Nebraska Farmers Union Opposes Keystone XL

Governor Heineman Washes Hands of Dirty Oil,
Disses Constituents with Double Standard

Nebraska is a welcome hotbed of activity on the Keystone XL pipeline. The Nebraska Farmers Union packed the house last Friday with a debate on the proposed tar sands pipeline. TransCanada spokesman Jeff Rauh squared off with Plains Justice advocate Paul Blackburn. Robert Pore's account in the Grand Island Independent is worth reading. Plains Justice apparently won the day: afterward, the Nebraska Farmers Union passed a resolution formally opposing the Keystone XL pipeline.

Also speaking on Keystone XL (among other topics) at the Nebraska Farmers Union annual meeting was Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman. During a Q&A, a member of Keystone XL opponent Bold Nebraska asked Governor Heineman to join Senator Mike Johanns in calling for a better study of the pipeline's potential impact on the Nebraska Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer.

Governor Heineman's response:

But Heineman accused Bold Nebraska of playing politics with the pipeline issue. Heienman then referred to the Democratic administration in answering the question.

"This is a federal regulatory issue," Heineman said. "There are two people who can stop it -- President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and that is where our focus ought to be."

Heineman said he appreciates Johanns' efforts and is supportive of it and has sent correspondence to Clinton expressing concerns Nebraskans have about the pipeline project and its proposed route through the Sandhills and across the Ogallala Aquifer.

"Maybe that route needs to change or maybe they don't even go forward with it," he said. "But that is where the decision is -- it is a federal regulatory issue and there's nothing we can do at the state level, at this time, to prevent that. Maybe in the future, but not on this particular one" [Robert Pore, "Merits of Proposed Oil Pipeline Debated at Farmers Union Convention," Grand Island Independent, 2010.12.03].

Fascinating: a Republican governor who doesn't think state-level activists should "play politics" with federal issues. This from a member of the Republican Party that is playing politics with unemployment benefits, the START treaty, and everything else on Congress's agenda in order to get huge tax breaks for rich people who don't need them and won't stimulate the economy. This from a governor who himself is playing politics with federal health care legislation and with the clearly federal issue of immigration.

Governor Heineman has acknowledged environmental concerns about TransCanada's Keystone XL. He now needs to get consistent and apply some of that Republican states-rights backbone to this issue and fight for a better route for the pipeline... or no pipeline at all.

TransCanada Keystone Leak #4: Hartington Pump Station Spews

Check that: it's apparently not the pipeline we have to worry about; it's those darn leaky pump stations.

Carrie La Seur of Plains Justice gets the scoop on the fourth documented leak along TransCanada's Keystone I tar sands pipeline. According to incident report #951480 filed by the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center, Keystone Pump Station 24 near Hartington, Nebraska, sprang a leak. The report says, "caller stated a check valve on a pressure transmitter located on the suction side of a line pump stuck open releasing 5-10 gallons of crude oil onto the ground.

The leaks must be working their way south. Check out TransCanada's Keystone system map:

Map of Documented Keystone I Pipeline Pump Station Leaks
May–August 2010 (click image to enlarge)

The previous three Keystone leaks happened at the Carpenter Pump Station in Beadle County in May, then the Roswell Pump Station in Miner County in June, then the Freeman Pump Station on August 10. Was the pipeline passing a stone or something?

Once again, let us review TransCanada's June 2006 pipeline risk assessment:

...the estimated occurrence intervals for a spill of 50 barrels or less occurring anywhere along the entire pipeline system is once every 65 years, a spill between 50 and 1,000 barrels might occur once in 12 years; a spill of 1,000 and 10,000 barrels might occur once in 39 years; and a spill containing more than 10,000 barrels might occur once in 50 years. Applying these statistics to a 1-mile section, the chances of a larger spill (greater than 10,000 barrels) would be less than once every 67,000 years [ENSR Corporation for TransCanada, "Pipeline Risk Assessment and Environmental Consequence Analysis," Document No. 10623-004, June 2006].

Given four incidents in three months, we are now in the clear on small leaks for 260 years. Thanks for getting those out of the way, TransCanada!

Memo to LAIC: Update Physical and Virtual Main Street Storefronts

My wife and I lament the pitiable state of many building façades in downtown Madison. Too many of the storefronts have tacked up tacky plastic and metal signs over

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation mostly ignores downtown. They briefly touted, then cold-dropped a Main Street and More! program that achieved nothing. The LAIC is apparently too busy pouring money into insider deals for housing developments and its federally subsidized industrial park on the edge of town. The LAIC's only demonstrated interest in building downtown came in its involvement in the real-estate shell game that has led to big ICAP move, which is another example of Madison's reliance on government handouts and socialism.

If the LAIC can't be bothered to promote real downtown renovation and capitalist opportunities, maybe we can arouse their interest in a little virtual downtown renovation. Mike Knutson at the Rural Learning Center discovers a really cool economic development project undertaken by the smart people in Ord, Nebraska. Since 2007, the Ord Chamber of Commerce has offered its downtown businesses $5000 no-interest loans to put toward fixing up their storefronts. Now the Ord Chamber is expanding the acceptable use of those loans to support updating online storefronts.

The Ord Chamber explains the new program on their blog (their blog, Dwaine. Their blog.). The program doesn't rely on a big federal handout. It got rolling when a local bank applied for an won a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka.

The LAIC loves signs and façades; our economic developers should be all over a project that makes our downtown look better on the street and online. How about we raise $25,000 for a physical and virtual storefront renovation loan program this way: For every dollar us regular folks contribute, the LAIC will match with a dollar taken out of LAIC exec's Dwaine Chapel's $100K-plus salary. We could redirect $12,500 from unaccountable salary to real Main Street improvements... and Chapel would still be one of the best-paid Brookings commuters in town.

---------------------
p.s.: The Dakota Drug building, one of the best-located retail properties on Madison's main street, has been on the market for two months. $99,900 gets you two stories and 6800+ square feet of prime retail opportunity. As of this morning, the LAIC still has not added this choice property to its Available Properties webpage.

Nebraska Politicos Speaking up on TransCanada; SD Pols Asleep at Switch

Opposition is rising to the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska, and it's prettyhard to dismiss these folks as "extreme environmentalists." U.S. Senator Mike Johanns has demanded more information and a different route for the pipeline to protect the sensitive Nebraska Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer. Nebraska farmer and State Senator Annette Dubas is leading an interim legislative study of Keystone XL's potential impacts on the state (see the documentation on LR435 here). That committee plans to look into liability, restoration of property, and regulatory oversight.

Nebraska State Senator Tony Fulton apparently shares concerns that Keystone XL could be bad for his state. Even Governor Dave Heineman is worried about Keystone XL's environmental impacts, although he thinks (erroneously) that Nebraska may lack the authority to impose its own environmental regulations over federal rules. (Where there's a will, there's a way, Gov. Heineman!)

This growing opposition comes on the heels of a new report from Plains Justice that finds TransCanada isn't putting enough resources into pipeline emergency response here on the Plains. According to Plains Justice, in all of Nebraska and the Dakotas, TransCanada has in place "one spill response trailer and one boom trailer that together contain 5,000 feet of boom, two skimmers, two portable tanks, and a variety of hand tools and equipment. It has also provided a 14 ft. and 18 ft. boat." Compare that to the Enbridge spill near Kalamazoo, Michigan, last summer. In response to a rupture in a 30-inch oil pipeline, same size as Keystone I and smaller than the 36-inch Keystone XL, Enbridge deployed "over 2,000 personnel, over 150,000 feet (28 miles) of boom, 175 heavy spill response trucks, 43 boats, and 48 oil skimmers." Given those numbers, TransCanada looks woefully underprepared to respond to a pipeline spill here on our prairie.

Nebraska lawmakers are at least willing to ask Big Foreign Oil some hard questions. It's too bad South Dakota lawmakers won't show similar moxie:

• Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard has defended big tax rebates for the construction of TransCanada's pipelines, rebates that neither Nebraska nor North Dakota offer.
• State Senator and Majority Leader Russell Olson thinks those rebates and those pipelines are wonderful. He has consistently resisted efforts to impose pipeline taxes to establish environmental clean-up funds. Maybe Rep.-Elect Patricia Stricherz can straighten him out.
  
• Neither Senator John Thune (of course not) nor Senator Tim Johnson (Tim! You're our only hope!) signed on to a letter from eleven fellow senators criticizing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her apparent pro-pipeline bias.
• I can't find any public comment on Keystone XL from Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin or Rep. Elect Kristi Noem.

Is South Dakota so desperate for economic development that we can't ask a foreign oil corporation to take sufficient precautions to prepare for the inevitable accidents on its pipeline? Nebraska evidently doesn't suffer this spinelessness; South Dakota should find its voice and join the calls to put our environmental and economic well-being above TransCanada's drive for maximum profit.

TransCanada Notes: Nebraska Regulations, SD Pipe Yard... and Oily Wind?

At least some Nebraska counties are taking action to keep TransCanada in line if it builds the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline through their territory. In York County (down where US 81 meets I-80), corn producers are asking the county commission to regulate the construction timeframe, pipeline depth, and pipeline reclamation to protect local agriculture. Holt County in north central Nebraska has already passed some significant pipeline regulations in anticipation of Keystone XL.

Meanwhile, TransCanada keeps trying to force landowners into silence about the project, something one Ernie Fellows of Keya Paha County doesn't much care for:

Fellows, a Keya Paha county landowner who lives near Mills, said he believes the company’s tactics and closed meetings with Landowners for Fairness (LFF) violate his rights.

“I belong to LFF. I have the right to say no. I have the right to speak. Having to sign a nondisclosure statement violates my civil rights,” he said [LuAnn Schindler, "Proposed Pipeline Has Some Property Owners Asking Questions," Norfolk Daily News, 2010.10.26].

Meanwhile, TransCanada is still getting its Keystone XL ducks in a row here in South Dakota. TransCanada rep Michael Calhoun checked with Butte County commissioners last week to make sure his company had the right permits for a pipe yard that mostly out-of-state workers will use as a staging ground for construction of the pipeline. Butte County has no zoning regulations, so TransCanada is good to go...

...assuming, of course, that the State Department approves TransCanada's permit request. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made some pro-Keystone XL noise last month, which earned her guff from both of Nebraska's U.S. Senators and some other folks... but no word that I've heard from South Dakota's Congressional delegation.

On the bright side, even as TransCanada threatens to profit from prolonging our addiction to dirty foreign oil, the Canadian company is also boosting wind power here in the States. At the beginning of the month, TransCanada finished construction on the 132-megawatt Kibby Wind project in Eustis, Maine. When those windmills are at full tilt, they'll provide enough juice for 50,000 homes.

Dang it: even those land-grabbing Canadian fossil-fuel peddlers can do something right every now and then.

Center for Rural Affairs: Keystone XL Wrong Solution for U.S. Energy, Prairie Economy

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

Remember that corporate claptrap our state senator Russell Olson (R-8/Madison) was spewing about why he voted to give TransCanada millions of dollars in tax refunds for the Keystone I pipeline so South Dakota could enjoy all sorts of economic and energy security benefits, even though North Dakota and Nebraska got the same benefits without giving away any such refunds?

Well, the Center for Rural Affairs weighs in on the pending Keystone XL pipeline to say those benefits don't outweigh the risks to our environment and our economic future. Last week, the Center for Rural Affairs declared its opposition to Keystone XL:

"America must focus on better approaches to securing the energy it needs by developing renewable energy, especially renewable approaches to fueling cars," said John Crabtree, Media Director at the Center for Rural Affairs. "We support developing clean energy resources that we have right here in Nebraska, like wind energy, not increasing our reliance on dirty, foreign energy that we have to pipe in from afar."

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that securing oil from tar sands and delivering it to U.S. refineries results in nearly double the greenhouse gas emissions as other oil delivered to U.S. refineries.

According to Crabtree, in the long-run, hybrid electric cars powered by renewable sources such as wind and low carbon biofuels will create more jobs and far greater economic opportunity in rural America while confronting the very real threat of climate change [Center for Rural Affairs, press release, 2010.10.12].

Crabtree cites TransCanada's willingness to cut corners with thinner steel and its strong-arm tactics against Nebraska landowners as further reason that Big Oil boosters like Senator Olson are putting the interests of foreign oil corporations ahead of the interests of rural America.

Senator Johanns: Move Keystone XL Away from Ogallala Aquifer and Sand Hills

Hat tip to Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines!

Here's what I've been waiting for: A Republican to stand up to TransCanada and try to protect his constituents from the Keystone XL pipeline. Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week to declare that he cannot support the Keystone XL pipeline based on the information thus far presented by TransCanada and the State Department in its inadequate draft environmental impact statement (DEIS).

Routes of TransCanada Keystone pipeline system, with initial/projected maximum oil capacities. Image from Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines.

Senator Johanns shares the concern of many Nebraskans and other folks who drink water that Keystone XL poses an unacceptable risk to the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies (Johanns quotes from the DEIS) "78% of the public water supply and 83% of irrigation water in Nebraska." Johanns also objects to the absence of substantial discussion of the unique Sandhills ecosystem, whose sandy soils might allow oil spills to penetrate the soil faster than they would elsewhere.

Senator Johanns hammers on the point that the DEIS assumes Keystone XL must cross the border at Morgan, Montana. He acknowledges that the nearly straight line from Morgan to Steele City, Nebraska, crosses the least land and thus poses what on paper looks like less environmental impact than routes that detour here and there from that straight line.

So the Senator from Nebraska proposes a whole 'nother route:

Understanding the primary role that distance plays in the consideration of pipeline alternative routes, I was disturbed by the fact that the DEIS contains no substantial discussion of a route that would run parallel to the existing Keystone route from Steele City, Nebraska, north to the U.S. border in Cavalier County, North Dakota. This route would be far shorter than the proposed route, and shorter than every alternative considered in the DEIS. And if—as the DEIS has argued—shorter distance generally coincides with a less severe environmental impact, then one could conclude that such a route would be better for the environment [Senator Mike Johanns, letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2010.10.14].

Uff da. Check that map: The purple dashed line is the hypotenuse Johanns doesn't like. The red line is the Keystone I route that runs through eastern South Dakota.

Now there's a tricky question: do we cause less environmental damage by digging a new, shorter route or by laying Keystone XL along the longer existing route? Do we double the leak risk for eastern South Dakota, or do we split the risk with our West River neighbors? Do we subject a whole new crop of landowners to TransCanada's intrusions, or do we subject landowners on the Keystone I route to another year of the same distress they went through in 2009?

You know, we could avoid difficult questions like this altogether by simply denying TransCanada the permit for its harmful, unnecessary, and potentially defective pipeline. Senator Johanns isn't quite to that point: he says "it is in our national interest to obtain oil from allies" and that "appropriate use and construction of oil pipelines can directly meet this national interest." But if the State Department doesn't consider the Keystone I parallel route for Keystone XL, the Nebraska Republican may be ready to join the chorus saying a flat No to Keystone XL.
---------------------------
Update 19:14 CDT: The State Department has given no indication of when it might approve the Keystone XL permit [James MacPherson and Josh Funk, "Canada-US pipeline on hold amid oil's recent woes," AP via Rapid City Journal, 2010.10.17].

Chadron Rejects Madison Pro-Booze Thinking, Keeps 1 a.m. Closing Time

Over a twelve-month period, good college town Madison saw significant expansions in the availability of alcohol:

1. Grocer Dan Roemen shut down Mr. Movies to make room for more liquor sales space, a move not viewed favorably by local readers.
   
2. The Madison City Commission voted to permit alcohol consumption in city parks.
3. The Madison City Commission extended closing time for bars from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.

On that last note, Madison bar owners argued that their boozy patrons were hopping in their cars at the 1 a.m. closing time and driving to Wentworth, Nunda, and other locations with later-closing bars. It's not safe to send all those paying customers—er, neighbors—out on the highway at that hour!

The same arguments were lodged before the Chadron City Council last month as it considered an identical measure. Bar owner Darin Garman warned that Crawford, Hay Springs, and Alliance would make the change and draw Chadron's late-night drinkers to the highways.

Yet the Chadron City Council . Why did this Nebraska college town say no to later booze?

"Eighty to 85 percent of the students we see having problems, alcohol is almost always a factor," Randy Rhine, [Chadron State University] vice president for enrollment said during discussion of the proposal to add an hour to the time bars are allowed to remain open. "Alcohol is probably the number one substance abused on our campus."

"I can't see it benefiting anyone to be out that much later ...with that much alcohol in your system," said Dr. Kristi Johnson. "I don't understand what it's going to gain for our community."

...[A]dding an hour to the hours of bar service will "increase all the risk factors," for alcohol abuse, said CSC nurse Ann Dockwiler. Every year the college has about a dozen incidents involving taking a student from a residence hall to the emergency room because of an alcohol overdose, she said, and many more cases which aren't serious enough to require an ER visit, but still have to be monitored by staff members. "It's a huge issue for us," Dockwiler said.

..."There seems to be a huge risk, and benefit to a very few," noted council member Steve Duncan.

"I'm of the opinion that nothing really good happens after midnight," said council member John Gamby.

"I think 1 a.m. is long enough," said council member Rob Harvey [George Ledbetter, "City Nixes 2 a.m. Closing, Retains Dog Licensing Rule," Chadron Record, 2010.08.23].

Chadron is a town about our size. They have lots of college students, just like Madison. And, at peril of stereotyping, one might argue that, a little more isolated out on the high western plains, folks there might have a little more excuse to seek solace in a stiff drink than us Madisonites on the lush green side of the 100th meridian.

Yet Chadron says whoa at 1 a.m., and Madison doesn't. Go figure.
--------------------------
Bonus What-If: Consider that if Madison hadn't extended its closing time, and if the local bars had sent everyone home at 1 a.m. on Labor Day Weekend, then by the time fireman Scott Johnson responded to that fire call and then blew into the breathalyzer around 3 a.m., the alcohol might have settled out of his system enough not to warrant a DUI arrest.

Breaking Good News: Lower Niobrara Natural Resource District Opposes Keystone XL

Friends south of the border let me know that the Lower Niobrara Natural Resource District has passed a resolution opposing the construction of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline through their district in northern Nebraska. The resolution received unanimous approval at last night's meeting. No one spoke up with any plus side to running a tar sands pipeline right over the Ogallala Aquifer. Residents don't even see the pipeline adding any tax revenue to their coffers: they expect that if the pipeline is built, state officials will reduce aid to counties by exactly the amount counties see their local revenues increased by the pipeline.

According to my correspondent, the Lower Niobrara Natural Resource District has already helped some landowners get some changes in the pipeline route. If the District can put up serious resistance to the project as a whole, we may see some significant route changes. Of course, the better outcome would be for other landowners and citizens to recognize that they can align with groups like LNNRD to tell TransCanada we don't need their dirty foreign oil sustaining our fossil fuel addiction and spoiling our water and land. Keep up the fight, Nebraska! We're with you!

TransCanada, Nebraska Law Hide Fair Market Value from Condemnation Proceedings

Here's one more small way in which the eminent domain with which TransCanada threatens landowners is wholly unfair. Mother Jones posts a redacted PDF version of a letter TransCanada sent to a Central City, Nebraska, landowner making the final dollar offer for easements for the Keystone XL pipeline. We don't get to see the dollar figure... and neither will the judge if TransCanada goes to court to seize the land. Writes TransCanada's senior land robber baron Tim M. Irons:

While we hope to acquire this property through negotiation, if we are unable to do so, we will be forced to invoke the power of eminent domain and will initiate condemnation proceedings against this property promptly after the expiration of this one month period. In the event that we are forced to invoke the power of eminent domain, this letter and its contents are subject to Nebraska Revised Statute § 27-408 and are not admissable to prove the existence or amount of liability [Tim M. Irons, TransCanada, letter to landowner, 2010.07.21].

Sure enough, Nebraska statute 27-408 says landowners condemned by this foreign company can't establish the market value of their property by showing the judge the fair market value the most interested buyer was willing to offer. Of course, one could argue that 27-408 applies to negotiations, and this letter doesn't sound like negotiation; it sounds like intimidation, take it or leave it.

The deadline was August 21. No word yet on whether TransCanada has pulled the legal trigger. But remember, TransCanada hasn't even received the necessary permits to build Keystone XL. As the Lincoln JournalStar points out, forcing landowners to incur the legal expenses of fighting eminent domain in court even before they know whether the legal fight is necessary is grossly unfair to landowners. If TransCanada truly respected American landowners, it wouldn't go near the courts until its pipeline received official approval, if at all.
--------------------------
Side note on language: notice the weaselly use of passive voice by Irons. Twice he says the company "will be forced" to use eminent domain. Forced? By whom? This is standard corporate-speak, using vague passive voice to divest the corporation and the people running it of responsibility for the bad things they do. You aren't being forced, TransCanada. You are choosing to use the American courts against American citizens to take American land for nothing more than your own profit. (Irons does slip in paragraph 2 of the letter, saying, "Keystone will use eminent domain...." Credit for at least once owning the action with active voice.)

TransCanada Threatens Nebraskans with Eminent Domain Before Keystone XL Approval

TransCanada is swinging the eminent domain hammer on Nebraska landowners. Jane Kleeb at BoldNebraska reports that her neighbors along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route have started receiving letters from the Canadian tar sands oil company threatening to condemn their land if they don't sign contracts with TransCanada within a month. Pretty ballsy, considering TransCanada hasn't even received permission from the federal government to build the pipeline.

Unlike South Dakota, where our Congressional delegation and other elected leaders have mostly rolled over for Big Oil, Nebraska's Republican Senator Mike Johanns has called TransCanada out on its Don Corleone tactics:

Landowners tell me that TransCanada has set arbitrary deadlines for acceptance of payment offers and threatened the use of eminent domain without so much as an approved permit to move forward with the project. In my letter, I ask TransCanada to immediately lift any deadlines imposed on Nebraska landowners and to negotiate in good faith [Senator Mike Johanns, press release, 2010.08.11].

It's about time I hear a Republican take his party's platform seriously and speak out against a foreign company using eminent domain to seize American citizens' property for its own profit.

TransCanada, of course, continues the corporate doublespeak:

TransCanada's commitment, number one, is to treat landowners with respect... and, number two, to work with landowners and come to a mutually acceptable agreement on easements whenever we can [Jeff Rauh, TransCanada spokesman, quoted in Art Hovey, "Keystone XL Letters Cause Stir," Lincoln Journal-Star, 2010.08.14].

Treat landowners with respect... I guess that means TransCanada will call you Mister when they use the courts to steal your land.

SD Mines Beats SDSU for Return on Investment; Black Hills State Last

Bloomberg Businessweek has released an analysis of the financial return on investment at over 500 American colleges and universities. Their major finding: overall, estimates of how much more you'll make with a college degree than without are vastly overestimated:

But new research suggests that the monetary value of a college degree may be vastly overblown. According to a study conducted by PayScale for Bloomberg Businessweek, the value of a college degree may be a lot closer to $400,000 over 30 years and varies wildly from school to school. According to the PayScale study, the number of schools that actually make good on the estimates of the earlier research is vanishingly small. There are only 17 schools in the study whose graduates can expect to recoup the cost of their education and out-earn a high school graduate by $1.2 million, including four where they can do so to the tune of $1.6 million. At more than 500 other schools, the return on investment, or ROI, is less—sometimes far less. College, says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale, "is not the million-dollar slam dunk people talk about" [Francesca Di Meglio, "College: Big Investment, Paltry Return," Bloomberg Businessweek, 2010.06.28].

The study analyzes ROI for in-state and out-of-state students separately, so public schools get two rankings. It measures ROI at three South Dakota schools: South Dakota State University, School of Mines and Technology, and Black Hills State (alas! no comparisons with DSU or Augie).



School of Mines comes out on top in South Dakota and pretty good nationwide. the ROI resident students get ranks 288th out of 852 rankings in the analysis. Non-resident ROI ranks 294th.

South Dakota State University ranks 580th by resident rates and 598th by non-resident rates. SDSU's ranking is helped by its 51% graduation rate, compared to a 37% graduation rate at Mines. But interestingly, SDSU graduates make little more than Mines students who don't graduate. Among non-residents, Mines non-grads actually edge SDSU grads in ROI. Sometimes, winning is just a matter of showing up.

The worst way to invest your educational dollar is to come from another state and attend BHSU. The ROI for non-residents at Spearfish ranks 852nd out of 852. South Dakotans attending BHSU do only marginally better, producing an ROI that ranks 850. In other words, if you're concerned strictly about earning potential and you're thinking about attending Black Hills State, you might do just as well to skip college, go straight to work, and make up the earning difference by putting in extra hours for a couple summers at Zesto's.

The best investment in the region is private Carleton College over in Northfield, Minnesota. And alas, even with lower tuition, SDSU lags behind the flagship public universities of Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota.

Now a couple notes on methodology:

1. This analysis examined 1.4 million graduates, but the data is self-reported, allowing for all sorts of inaccuracy.
2. The return on investment includes assumes earning power is delayed, figuring that if you don't go to college, you spend those first four years out of high school working your tail off.
3. The overall ROI is more a measure of the institution's performance, not specific graduates. Having lots of students who don't graduate counts against a school's ranking, but it doesn't change the fact that if you get that degree, you will earn more.

Oh yeah, best return on investment: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MHS grad Mike Stunes will be rolling in dough in a few years!

Correlation from Ord, Nebraska: Openness and Economic Development

Mike Knutson draws my attention to Ord, Nebraska, and that town's avidly blogging economic development director, Caleb Pollard. Pollard runs both the economic development agency and the chamber of commerce in Ord, and he still finds time to blog. He runs the community's economic development blog, Ord Sunshine Pumpers, on a free Wordpress account—no fancy domain name or web hosting for these guys!* The blog puts up new posts a few times a week. Pollard uses the blog to feature positive local business stats like this: over the last nine years, Ord has seen 100 new business start... and 78 of them are still operating.

Ord sits in the middle of Nebraska, with 2200 people in town and 4500 people in the county. My hometown of Madison has 6500 people, with 11,000-some countywide. How many new business have we started?

Ord's economic development director seems totally engaged with his community and a broader Web audience, blogging regularly to tell Ord's story.

Madison's economic development director appears to find open communication with the community a tedious challenge. After years of vague, passive-voiced, and occasionally plagiarized monthly columns in the Chamber newsletter, our economic director appears to have given up even that rare writing and hired a freelance-writer to communicate the LAIC's message. So much for authenticity.

Oh yeah, and the Ord economic development blog is open to comments. In Madison, the only major website allowing direct user participation is the Madville Times. LAIC, Chamber, MadisonSD.com, city, county, Madison Daily Leader, KJAM,—not one of them thinks you have anything worth contributing.

Ord Sunshine Pumpers demonstrates that if you want to tell your community's story (or "market" it, as I'm sure our ad-obsessed LAIC board would say), it doesn't hurt to open the doors and let the community tell that story. Ord also shows you need to have a passionate advocate at the helm, a stakeholder, someone who lives in the community who is deeply invested in seeing it succeed, someone so invested that he will write honestly, passionately, and prolifically about what's actually happening in his community.

Hmmm... that sounds so familiar....

-----------------
Update 2010.08.05: The free blog gets you started, but once you get your Web legs, you'll probably want to upgrade. After a year-plus (and 60K pageviews!) on Wordpress, the Ord Sunshine Pumpers moved up to a domain of their own, OrdNebraska.com. Pretty slick!

Year of Unity: What About Whiteclay?

Hat tip to John Andrews at South Dakota Magazine!

Kevin Abourezek of the Lincoln Journal Star draws our attention to new efforts to rehabilitate Whiteclay, the Nebraska border village that sells around 4 million cans of beer annually, mostly to residents of South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation. Bruce BonFleur of the ABOUT Christian ministry has started a used clothing store and soup kitchen in Whiteclay and is trying to get resources to raze abandoned buildings and start a recycling center and some Lakota-owned businesses.

Some Nebraska officials are trying to help, and they met last month with some South Dakota legislators, including House Speaker Tim Rave, to see what could be done.

Rave agreed that solutions in Whiteclay and on the Pine Ridge Reservation would require support from state and federal leaders.

...Rave also said he didn't think South Dakota leaders would support spending money on solutions in Whiteclay this legislative session, considering the fiscal crisis his state is facing [Kevin Abourezk, "A Search for Solutions at Whiteclay," Lincoln Journal Star, 2010.01.31].

Hmmm... is that how the Year of Unity is going to play out? We'll talk a lot, but we won't put our money where our mouth is? But you know us poor white folks: we can't even afford three cents more a gallon for gasoline to fix our roads.

I know someone is going to hit the comment section and say we can't solve the Indians' problems by throwing money at them. But we found the resources to haul firewater across the frontier to introduce our red brothers to the "blessings" of "civilization"; we should be able to find a few pennies in our budget, even in tight economic times, to support solutions to the problems we caused.

Wind Juices Local Economies in Nebraska & Dakotas

More folks across the Great Plains are figuring out that wind power is a key part of economic future. Today's notes:

• Thanks to a $5-million tax credit from Uncle Sam, TPI Composites will open a wind turbine blade factory in Grand Island, Nebraska. What does Grand Island get out of the deal? More than 200 jobs.
• As reported here earlier, Iberdrola is building enough wind power in Brookings and Deuel counties to replace more than half of the capacity of the canceled Big Stone II coal plant... and doing it for less cost per megawatt. The Brookings County Commission is taking its time to make sure the Buffalo Ridge wind developments don't cause interference with ITC's phone lines. Tuesday, the commission got a reminder that Buffalo Ridge is good for local business: local concrete contractor Winter, Inc. is pouring concrete bases for towers that may be 484 feet tall.
• Every little bit helps: Art Mariner started GR-8 Country Wind Power about a year ago. He's sold a handful of small turbines for home and farm use. His wind company employs himself and two others. Thre jobs here, three jobs there... that's exactly the kind of rural job creation SB 58 and the other components of the PUC's Small Renewable Energy Initiative will support.
  

TransCanada Land Agents Break Nebraska Real Estate Law

As TransCanada churns an ugly brown stripe across the prairie for the Keystone pipeline and gears up to negotiate Keystone XL, it has run afoul of Nebraska real estate laws. According to a July 2 Lincoln Journal-Star article (which strangely, I can only access in the Google cache), TransCanada's land agents from Universal Field Services were scurrying about the state acquiring easements for the next big pipeline when someone pointed out Universal's "highly skilled, experienced... dedicated professionals" didn't have Nebraska real estate licenses.

Oops. That's a violation of Nebraska law. Now the land agents have submit to a background check, take a course in Nebraska real estate rules, take a state test, pay an application... all of which they should have done before starting work for TransCanada.

Gee, anyone care to speculate as to how many other rules TransCanada might choose not to follow unless someone files a complaint?

Now I don't know the ins and outs of real estate license requirements in South Dakota and elsewhere, but here's a juicy thought: If an agent who "negotiated" a pipeline easement didn't have a real estate license, that agreement may be invalid. If you're a landowner who is none too pleased with the deal TransCanada has offered (or forced down your throat through eminent domain) to permanently reduce your property value, you might want to review your documents.

Not that I'd ever want to stand in the way of greedy foreign petrocapitalists trying to take our land at under-market prices just to inject another line of black heroin into fossil-fuel-addicted America. I'm just saying that when TransCanada comes knocking for your land, it might not hurt to ask to see that real estate license.
-----------------------
In case the Google cache goes wonky, here's the full text of the original article:

Keystone XL hits license snag
[Lincoln Journal-Star, 2009.07.03]

The Nebraska Real Estate Commission has launched an enforcement action against an Oklahoma company hired to acquire easements for a proposed petroleum pipeline.

Terry Mayrose, deputy director of enforcement for the commission, has issued two cease and desist orders against representatives of Universal Field Services, including its president.

The orders were issued in late June after Mayrose learned that easement agents did not hold Nebraska real estate licenses.

"We get tips and information about people in violation of the Nebraska Real Estate License Act," he said. "I'm not saying it's routine, but every now and then, we do get calls, we do an investigation and we do have to issue cease and desist orders."

Mayrose declined comment on the validity of any easements that might have been signed prior to the order, but, he said of Universal: "I have received a call from their attorney and it's my understanding they're going to comply."

The enforcement action involves TransCanada and its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, expected to pass through the Lincoln area west of York on its way from the oil sands of Alberta to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

TransCanada is already at work in Nebraska on the Keystone pipeline, which starts in the same part of Canada and comes through the Lincoln area just west of Seward.

TransCanada spokesman Jeff Rauh acknowledged the cease and desist orders and said the company was "absolutely committed to meeting all the state, local and federal requirements."

Mayrose said there are several steps to getting licensed.

"They would have to go through a criminal background check. They would have to make application for a license. They would have to get pre-license education. And they would have to pass a license application test and pay an appropriate fee before a license would be issued."

Dan Kramer, an Atkinson banker who also is a landowner along the proposed Keystone XL path and a leader of an organization called Landowners for Fairness, is monitoring the enforcement effort.

"We don't have any illusions that we’re going to stop it," Kramer said of the pipeline. "But we think everybody ought to play fair. And if they need a real estate license to do the kind of work they need to do in Nebraska, they ought to have it."

Kramer said the situation seems to raise a question about the validity of signed easements.

Greg Barton, legal counsel to the Real Estate Commission, said landowners are free to pursue the answer to that question on their own. "But the commission does not have the authority to review and invalidate contractual agreements." License Act," he said. "I'm not saying it's routine, but every now and then, we do get calls, we do an investigation and we do have to issue cease and desist orders."

Happiest People in America: Nebraskans... Who Went to University in South Dakota!

ABC News runs a report on the happiest states in the country. They cite MainStreet.com's Happiness Index, which measures household income, debt, employment, and foreclosures, and finds Nebraska the happiest state in the Union. South Dakota is in good shape at #8— we beat Minnesota (yaarr!), but we ranked an ugly 45^th in debt-to-income ratio.

But before you Nebraskans get all uppity, watch the ABC video closely. About 50 seconds into the clip, whose colors is that smiling jogger flying on her sweatshirt? It ain't Huskers...

[click for larger image]

...U-S-D. That's South Dakota, friends! Ha!