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KELO has begun running propaganda for land-thieving foreign corporation TransCanada. The non-renewable-energy corporation is paying for ads to tell South Dakotans how wonderful it will be to give up their land rights so Transcanada can pump $40 million worth of tar sands crude across our prairie every day.
This ad campaign comes after KELO paid for a five-day Canada road trip for reporter Ben Dunsmoor and photojournalist Brian Cooper to go be dazzled by the bright lights of Calgary and produce a series of reports, mostly favorable, on TransCanada's operations. (See below for links to all nine reports and judge for yourself whether they contain any pro-oil, pro-corporate bias.) I don't know my ad rates, but I'm curious: just how much of Ben and Brian's excellent adventure will TransCanada's ad revenue pay for?
The TransCanada propaganda offers some pretty thin justification of its South Dakota land grab:
- "...good for America, good for South Dakota." Always funny to hear foreign millionaires tell us what's good for our country. I know Canadians, and I know what they think of American hyperpatriotism. The TransCanada marketing people were sitting in their office brainstorming the ad over Tim Horton donuts when someone said, "I know! Put 'good for America' first! Tell 'em it's their patriotic duty, and Americans will do anything for oil."
- "Rural counties and schools will receive nearly seven million dollars a year in property tax revenue." Rural, they emphasize, although cities get that money, too. Schools, they mention specifically, although sanitary districts and other governmental entities get their cut. Propagandists (I mean, marketers) choose the words that create the nicest pictures. But does the mere prospect of $7 million a year (actually $6.5 million, say the governor's people) justify violating property rights? If increased tax revenue could justify eminent domain, Lake County would kick my folks and me out of our cheap $100,000 houses and big empty lots on Lake Herman and sell the land to a developer who could subdivide the current Heidelberger estates into a good 8-10 lots that each could hold a $500,000 Lake-Madison style McMansion. (Don't even think it, Ron, Shirlee, Craig, Bert, and Kent.) Oh yeah, and $40 million dollars of $100-a-barrel oil each day is $14.6 billion of revenue a year; $6.5 million is 0.045% of that yearly revenue. Wish I could get a tax rate like that on my property, purchases, and income.
- "...over 250,000 rural electric customers will see their co-ops strengthened as they supply around the clock power to pumping stations." Now TransCanada's reaching. Every new business uses electricity, but they don't get to cite increased electricity sales for co-ops as justification for eminent domain. If increased consumption is how we strengthen our co-ops, we could just leave our TVs on all night. And how happy will we be when the pumping stations are using electricity and we hit peak demand during a blizzard? Will East River put load management on the pipeline the way they can on our washers and water heaters to make sure there's enough electricity to keep people's houses warm? Maybe instead of consuming more electricity, we should get excited about producing more, build wind turbines instead of a pipeline, and get electricity we could use and profit from directly.
A bald appeal to patriotism, a 0.045% tax, and a little more electricity consumption? That's the best TransCanada can offer? You need to do better than that to justify stealing land from South Dakotans.
But then again, why believe the Madville Times? This critique of TransCanada's marketing campaign is propaganda itself. Of course, the Madville Times's propaganda comes from a source that doesn't have a marketing department, won't make any money on the pipeline (or on stopping the pipeline), and whose land is safely 20+ mile away from the watershed any leak from the pipeline would contaminate. This propaganda also won't endear the Madville Times to KELO, which deigns to permit this commentary on its hallowed pages.
The Madville Times welcomes your own conclusions, commentary, and propaganda.
Dunsmoor/Cooper KELO series on TransCanada:
11/19/2007 - Why The Pipeline Route Runs Through SD
11/13/2007 - Canadian Crude: Owning Land On A Pipeline
11/13/2007 - Canadian Crude: Experience With Oil
11/13/2007 - Canadian Crude: Owning Land On A Pipeline
11/13/2007 - Canadian Crude: TransCanada's Background
11/12/2007 - Canadian Crude: Impact Felt 1,200 Miles Away
11/12/2007 - Canadian Crude: Growth Of An Oil Boomtown
11/12/2007 - Canadian Crude: Impact Felt 1,200 Miles Away
11/12/2007 - Canadian Crude: A Different Kind Of Oil
Careful Cory! If you make TransCanada mad enough they'll start throwing ad money at your web site to stifle your comments. Why doesn't TransCanada traverse across Minnesota instead? Oh, that's right, they want to end up in Elk Point, although they keep mentioning Indiana. I say protect our water resources or at least upgrade the steel pipes to their proper thickness, maybe even thicker, if it has to come across our State.
ReplyDeleteCory:
ReplyDeleteSorry, I disagree. I think the KELOLAND reports were well done, unbiased, and good local journalism. I think they provided excellent information about TransCanada, oil shale, the economic impact of same on that area of Canada, and landowners who like and dislike TransCanada.
And as to taking TransCanada's ads, well, they are TV station. That's what they do to make money. I would be shocked if there was any linkage between TransCanada's ad buy and the KELOLAND stories.
I'm not wild about the project either but the more information we have about the project from unbiased sources like KELOLAND, the better.
Todd
You never need to apologize for disagreeing with the Madville Times. I respect the opinion of a former telejournalist.
ReplyDeleteI'm all about information, and even TransCanada is entitled to have its say on our airwaves and before our PUC and courts. But their propaganda still smells. More importantly, it fails to make the case for a pressing public good that justifies eminent domain. $6.5 million a year? That's less than $10 a head in this state. Our state investment manager can probably find a way to make that much money just by reorganizing his file folders.
Aren't these pipes buried underground? Isn't this just an easement to allow the pipes to travel across land?
ReplyDeleteJust a question. With gas the price it is, what are we supposed to do when we depend on oil in this country. We have to try to be more self-sufficient, don't we? We have then to build refineries, which are in short supply now, and one of the problems. I would like to live with completely clean energy too, but since that's not possible, I prefer to become less dependent on the fickleness of the Middle East powers and more self-sufficient and thus more safe.
I cannot understand why people protest attempts to make us so. Can't drill in ANWR. Can't drill off the southern coast. Can't build refineries. Can't build nuclear plants. Can't build windmills that would disturb some elitist's view of the ocean. Maybe we should go back to horse and buggy, wood stoves, etc.