Eminent domain fine and dandy for Keystone-obsessed GOP
By Jane Kleeb - 01/14/15 08:07 PM EST
Republicans have lost their way (“Key court approves Keystone’s route through Nebraska,” Jan. 9). It used to be that property rights were a conservative value, but when oil company interests are involved, apparently property rights mean nothing. You might expect Republicans to bend over backward to help farmers and ranchers prevent the taking of their land by a foreign corporation. But in the case of Keystone XL, those farmers and ranchers have been ignored and belittled as “fringe extremists.” The obsession over trying to take down President Obama has led the GOP down a path of hypocrisy.
After the famous Kelo eminent domain case in 2004, House Republicans passed a bill that made it clear “farmland owners need to have long-term certainty regarding their property rights in order to make the investment decisions to commit land to these uses.” The bill went on to say, “the use of eminent domain to take farmland and other rural property for economic development threatens liberty, rural economies, and the economy of the United States.”
Placing a high-risk, high-pressure, maximum-capacity pipeline that has tar sands and chemicals like benzene is anything but adding “certainty” to a farmer. Helping expand tar sands adds to carbon pollution, which leads to climate change — also something not on the “good” list for farmers’ livelihoods and rural economies.
http://thehill.com/opinion/letters/229561-eminent-domain-fine-and-dandy-for-keystone-obsessed-gop
The only principle the GOP follows is "Who will pay me the most?"
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