Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/443462
ByMargeryA.Beck The Associated Press OMAHA, NEB. The Repub- lican-led Congress appears ready to approve the Key- stone XL oil pipeline, but no matter what actions are taken in Washington, the entire 1,179-mile proj- ect could be delayed until Nebraska signs off on the route. After several years of in- tense debate, the routing process is before the Ne- braska Supreme Court, and depending on how the jus- tices rule, months or years could pass before construc- tion begins in that state. Even if approval comes from Washington and the high court, opponents are looking for new ways to block the project, includ- ing filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Native Ameri- can tribes in Nebraska and South Dakota over the pos- sible disruption of Indian artifacts. The court is consider- ing whether an obscure agency known as the Ne- braska Public Service Com- mission must review the pipeline before it can cross the state, one of six on the pipeline's route. Gov. Dave Heineman gave the green light in 2013 without the involvement of the panel, which normally regulates telephones, taxis and grain bins. The justices have given no indication when they will render a decision. President Barack Obama has said he is waiting for the court's decision, and the White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the bill in what was expected to be the first of many confron- tations with the new Con- gress over energy and envi- ronmental policy. "There's no confusion from our perspective that the White House knows this route is still risky," said Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, a leading opposition group. The $8 billion pipeline would carry oil from Can- ada through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. Six years ago, the proj- ect faced little opposition. TransCanada already had an oil pipeline in place to carry crude oil from Can- ada through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Illi- nois. But the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mex- ico in 2010 followed by an- other spill in the Kalama- zoo River in Michigan only months later rattled both Nebraska landowners and lawmakers, who worried about what a spill could do to the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies drinking water to about 2 million people in eight states and supports irrigation. Supporters of the pipe- line say those fears are ex- aggerated, and that the project would create jobs and ease American depen- dence on oil from the Mid- dle East. A State Depart- ment report raised no major environmental objections, they note. The original route "was the least disruptive in terms of the amount of land that we had to dig up, and that's generally the principle that you look at when you are designing these routes," TransCanada spokes- man Shawn Howard said Wednesday. "I think some of these opponents think that you can just draw a route on the back of a nap- kin and hand that in and say, 'Here's what we're con- sidering.'" Nonetheless, TransCan- ada bowed to pressure to redraw the route through Nebraska to avoid the most ecologically sensitive parts of the Sandhills region and the aquifer. In 2012, law- makers approved a law that allowed the governor to give TransCanada Corp. the power to force eastern Nebraska landowners to sell their property for the project. Several landowners sued, arguing that state law placed regulation of pipelines and other utili- ties with the public service commission. A lower court sided with landowners last year, and the state Supreme Court is now considering the state's appeal. In recent years, pipe- line opponents have sought to persuade Nebraska landowners not to accept TransCanada's money. In response, TransCanada has blitzed the state with newspaper, television and radio ads to try to sway public opinion and offered property owners as much as $250,000 for access to their land. But no amount will shake the resolve of some oppo- nents. 1,179-MILE PROJECT Ne br as ka c ou rt c ou ld h ol d up K ey st on e pi pe li ne NATIHARNIK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Sisters Jenni Harrington, le , and Abbi Kleinschmidt pass a stake that marks the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline on Harrington's property near Bradshaw, Neb. By Steve Peoples The Associated Press WASHINGTON Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednes- day he believes he can win the next presidential elec- tion, offering an unusually aggressive assessment of his chances while dismiss- ing concerns they're threat- ened by potential rival and his political mentor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In an interview with The Associated Press, the 43-year-old first-term sen- ator said he had yet to make a final decision about whether to seek re-elec- tion to the Senate or run for president in 2016, but he spoke more confidently about making a bid for the White House than he has in the past. "I believe that if I de- cide to run for president, we have a path to be a very competitive candidate, and ultimately to win," Rubio said. "I can't guarantee a vic- tory. Certainly these races will be very competitive, and there's factors outside of our control that will de- termine a lot of it," he said. "But if we made the deci- sion to run for president, I believe that we can put to- gether the organization and raise the money necessary to win." Should he run for pres- ident, Rubio reiterated Wednesday, he'll do so at the expense of seeking re- election to the Senate. "If you decide that you're going to run for president of the United States, that's what you need to run for. You need to be focused," Ru- bio said. "If I decide to run for president, I'll run for president. And I'm not go- ing to be looking for some exit strategy or off-ramp in case things don't work out." Should Rubio get into the race, he'll join a field expected to include sev- eral high-profile Republi- cans, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. His greatest potential challenge, how- ever, may come from Bush, who last month announced plans to actively consider a presidential run and has spent recent weeks laying the groundwork for a na- tional campaign. "We have a lot of talented people in the Republican Party," Rubio said of Bush, who served as Florida's gov- ernor while Rubio was ris- ing in state politics. "Jeb is one of them. But there are others, too." Rubio has become one of the GOP's more aggressive voices on international af- fairs during his four years in the Senate. The senator also occupies a unique place in the Republican political spectrum, having champi- oned the Senate's unsuc- cessful push for immigra- tion reform in 2013 in ad- dition to carving out more traditionally conservative positions on cultural is- sues, health care and inter- national affairs. Rubio is set to appear in a series of interviews next week to promote his new book, and will follow with a more comprehensive book tour during the Sen- ate's February recess. In the book to be released next week, Rubio confronts his immigration critics while refusing to apologize for pushing for a comprehen- sive approach that included a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. "When people hear that we have over 12 million peo- ple here illegally, they feel as if we are being taken ad- vantage of," Rubio writes in "American Dreams: Re- storing Economic Oppor- tunity for Everyone." "They see how hard it is to find and keep a steady and well- paying job, and they worry that more people will mean more competition for al- ready scarce work. "That's not nativism," Rubio continues, referenc- ing a preference by some people for native-born res- idents over immigrants. "That's human nature." Rubio's comments on "nativism" counter what President Barack Obama told The Economist in an interview published last August criticizing Repub- licans' opposition to immi- gration changes. The GOP, Obama told the magazine, "knows we need immigra- tion reform, knows that it would actually be good for its long-term prospects, but is captive to the nativist el- ements in its party." INTERVIEW Florida's Marco Rubio says he can win presidential election J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. By Sadie Gurman The Associated Press DENVER The FBI is investi- gating the possibility that a homemade explosive set off near a Colorado NAACP of- fice was a case of domestic terrorism. Investigators also are considering many other pos- sible motives and have not determined whether the na- tion's oldest civil rights orga- nization was targeted, Den- ver FBI spokeswoman Amy Sanders said Wednesday. The blast happened at about 11 a.m. Tuesday out- side a barbershop that shares a building with the NAACP's Colorado Springs chapter, about an hour south of Denver. There were no injuries and only minor damage. While local chapter members said they were waiting for more informa- tion from law enforcement before drawing any conclu- sions, speculation washed across social media about whether the explosion was a hate crime. Sanders said investigators have not ruled out any possibilities. "We're exploring any po- tential motive, and domes- tic terrorism is certainly one among many possibil- ities," she said. An improvised explo- sive device was detonated against the low-slung build- ing, which sits in a mostly residential neighborhood, but a gasoline canister placed next to the device failed to ignite. Members of the FBI's Joint Terror- ism Task Force are inves- tigating because of the ex- plosion's proximity to the NAACP office, Sanders said. Investigators were still looking for a balding white man in his 40s who might be driving a dirty pickup truck. His identity was still under investigation. "This is someone we'd like to speak to," Sanders said. Both the chapter office and the barbershop re- opened Wednesday with lit- tle police presence. "We're standing vigi- lant and are trying not to let this disrupt anything," NAACP volunteer Harry Leroy said. Investigators were briefing the chapter's president, Henry Allen Jr., and he wasn't immediately available for comment. Leroy said it was too soon to say whether the office was targeted. Gene Southerland owns Mr. G's Hair Design Studios next door and was cutting a client's hair there when the explosion occurred. The blast was strong enough to knock items off the walls, but the quick police re- sponse was comforting, he said. Southerland said the FBI had given him no informa- tion on its early findings. But he said he didn't be- lieve the barbershop or its predominantly black clien- tele was targeted. HOMEMADE DEVICE FBI looks for motive in explosion near Colorado NAACP office Corning's Annual Community Resource Guide N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PublishDate:Thursday,January29,2015 2015 10% OFF your ad in each section when you buy an ad in Corning 2015 & Red Bluff 2015 Corning is on the map! Put your business on the map with it! 20,000 + readership! 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