Nebraskan pipeline opponent receives environmental award
On Wednesday, November 1, Nebraskan Jane Kleeb became the third U.S. recipient of the Climate Breakthrough Award, named for the awarding organization. She along with Indonesian Gita Syahrani was recognized for her work in reducing global annual emissions and changing the lives of millions of people. They will each receive a $3 million grant and additional funding.
Kleeb is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic party, but she is best known for her work as the founder of pipeline opposition group Bold Nebraska. Bold Nebraska is an “unlikely alliance of farmers, ranchers, Tribal Nations and citizens.” The organization is bipartisan and focuses on issues such as eminent domain, clean energy and small family farms and businesses.
Bold Nebraska was influential in stopping the development of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline promised to increase the flow of tar sands crude oil from Western Canada to American ports in the Gulf of Mexico, where it would be exported overseas. Because tar sands crude oil is more acidic and corrosive than conventional crude oil, the chances of the proposed pipeline leaking oil into the environment were high. Additionally, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, tar sands pipeline emissions are five to 20 percent higher than previously thought.
The Keystone XL pipeline would have crossed both the Sandhills and Ogallala Aquifers. 85% of Nebraska’s water supply comes from groundwater. A tar sands oil leak into these aquifers would have been environmentally devastating, with effects on agriculture, wildlife and human quality of life. Using grassroots methods, Kleeb and Bold Nebraska organized both liberal and conservative Nebraskans against the Keystone XL pipeline project, which was eventually blocked by the Biden administration.
Kleeb plans to use her 2023 Climate Breakthrough Award to focus on renewable energy development across rural America. She said, “The land in rural communities can harness enough clean energy to power America for the next century and beyond. This is an economic opportunity to transform America’s energy system with people — and land — at the center of change.”
According to Climate Breakthrough, “The Award [sic] is a unique grant, designed to elevate philanthropy’s role in catalyzing climate action. Relying on three tenets — larger grants, a longer time horizon, and more flexibility — the Award is a rare philanthropic model that invests in capable individuals to lead big-bet, transformational efforts rather than those with near-term metrics of incremental progress.”
By Annika Cambigue