit trees in my orchard last week and, as I have for 30 years, marveled at the beauty of the blossoms on the pear, cherry, apple and peach trees. I also had tears in my eyes, because only a few feet away is the pipeline that is going to carry some of the most toxic material found on Earth.
I take great pride, as a biologist and self-proclaimed naturalist, in the native plants I have protected and nurtured for more than 20 years. My wild irises, which are phenomenal, have been buried by TransCanada’s excavator and although they will live, it will be another year before they bloom again. It is all so sad and shameful that I am at a loss for words, to be quite honest. It’s profits over everything else, especially Constitutional rights.
This pipeline is being built despite massive protests and lawsuits by honest, hardworking landowners and concerned U.S. citizens. In retrospect, I should have ignored my lawyer and the lawyer for the Texas Veterans Land Board, stood my ground and never settled. I was in a situation where my back was up against the wall, with a wife who has Alzheimer’s and a teen-aged daughter, and the attorneys involved led me to believe I had no choice but to settle. Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking forward, the facts in my lawsuits are irrefutable.
I claim, in my suit against TransCanada, that they have defrauded the American public, misled Texas landowners and have no right to eminent domain based on the material they are transporting. What I find extremely sad and unbelievable is that once members of the public became aware of this company’s deceit and contacted the appropriate legislators and regulatory authorities, no corrective action was performed. The Texas legislature did not call for an investigation into this matter and the Texas Railroad Commission (the pipeline operator permitting agency) turned a deaf ear to this problem. I use the word “problem” because it is a “problem,” not an “issue.” Where are all the people who took sacred oaths to protect the public?
My ‘Like’ really should be a ‘Hate’. But you get the gist of my feelings, I’m sure.
Glad he came around but by the time the effects hit home that hard for all the deniers, it will be too late.
I hope every conservative sits down and watches this, so they understand the difference between conservatism and corporatism. I salute Bishop for doing what a true conservative would do – conducting his own investigation and following where the facts lead, trusting the science. At one time the GOP had a fair number of folks like that, but they seem to be an endangered species these days.
These sorts of issues have little to do with climate. They come up with every pipeline, highway, railway, powerline, canal, reservoir, etc.. Keystone XL is in no way unique. A good friend of mine (a physics professor, and, btw, a signer of the Oregon Petition) lost his house to eminent domain a couple of years ago. He got fair value for it, but it is still irksome.
It is refreshing, though, to see liberals finally seeming to care about private property rights. Will you please also oppose the federal government’s massive land grabs in the western USA?
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/08/17/obamas-federal-land-grab
How about legislation declaring that the federal government may own or control no more than, say, 10% of the land in any State, and requiring that they divest themselves of the rest?
you’re (deliberately I’m sure) confusing public land acquisition with the situation described above, which is land grab by private, powerful interests for private profit.
You are basically defending the “mine and drill in the grand canyon” interests, which is at least, consistent.
Land grabs are always by the state, though often on behalf of a private entity. Only government has the power of eminent domain. (Ref: Kelo v. City of New London.) If they take your house, even if they give you fair value for it, it hardly matters whether they’re doing it for a county road, a State highway, a privately-owned railroad, or a federal park. It’s equally irksome, regardless of the purpose.
As for your last sentence, I have no idea what you’re talking about, unless you think the Grand Canyon occupies more than 10% of Arizona. If so, don’t worry: it’s big, but it’s not THAT big.
no doubt this is one of the Kenyan socialist’s land grabs you are talking about
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-usa-grandcanyon-uranium-idUSTRE8081NA20120109
“…Industry groups, typified by the Institute for Energy Research, opposed the decision as a big-government move that will hurt consumers.
“This latest power-grab by federal regulators is another example of the Obama administration’s willingness to use ideologically driven energy policies as a means to control the U.S. economy,” the institute said after the announcement.”
Here’s what we get with the Keystone pipeline, and it does nothing to help U.S. energy security. The pipeline’s primary objective is to lower transport costs to get bitumen oil to the export markets.
And why is it so important that it gets approved? Because Canadians refuse to approve pipelines going to the Atlantic or Pacific themselves. We’re just so used to falling for corporate propaganda that we’ll do it, at the cost of private landowner rights and at the risk to natural resources.
Where is most of the tar sands oil currently going? To U.S. midwest farmers, mainly. It lowers their diesel costs, which lowers U.S. food prices. Building a pipeline frees that oil to get to the world market, and prices for diesel fuel in the U.S. midwest will subsequently rise.
In addition, creating the pipeline will lead to increasing production of the tar sands. It will also lower economic incentives to create alternatives to oil-based transport.
But money rules this country, and it has for a long, long time. We’ll build the pipeline to cheers and accolades.
Links about the Texas leg of Keystone:
http://www.stopseawaypipeline.com/
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-23/business/35490797_1_eminent-domain-julia-trigg-crawford-keystone-xl
Well put–of all the bullhuckey used to sell the Keystone Pipeline, I’d argue the myth that it’ll make your gas cheaper probably takes the cake.
I have only one remark – at this sequence:
“Forcing the largest change in the earth’s atmosphere in 60 million years … “
So, it is worth this unscientific assertion “to deny” – at each occasions. Nature did much “interesting” experiments at that time.
Eg Retallack (2009): “New estimates of middle Miocene atmospheric CO 2 from paleosols in Railroad Canyon, Idaho, reveal levels at 16 Ma of 852 ± 86 ppmv. This is similar to predicted values by 2100, and 3 times pre-industrial values (PIL = 280 ppmv).” (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018209002867
I stand corrected. biggest change in 60 million years except for that spike 16 million years ago.
Deniers get so hung up trying to insist that “it’s been warmer before” somehow represents a triumph of logic.
They don’t realize the problem isn’t where the needle is falling on the dial, but rather how fast where it tends to fall is changing–as in, changing faster than the ecosystems we count on can adapt.
The video is not currently available.
@Dave: Do people still really talk about the Oregon Petition without chuckling in denier circles? Maybe we need another Project Steve to put that into proper hilarious context.