New York Times on Nebraska's indomitable Jane Kleeb

Photo of Jane Kleeb by Michael Friberg

Note: all links added by AKSARBENT

The NYT notes that only in Nebraska has resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline "coalesced into a cohesive, powerful movement" and explains who, more than anyone, has made that happen.

The fight over the Keystone XL has largely been portrayed as one about climate change, in which environmental groups like the National Wildlife Federation and 350.org are pitted against the fossil-fuel industry. But what has kept the pipeline out of the ground so far, more than anything, has been Kleeb’s ability to convince mostly­ conservative farmers and ranchers that they are the ones being asked to bear all the risk of Canada’s energy expansion. If something goes wrong, she says, they’re the ones who are going to suffer. Kleeb didn’t need to persuade all of the people in the room to be angry — many of the state’s landowners are plenty wary of what they see as the pipeline’s risks — but she has organized them to take on Trans­Canada and more or less their state’s entire political power structure. Days earlier, thanks to her efforts [and those of the law firm of David Domina, who is now running for U.S. Senate — AKSARBENT], a state district court had thrown the construction into limbo.