a very interesting group of americans from all political spectrums. we re talking about ranchers, farmers, leaders of seven native-american tribes hosting a week-long protest making a statement against the keystone xl pipeline. joining me now tom jennen, a nebraska land owner and the rosebud sioux tribe. weezy-pond, i want your response to this rolling stone report and how encouraged are you that they re reporting that the administration, two officials in the administration is saying that the president, it s not a matter of if, it s a matter of when. how does that set with you tonight? well, obviously, we re very pleased to hear a statement like that. of course, we have to wait for an official decision, and we re going to keep up the pressure. we re going to keep educating the federal government.
educating the administration and educating the americans about how bad the k xl pipeline is. it s an encouraging statement, we hope when all set and done, and a final decision made that the pipeline is rejected. and wizipan will sacred sites be affected if this pipeline is constructed? yes, it s going to pass over a large portion of our ancestral land. and it s going to be land that we hold in trust. and all land is sacred to us. and we re very concerned about the proposed pipeline and the impact it s going to have with the ability to work with our land but also other impacts, such as economic and social impacts as well. let s talk about that. tom, i want you to respond to this. transcanada is running a reverse of ads that started today in
happen to the agriculture industry alone if the aquifer were damaged. so i don t know if that really answers your question, but that s kind of my quick response. well, i appreciate that, 30% of agriculture in this country is affected by the ogallala aquifer. and tom, i understand that your mother had a negative interaction with transcanada. you can tell us that story? well, at the time of the original, if you want to call it that, the original proposed route, my mother-in-law was forced into, or she felt forced into signing an e. easiment. and it was under the threat of eminent domain. and you ve heard a lot of those stories. sure. and so, the threat went on, because once she signed the easement, she realized that the nondisclosure agreement, which she referred to as a gag order,
nebraska called straight talk about kxl. this one talks about the alleged economic benefits of in nebraska. here it is. some of it. in nebraska, i d like to now how will the keystone xl pipeline benefit us? economist ernie goss found that building the pipeline will inject $1.8 billion into the local economy and money to build parks, roads and schools. transcanada has been doing business in nebraska since 1992. we ve been contributing to the local economy for years. keystone xl means those benefits will simply benefit through numerous jobs. the first is the actual construction of the pipeline through the community, those construction-related jobs that follow on with the construction of the pipeline. the goods and services that are operational. there s the maintenance-type jobs that go with it. tom, i want your reaction to that ad, from what you can hear.