Obscure Nebraska Panel May Hold Sway Over Keystone XL Pipeline

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Congress is suddenly scrambling to vote on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but the fate of the oft-delayed $5.4 billion project could still wind up in the hands of an obscure commission in Nebraska that regulates telephones, taxi cabs and grain bins.

The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to rule within weeks on whether the Nebraska Public Service Commission must review the pipeline before it can cross the state, one of six on the pipeline's route. Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman gave the green light in January 2013 without the panel's involvement.

Nebraska Senate Nominee Says Religious Beliefs Can Justify Breaking Any Law

“[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life,” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party’s nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday. Nebraska is a solid red state that preferred Romney to Obama by a massive 21 point margin in 2012, so Sasse is now all but certain to succeed retiring Sen. Mike Johanns (R) this November. If he does, Sasse promises to promote an almost anarchistic vision of religious liberty as a member of the Senate. According to Sasse’s website, “[g]overnment cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances.”

Danielle Powell, Grace University Student Kicked Out For Being Lesbian, Must Repay Thousands

Danielle Powell was close to getting her bachelor's degree when she was kicked out of her university for being gay in 2012, and now says the only way the school will transfer her credits to another school is if she agrees to pay $6,300. In response, Powell has launched an online petition to pressure the school to forgive the debt.

Powell was a student at Grace University in early 2011 when she began her first same-sex relationship. Up until that point, neither she nor her then-girlfriend identified as lesbian. When Grace, a religious university in Omaha, Neb., found out about the relationship through a spiritual adviser at the school, they brought Powell before a judiciary board to decide whether she should be allowed to stay enrolled.

Neb. Governor OKs Keystone XL Route Through State

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a new route for the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Tuesday that avoids the state's environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.

The Republican governor sent a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying he would allow the pipeline to proceed through his state.

Battle lines drawn in Nebraska over Keystone pipeline

In the small farming town of Atkinson, Neb., Tim Larby is bracing for a day unlike any he’s seen in nine years as chief of the local police department.

Amid a pipeline controversy that has stirred fierce emotion across Nebraska – and, indeed, across North America – demonstrators are mobilizing. They are preparing for what some are calling “the last stand” on the Keystone XL pipeline, the proposed $7-billion TransCanada Corp. (TRP-T41.50-0.02-0.05%) project that would bring oil sands crude to the Gulf Coast.

Over the course of this week, beginning Monday, the U.S. State Department will hold eight hearings across the six states that the 2,673-kilometre pipe will cross, plus an additional session in Washington, D.C. Those meetings are the final opening for the U.S. government to receive public input before it determines whether the pipeline is in the country’s national interest – and then makes a decision, expected in December, on whether to approve the project.

On that decision hinges a major plank of oil sands growth. The export outlet is so important for Alberta’s petroleum industry that its approval has become a central goal of the Canadian government, which has petitioned U.S. officials at the highest levels.