Environmentalists make point, taxpayers pay the bill

We'll have to wait to see how the arbitration turns out, but the company that thought it was going to be able to build the Keystone XL pipeline wants to be paid $15 billion because the Obama administration rejected the plan.

TransCanada Inc. planned to spend $8 billion to connect Hardistry, Alberta, Canada, with a point in Steele City, Nebraska, where 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day would be routed into existing pipelines to Gulf Coast refineries.

It says it moved forward with the project on the basis of numerous federal reviews and the government's approval of the original Keystone pipeline, only to have the Obama administration finally reject it because it would undercut the nation's reputation as a global leader in addressing climate change.

"TransCanada has been unjustly deprived of the value of its multi-billion dollar investment by the U.S. Administration's arbitrary and unjustified denial," company spokesman Mark Cooper said. "It is our responsibility to take the actions we deem appropriate to protect our rights."

The situation reminds us of the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact fiasco of the 1980s and 1990s, which was finally settled in 2004 when Nebraska agreed to pay $141 million-- $151 million with interest -- rather than accept a nuclear dump in the state.

Under a 1980 federal law, Nebraska joined with Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma in the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact in 1983, and in 1987, the other states voted to locate the waste site in Nebraska.

Southwest Nebraska was considered as a site for the proposed Low-Level Radioactive Waste disposal facility, as an economic development idea, but it was eventually to be located near Butte, Neb.

Under Gov. Ben Nelson, Nebraska denied a license for the dump in 1998, citing environmental concerns and a high water table at the site. Waste generators filed a lawsuit over denial of the license, and the compact later joined.

In 2002, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln ordered Nebraska to pay $151 million for blocking construction of the site.

There are currently four low-level nuclear waste facilities in the United States, but Nebraska isn't affiliated with any of them.

Taking care of our planet is a worthy cause, but many are more concerned about day-to-day bills they must pay to take care of their families.

Those people must have an effective voice in the overall matter as well.