Comments Elsewhere

From Jason Lee Byas at C4SS: “One Reason Not to Build the Keystone XL Pipeline: Justice” “. . . Since beginning to plan Keystone XL, TransCanada Corporation has used eminent domain to steal more than a hundred tracts of land in Texas alone. If it gets the green light, the pipeline will run up through the plains like a burglar on a spree. Of course, the company does initially offer those who have what they want a chance to make the transaction voluntarily. When that doesn’t work, though, unsuspecting landowners receive letters like the one Julia Trigg Crawford got, saying ‘If Keystone is unable to successfully negotiate the voluntary acquisition of the necessary easements, it will have to resort to the exercise of its statutory right of eminent domain.’ . . . Whatever justifications are offered for a hypothetical, peacefully acquired pipeline do not justify the real world pipeline. At least no more than justifications for a hypothetical parking lot would justify one built by taking a wrecking ball to Nick Gillespie’s home. If the title ‘libertarian’ is to mean anything, it must mean a defense of justice. It cannot, and must not, mean endorsing feudalism whenever ‘it’s good for the economy.'” http://c4ss.org/content/17368