bursts open,
spilling heavy oil from Canada
into Michigan's Kalamazoo River,
one of the largest
inland spills in US history.
2016, a pipeline belonging
to another Canadian company,
Husky Oil, spills 200,000 litres
of Athabasca crude into
the North Saskatchewan River.
Now, if TransCanada
is successful,
it would dig a trench
for kilometres
across farmer-rancher
Rick Hammond's property.
A Keystone XL spill could
contaminate the water supply
for both his farm and family.
>> Why would we risk our
lifeblood of water for farming,
which is the
lifeblood of Nebraska,
for a foreign oil
company to export oil?
>> Bob: Indeed,
TransCanada PipeLines
may well have misread the
political climate in Nebraska,
believing it could get approval
for a controversial route
through some of the most
important and revered land
in the state.
Here in Nebraska, they call
these the Sandhills,
the rolling dunes that cover
about a quarter of the state.
But what you can't see
is what's underneath,
a vast natural reservoir that
supplies water to about
atogether
with a crucial component of
the battle over Keystone,
TransCanada's money.
The company has so
far spent years,
and literally billions,
trying to win American support
for its pipeline.
>> We put out a chart showing
who spent the most each year,
and for any number
of years there,
they were the leading
spenders in terms of lobbying.
>> Bob: Jack Gould follows the
money in Nebraska politics for
the citizen watchdog group
called Common Cause.
During a single
legislative session,
here's what other special
interest groups
in the state spent...
Now, here's what TransCanada
spent lobbying lawmakers
on Keystone.
And where does that stand in
the general context in Nebraska?
>> That's the largest
I've ever seen.
[ Cheering ]
>> Bob: And then there was
TransCanada's outreach program
to indigenous communities
along the pipeline route.
>> TransCanada was
fully behind an aggressive,
robust tribal
engagement approach.
>> Bob: Lou Thompson
headed TransCanada's
Tribal Relations Unit.
When he says,
"Tribal engagement,"
what he means is getting
support for Keystone by giving
the tribes