Putting Power Back in the Hands of Nebraska Landowners

Poll: 81% Oppose Eminent Domain for Private Use Across Midwest States Facing CO2 Pipelines, Carbon Capture Projects

Landowner Victory at South Dakota Supreme Court (AuG. 23, 2024)

APRIL 9, 2024: Tallgrass, Bold Alliance, and Key Agricultural and First Responder Organizations Announce a Community Benefits Agreement

PAST EVENTS

Aug. 31, 2022

Landowners Meeting Re: Carbon Pipelines (Norfolk)

WHO: Landowners ask questions about eminent domain and proposed carbon pipelines, and hear from attorney Brian Jorde with Domina Law Group and Nebraska Easement Action Team about joining the landowner legal co-op, and attorney Paul Blackburn with Bold Alliance with present an overview on CO2 pipelines, safety, and regulations.

VIEW RECORDING: https://youtu.be/5D2UDo-aoJw

Aug. 9, 2022

Webinar: CO2 Pipeline Safety: "The Gassing of Satartia, MS" & Aftermath

WHO: Dan Zegart, journalist who covered the pipeline incident, & first responders who were on the scene share their stories.

VIEW RECORDING: https://youtu.be/RfRytGe3tis

May 23, 2022

Counties & States Can Regulate Pipelines
WHO: Steven Feit, Center for International Environmental Law; Bill Caram, Pipeline Safety Trust; Paul Blackburn, attorney, Bold Alliance + elected officials in counties facing CO2 pipelines.
VIEW RECORDING: https://youtu.be/W_jaNjC5JBM

May 1, 2022
Panel Discussion & Brunch: Landowner Experiences With Pipelines & Eminent Domain (Norfolk, NE)
VIEW RECORDING: https://youtu.be/ygLG9ZXsSlE

Attorney Brian Jorde with Domina Law Group speaks at a NEAT landowners meeting in York at Chances 'R restaurant, Feb. 3, 2022 (Photo: Chris Clayton)

The Nebraska Easement Action Team, Inc. (“N.E.A.T.”) is a non-profit education and legal defense fund first established by Nebraskans for the benefit of landowners and citizens affected by the TransCanada KXL pipeline, and now re-establishing as a new co-op of landowners opposed to eminent domain for proposed carbon (CO2) pipelines in Nebraska by Summit, Navigator, and potentially others.

We must ensure landowner rights and interests are protected no matter what the end result is with the pipeline. We believe the terms and fine print in all Easements must aggressively be negotiated for and in favor of landowners.

Unfortunately, during the years when landowners were fighting eminent domain for the Keystone XL — no one in Nebraska or Federal Government in over eight years — not the US State Department, our Governors, Attorneys General, Nebraska Dept. of Environmental Quality, Public Service Commission or State Senators in the Legislature — evaluated the Easement Agreement, which is the document that pipeline companies propose to use with landowners as the controlling terms for how your land will be affected (and forever, since that is easement term length being sought by the company).

You cannot evaluate the full risks and effects of this taking of your land without evaluating the contractual provisions of corresponding rights and responsibilities as found in the Easement Agreement. Nebraska landowners are left to fend for themselves and that is why NEAT was created.

NEAT landowners meeting in York at Chances 'R restaurant, Feb. 3, 2022 Photo: Chris Clayton

LANDOWNER EXPERIENCES WITH EMINENT DOMAIN & PIPELINES:

Attorney Brian Jorde with Omaha’s Domina Law Group, gives an update on the growing landowners' legal co-ops that are forming under the Easement Action Teams in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
Ed Fischbach, South Dakota landowner (CO2)
Eileen Kenyon, Iowa landowner (CO2)
Randy Thompson, Nebraska landowner (KXL)
Art Tanderup, Nebraska landowner (KXL)
Bev and Bob Krutz, Nebraska landowners (KXL & CO2)
Jeanne Crumly, Nebraska landowner (KXL & CO2)
Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold, the lead group that worked to build an alliance of farmers, ranchers and Tribal Nations to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from using eminent domain.

LANDOWNERS (VIRTUAL) MEETING:

Pipeline expert Paul Blackburn gives an overview of this unproven “carbon capture” technology, and the unsound economics and safety and health risks from these proposed carbon pipelines.
Attorney Brian Jorde with Omaha’s Domina Law Group, gave a presentation on landowners’ rights with respect to eminent domain, and spoke to the advantages of forming a legal “co-op” with other landowners who oppose their land being taken by eminent domain for these projects — the Nebraska Easement Action Team (NEAT).
Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold, the lead group that worked to build an alliance of farmers, ranchers and Tribal Nations to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from using eminent domain. The virtual meeting included a Q&A where landowners submitted questions via text message, email, or typed on Zoom that were answered by the panelists.