TransCanada Settlements -- Why More Secrets?

Update on the TransCanada settlements: AP's Chet Brokaw reports that the settlements reached Friday cover just the first batch of landowners who were scheduled to go to court yesterday, not the whole South Dakota group. Keystone pipeline project rep Jeff Rauh says talks are still ongoing with some landowners.

Alas, those other landowners and the rest of us interested in learning whether TransCanada is finally playing fair with everyone won't get to find out what the settlements reached so far consist of: "Rauh said both sides in the trials agreed that the terms of the agreement would be confidential" [Chet Brokaw, "Settlement Reached in Pipeline's First Eminent Domain Trials," AP via Aberdeen American News, 2008.06.09].

Whether it's settlements like this or contracts or what have you, the moneyed interests in our state impose far too many restrictions on information in our society. The landowners have already been pushed into sacrificing their property rights; why take a bite out of their free-speech rights as well? Other folks along the Keystone route and in the way of future pipelines and other industrial projects (like Doug and his West River neighbors) deserve to know what TransCanada's final offer is.

There are plenty of matters that are none of our business. But the terms under which a foreign corporation lays claim in practical perpetuity to South Dakota land and puts our land and water at permanent risk should be a matter of public record.