Monday, March 02, 2015

Oil soothes their troubled hearts


The hearts of Conservatives everywhere are being soothed and quieted by oil as Trana-Canada, a foreign company, uses eminent domain to seize property in the US for private property. Normally the ordinary use of eminent domain will fire up Conservatives angered over the violation of private property rights. Not this time.
Crawford, who lives in Direct, Texas, had been trying since 2011 to keep the pipeline company off her property. But she ultimately lost, the portion of her land needed for the pipeline condemned through eminent domain — a process by which government can force citizens to sell their property for “public use,” such as the building of roads, railroads, and power lines. Crawford can’t wrap her head around why TransCanada, a foreign company, was granted the right of eminent domain to build a pipeline that wouldn’t be carrying Texas oil through the state of Texas.

That question — how eminent domain can be used in a case like Keystone — has some anti-Keystone groups stumped too. But the groups that usually are vocal proponents of property rights, including the Institute for Justice, have been silent when it comes to the controversial pipeline.

“I have not seen a single group that would normally rail against eminent domain speak up on behalf of farmers or ranchers on the Keystone XL route,” said Jane Kleeb, founder of the anti-Keystone group Bold Nebraska.

That’s surprising to Kleeb, whose organization is supporting the efforts of a group of Nebraska landowners along the pipeline’s proposed route who have held out against giving TransCanada access to their land. She had thought that at least a few conservative or pro-lands rights groups would have voiced their general support for Keystone XL, but still denounced the use of eminent domain to get it built. That hasn’t happened, Kleeb said — not among property rights groups nor among most pro-Keystone lawmakers.

“If this were a wind mill project or a solar project, Republicans would have been hair-on-fire crazy supporting the property rights of farmers and ranchers,” she observed. “But because it’s an oil pipeline, it’s fine.”

The Institute for Justice, a tax-exempt, libertarian-leaning law firm founded in 1991 with more than $2.5 million in financial help from oil billionaires Charles and David Koch, holds private property as one of its “four pillars of litigation” — along with economic liberty, free speech and school choice. But Steven Anderson, the Institute for Justice’s managing vice president, told ThinkProgress that the group’s focus is on making sure eminent domain is reserved for “traditional public uses,” and that it does not currently take a position on pipelines in general or Keystone XL in particular. Instead, he said, the group focuses on “obvious private to private transfers.”

The Institute for Justice isn’t the only group that’s remained silent on — or come out in favor of — Keystone XL. The American Conservative Union backs the pipeline. Americans for Limited Government backs the pipeline. The Heritage Foundation backs the pipeline. The Heartland Institute issued a press release cheering the Nebraska Supreme Court’s rejection of the previous Keystone XL eminent domain challenge, asking rhetorically about the pipeline, “What’s not to like?”

This support is not entirely shocking, as many of these groups have received significant funding from Keystone XL stakeholders. Over the years, the Heritage Foundation has received more than $500,000 from ExxonMobil’s foundation and more than $5 million from the Koch Brothers’ foundations. Americans for Limited Government has received more than $7 million from the Koch-linked American Encore (formerly the Center to Protect Patient Rights). The Heartland Institute has received more than $500,000 in ExxonMobil money, more than $100,000 from the Kochs, and at least $25,000 from the American Petroleum Institute (the trade association for the fossil fuel industry). The American Conservative Union received more than $50,000 from the American Petroleum Institute and its foundation received $90,000 from ExxonMobil.
Nothing like a cold compress of cash soaked in oil to put out the fire in the hearts of Conservatives. It mayalso explain why those hearts are little more than oil black lumps.

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