[ ♪♪ ]
[camera shutters clicking]
>> President Donald Trump:
This is with regard to
the construction of the
Keystone pipeline.
>> Bob: It was day four in the
Oval Office for Donald J Trump,
and the America First president
was about to make a foreign
company very happy, and richer,
none other than
the TransCanada Corporation
of Calgary, Alberta.
>> President Donald Trump: Okay,
Keystone pipeline.
>> Sometimes you think
this stuff only happens
in the movies, right?
That you have this big
corporation coming in
and trying to kinda take
over the little guy.
They came in and acted like
bullies and we've beat them--
you know, this little
team of folks
has beat them so far.
The question is, will we be
able to beat them in the end?
>> Announcer: On this
edition of The Fifth Estate,
Bob McKeown investigates the
hidden role of money and power
in the battle over the Canadian
pipeline called Keystone XL.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: The name says
it all, TransCanada,
a Canadian institution, and its
Keystone XL pipeline is planned
to carry Canadian oil south
through two provinces and
several American states to
refineries on the
Gulf Of Mexico, then for sale
in the US or abroad.
With US approval, it could be
an economic boom for Canada,
but that is
easier said than done.
The fight over Keystone now
has gone on for almost a decade.
[ Cheering ]
>> Bob: Recently,
The Fifth Estate
took a road trip along the
Keystone XL route
to better
understand that fight.
As you'll see, what a long,
sometimes strange,
often very un-Canadian
trip it's been.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: And it all began at
the epicenter of the Keystone
battle, the State Of Nebraska,
when TransCanada set out to
convince Nebraskans
to sign over their land
for the pipeline's
right of way.
>> They came to my door
about nine years ago, and,
you know, it was
a Baptist minister,
was their land agent.
And, oh, man, he was smooth.
He was, "Oh, you Nebraskans,
you're salt of the earth."
>> Bob: Rick Hammond's family
have been rooted in the land
here for generations when
the Canadians came calling.
And what were they asking
when they came to your door?
>> Well, it wasn't an ask.
It was a telling me that they
wanted to put a 36-inch
tar sands, they said oil,
but a tar sands pipeline,
through a section of
our ground 15 miles away.
And I listened politely,
let him into my house.
>> Bob: He says TransCanada's
land agent made him an offer--
take it or leave it.
Rick Hammond chose
the latter.
But it's not just the prospect
of a Canadian company
taking his land.
What also worries Hammond is
the environmental threat
the pipeline could pose,
and with reason.
>> This pipeline will leak.
All pipelines leak.
>> Bob: He might
have this in mind...
2010, an Enbridge
pipeline 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
a third of the continental
United States,
and that creates the largest
watershed ecosystem
in the entire country.
But despite that, it's through
these Sandhills that TransCanada
chose to build the
Keystone XL pipeline.
But the company
saw it differently.
Dennis McConaghy
was TransCanada's
executive vice president
when the Sandhills route
was planned.
>> From a
technocratic perspective,
going through the Sandhills made
sense because it wasn't,
like, fundamentally more risky.
>> Bob: Not more risky,
McConaghy insists,
because conventional wisdom
is that the safest pipelines
are the shortest ones.
>> And the shortest linear
distance through Nebraska
was going through the Sandhills.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: But it's clear that
TransCanada underestimated the
passions triggered by a possible
threat to the Sandhills,
and the opinions of Nebraskans
about the pipeline company
and Keystone kept
getting louder.
>> What's going on when we look
at a foreign company and say
it's okay to come in here
and take Nebraska land,
take it out of our hands that we
have worked generations for?!
>> It was early 2010,
my husband's a cattle rancher,
and so I started
getting phone calls from
other ranchers asking me if I
had heard about this pipeline.
>> Bob: Jane Kleeb was a
Florida Democrat who'd
married into a ranch family
in the staunchly
Republican State Of Nebraska.
For her, the debate
about Keystone
was uncharted
territory, at first.
>> I knew about
farmers and ranchers,
and I knew about
Nebraska politics,
but I definitely knew
nothing about pipelines.
[ Applause ]
>> Bob: But that was then.
>> Hello, commissioners.
My name is Jane Kleeb
and I head up a group
called Bold Nebraska.
[ Cheering and Applause ]
>> Bob: In the years since,
Jane Kleeb has brought together
farmers, ranchers,
indigenous communities,
and environmentalists,
to form a grassroots
group dedicated to stopping
TransCanada and Keystone.
[ Cheering ]
[ Chanting ]
>> No KXL!
No KXL!
>> We just don't
trust TransCanada at all.
They never lie to you, but they
also don't tell you the truth,
so I feel like
whenever we're with them,
we're talking to, like,
a used car salesman.
>> Bob: It's the same way
Nebraska rancher
Rick Hammond feels,
since he refused the
take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum
of TransCanada's agent.
>> He kept coming
back and kept calling,
and kept coming back,
and then, finally, it got uglier
and uglier, and then they
threatened me twice
with eminent domain
on the phone, and then
once in writing.
>> Bob: The principle of
eminent domain gives state
governments the right to
expropriate private property
for the public good, but Hammond
wonders what that's got to do
with Nebraska or him.
>> This product is not for us.
It's going to the Gulf to be
put on the world market for the
highest price, so why can a
foreign company for profit
claim eminent domain?
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: The answer to that may
be found at the statehouse
in the capital of Lincoln.
It's here that Nebraska
politicians come together
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 money for one thing
or another-- a lot of it.
>> If you look at what the
company put towards its
employees and our program,
it's certainly
in the millions of dollars
that we contributed--
or the company
contributed, yeah.
>> I've probably seen as
much of the Ogallala of anybody.
>> Bob: On top of that was the
Keystone advertising campaign,
one of the biggest in the state.
>> People recognized the--
the science of the situation.
I think that should
allay a lot of the fears.
>> Bob: But TransCanada
miscalculated on one ad
in particular.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Saturday night
in Lincoln!
Nebraska legend...
>> Bob: On football game
days, the University Of Nebraska
stadium could qualify as
third-largest city in the state,
filled to capacity
with 90,000 fans.
One Saturday in 2011,
this appeared on the giant
HuskerVision TV screen...
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Husker pipeline is
presented by TransCanada.
>> Bob: It's a TransCanada
commercial featuring Nebraska's
pride and joy, the football
team's offensive line,
locally known as
"The Pipeline".
>> The 1995 Husker pipeline
raised the profile...
>> Bob: In a state
devoted to faith,
farming, and football,
and not necessarily
in that order, comparing a
Canadian pipeline to an
American football institution
was seen as sacrilege.
Rancher Rick Hammond...
>> And their
analogy was, you know,
"Our pipe is as strong as
your Nebraska football,
"or make it that strong,"
and it was like-- I saw
that and was like--
I was just instantly mad.
Nebraska football is, you know,
that's one of the few things
that we're known for
other than corn and cattle.
>> Bob: Hammond
wasn't alone.
Soon, the University Of Nebraska
dropped that commercial
and cancelled its sponsorship
deal with TransCanada.
But there were others only
too happy to keep taking
TransCanada's money.
>> I have been accused of being
in the pocket of TransCanada.
I think I've received the least
good out of this, financially,
of anyone that I've known.
>> Bob: Nebraska
Senator Jim Smith is
proud to be labelled one
of the pipeline six,
the hard-core Keystone
supporters in the legislature,
some recipients of campaign
contributions from TransCanada.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: Indeed, it was
Senator Smith who pushed
through a company-backed law
that effectively
allowed TransCanada
to get Nebraska approval
for Keystone with little or
no public scrutiny,
according to anti-pipeline
advocate Jane Kleeb.
>> There were no standards.
There were no requirements
for public hearings
and there was no appeal process.
>> Bob: Smith insists both the
end and the means have been
for public good.
Is it fair to characterize that
as what TransCanada wanted
to see in that process?
>> No, I think that was the
best path forward to be able
to review a pipeline
project in the state,
and it would do so--
>> Bob: You don't think
that's what they wanted?
>> Do I think that--
>> Bob: You don't think that--
>> 1161?
>> Bob: --what's in your
bill is what
TransCanada, at heart, wanted?
>> I think TransCanada wanted
a process to follow in order
to be able to apply, to have
the approval of the pipeline,
and to that end, yes.
>> Bob: But that local
quid pro quo
would be just the beginning.
As we'll show you, nationally,
the Keystone debate would be
defined from Washington,
with untraceable donations,
known as "dark money".
>> The most powerful interests
in the country have found ways
to get around the laws and to do
whatever the hell they want.
I don't know how else to say it.
That's rather direct,
but it's true.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Announcer: The story
doesn't end here.
Like The Fifth Estate's
Facebook page
so you can follow
our investigations.
We will post updates on stories
and special video features
that take you deep inside.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: If the battle over
Keystone is being fought
on the ground in states
like Nebraska,
command and control come
from the nation's capital,
not from the White House, but a
few blocks away on K Street,
where the two businesses
that make the nation's capital
tick come together,
politics and lobbying.
And if TransCanada is seen by
some as the ugly Canadians
in those flyover states,
when CEO Russ Girling
comes to Washington,
he fits right in with colleagues
from Big Oil and their friends.
>> I mean, this is the
oil and gas administration.
Let's just be
really direct here.
>> Bob: Investigative journalist
Chuck Lewis specializes in the
covert use of money, power,
and lobbyists
to affect public policy,
in particular with the
untrackable donations known
as dark money, increasing in
the US each year.
>> There's been an explosion
in terms of the amount
of dark money.
It's gone up from a few hundred
thousand dollars to $1.4 billion
just since 2012.
>> Bob: A case in point,
the ubiquitous ad campaign
south of the border soliciting
support for TransCanada
and the Keystone XL pipeline.
>> Let's build the Keystone XL.
>> Bob: The adds are sponsored
by various associations,
alliances, and institutes,
that sound as if they're public
interest organizations but are
really run by
special interest groups,
fuelled by that dark money,
with no record of where it
comes from or where it goes,
except that here it's for
the benefit of TransCanada.
So, what does it all mean for
the decision on the future
of the Keystone XL pipeline?
That brings us to this man.
>> We good?
Hi, my name is Michael Whatley.
I'm the Executive Vice President
for Consumer Energy Alliance.
>> Bob: As Michael Whatley
tells it on this
Consumer Energy Alliance video,
the CEA is a grassroots group
representing hundreds of
thousands of ordinary Americans,
regular people, enthusiastically
behind Keystone.
>> We've got about, you know,
275 affiliated members,
about 450,000 individual
members all across the country.
We believe strongly that
the pipeline will be good for
American energy consumers.
>> Bob: You say the voice
of the energy consumer,
that's what you
want CEA to be.
>> That's what CEA is.
>> Bob: Yeah, but if you look at
the list of supporters of CEA,
it could equally be said
it's the voice of Big Oil,
Chevron, Exxon, Shell, BP,
and on and on.
>> Yeah, and the
Chamber Of Commerce,
and trucking associations,
and manufacturers,
and small businesses
all around the country,
as well as steel producers
and chemical manufacturers,
and hundreds of thousands
of individuals.
>> Bob: Now, you might assume
a national organization
with half a million members
in a big political fight
would need offices and a staff.
The CEA?
Apparently not so much.
>> They're often operated out of
a consulting firm or a mailbox.
And you can tell that, you know,
the money that is behind these
groups is from a small
subset of the population.
>> Bob: Robert Maguire
is with the
Centre For Responsive Politics,
investigating the flow
of money to and from
special interest groups like the
Consumer Energy Alliance.
>> Essentially, what they
are is shell organizations.
They are the industry or the
wealthy donor fuelling
a group that is-- that is
cover for their interests.
It is, you know, nothing more
than that.
>> Bob: So, how do we know
if the CEA is one
of those shell organizations?
It describes
itself as grassroots,
but it seems more
like Astroturf,
because it was
founded by Michael Whatley,
a partner in HBW Consulting
of Washington,
and a lobbyist for Keystone XL.
He and the other founding
partners of HBW are also top
executives of the CEA which
pays them more
than a million dollars
in fees.
You're an executive
with both companies.
David Holt has been
involved with both companies.
The addresses are the same--
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Bob: --for both companies.
>> Right, and, you know,
that is-- that is fine.
We have a master
management contract
where HBW does manage CEA.
>> Bob: Be that as it may,
the key fact is this...
As a tax-exempt nonprofit,
the Consumer Energy Alliance
must declare the total
amount of donations it receives,
but it's not required
to publicly disclose
who those donors are.
Money coming from whom,
from where?
>> From our members.
From our members.
And we put our
990s on our website,
we put our membership
on out website,
and we're very transparent
where those resources come from.
>> Bob: But hold on a sec.
The CEA website
does list some members,
but only a few
hundred of 450,000,
and for all the talk of
transparency about tax returns,
it releases no record of who
gives how much to support
worthy causes like
TransCanada and Keystone XL.
Anti-Keystone leader Jane Kleeb
says groups like the
CEA and its ally,
Nebraskans For Jobs And
Energy Independence,
give TransCanada both political
support and political cover.
>> So, they would start to
blanket the airwaves with ads
and with mailers,
and with robocalls,
calling our side extremists,
you know,
tree huggers, hypocrites.
They essentially do the
dirty work of TransCanada.
>> The Keystone pipeline
will create thousands
of high-paying jobs.
>> Bob: Another of the CEA's
roles in the Keystone campaign,
to tout the number of jobs that
would be created by construction
of the pipeline.
>> We strongly support
the Keystone XL pipeline.
It has national importance.
It will create and sustain
42,000 jobs across the country.
>> Bob: That sounds impressive,
and it's a major Keystone
selling point, but is it true?
You quoted the 42,000 figure--
>> Mmm-hmm.
>> Bob: --that you said would
be created AND--
>> Supported, yes.
>> Bob: --sustained.
Sustained.
>> Right.
>> Bob: Which would lead one to
believe would be permanent, no?
Created and sustained?
>> No, I don't think we've ever
said that a construction job
is going to be permanent.
>> Bob: According to a study
done by the US State Department,
the number of permanent jobs
created by the pipeline would
not be 42,000, as Whatley said.
In fact, there would be
just 35 permanent jobs,
a discrepancy not
lost on many Nebraskans.
>> So, with all due respect,
sir, you're not a liar,
but you sure are a BSer.
[ Laughter ]
>> Bob: And there's
another thing.
Remember Nebraskans For Jobs
And Energy Independence,
the local-sounding
so-called grassroots
group supporting the pipeline?
Well, guess who one of the
two principles of that is.
Not a Nebraskan,
but Michael Whatley
of the CEA, HBW, and K Street
in Washington, DC.
TransCanada's
then-Executive Vice President
Dennis McConaghy.
>> ..environmental impacts.
>> Bob: Can you understand how
there are some people who look
at this process,
Canadian company--
>> Yes.
>> Bob: --coming to the US,
using its money in one
form or another to
influence public policy
in the State Of Nebraska,
and frown upon that?
>> I can understand there
are some.
I can understand there are some
people who will take that view.
I also understand that the net
benefits economic to the
State Of Nebraska, I think,
a fair-minded assessment,
outweigh those risks.
>> President Donald Trump:
..important on others.
>> Bob: But for all the ads,
the unrelenting lobbying,
the seemingly
endless amounts of money,
it would turn out that what
TransCanada and Keystone really
needed was this guy.
>> President Donald Trump:
..projects that he's killed.
He rejected the
Keystone XL pipeline,
despite the fact that
it would've created 42,000 jobs.
>> Bob: Throughout the
2016 presidential campaign,
the pipeline kept
rearing its head,
and once in the Oval Office,
President Trump
didn't disappoint.
>> President Donald Trump:
All live television, fellas.
Anybody afraid of
life television?
[ Laughter ]
>> President Donald Trump: No?
Okay, ready?
>> Bob: A lot had
happened in between,
but in the fight for
Keystone, at long last,
there seemed to be a winner.
>> President Donald Trump:
TransCanada will finally be
allowed to complete this
long-overdue project with
efficiency and with speed.
>> Bob: The pipeline had not yet
got the go-ahead in Nebraska,
but Donald Trump couldn't resist
teasing TransCanada
CEO Russ Girling in front of
his big oil brethren,
for how much money the Canadians
spent trying to infiltrate the
Obama administration.
>> President Donald Trump:
I know, Russ,
you've been waiting for a long,
long time, and I hope
you don't pay your
consultants anything
'cause they had nothing to do
with the approval.
[ Laughter ]
>> President Donald Trump:
In fact, you should ask for
the hundreds of millions of
dollars back that you paid them
'cause they didn't
do a damn thing
except give you a
"No" vote, right?
[ Laughter ]
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: And President Trump
would do another favour
for TransCanada.
Less than a month
after his inauguration,
he put an old friend of Big Oil
in charge of the US environment,
choosing as the new head of the
EPA a man from Oklahoma
named Scott Pruitt.
>> Oh, I was shocked.
I thought, This is just so
far removed from reality.
"How can this happen?"
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Announcer: There's always
more to our stories.
You can stay connected to
The Fifth Estate on Twitter.
Get the latest on upcoming shows
and special video features.
[ ♪♪ ]
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: They're known as the
Great Plains for a reason,
extending from Western Canada,
where we call them the prairies,
south through the American
heartland along the planned
Keystone XL pipeline
route, and into Oklahoma.
And everywhere in
Oklahoma you go,
the scenery is interrupted
only by evidence of its most
important business, oil and gas,
though increasingly,
the state is also
known for something else.
>> Oklahoma was jolted by a
5.6 magnitude
earthquake earlier today.
Take a look at this.
>> Bob: This one happened
early on a Saturday morning in
September a year ago.
>> Nearly a full minute
of shaking in Oklahoma,
a state now rivaling California
as earthquake country.
>> Bob: It was recorded as the
most powerful earthquake ever in
the state, which is
saying something,
because the earthquake risk
in Oklahoma is greater than
anywhere else in the
US, and this was a doozy.
>> What that is-- that big burst
of blue and green on the
weather map-- that's birds.
That's all the birds in Oklahoma
taking off and flying away
all at once.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: The quake that
terrorized all those birds
measured 5.8 on
the Richter scale,
a growing threat in a state with
so much subterranean activity,
both seismic, and oil
and gas related.
>> With all these
earthquakes and all the issues,
the Keystone pipeline endangers
anyplace that it passes.
Survivors...
>> Bob: Veteran Oklahoma lawyer
Garvin Isaacs is a long-time
watchdog of the state's
oil and gas industry.
He warns that earthquakes
and pipelines
are a lethal combination.
>> And if the Keystone
pipeline comes through here,
we're gonna be in more danger
than we could be without it.
>> Bob: Indeed, Oklahoma
earthquakes have
increased exponentially.
In 2007, the state had
just one earthquake over 3.0.
In the past three years,
the average is 700
3.0 quakes annually.
Experts say much of
the problem is man-made.
Those quakes, the result
of water violently injected
underground as part of the
natural gas fracking process.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: Investigating,
regulating, possibly even
prosecuting the
earthquake problem,
would fall to Oklahoma's
chief law enforcement official,
the State Attorney General
at the time, Scott Pruitt.
What should be the job of
an attorney general?
>> The Attorney General is sworn
to uphold the laws of the state
of Oklahoma, and to apply
the laws fairly and equally.
>> Bob: And you don't believe
Scott Pruitt,
as Attorney General, at least,
did that?
>> No, he did not,
and it was all,
"Let me focus on what the
oil and gas industry wants,
"and we're gonna do it."
>> I think that the oil and
gas companies in Oklahoma saw
an opportunity to have their
concerns go directly to an
attorney general
whose, sort of,
ideological position on small
government and the promotion of
business through tax cuts
and other types of favourable
treatment really
aligned in a way that,
I think, worked out very well
for oil and gas companies
in Oklahoma.
>> Bob: Kristen van de Biezenbos
is an energy lawyer now
at the University Of Calgary.
But she watched Scott Pruitt
up close when she taught at the
University Of Oklahoma.
She says though
welcomed by Big Oil,
his election was a disaster for
protectors of the environment,
like the EPA.
>> He was known as somebody who
would not cooperate with the EPA
because he did not believe that
the EPA should play a role in
state regulation of
environmental issues.
He believed that should be
state jurisdiction only.
>> Bob: In fact, when he
became Attorney General,
Scott Pruitt disbanded
the state's
Environmental Protection Agency
altogether, and when the federal
EPA began investigating the
impact of fracking in Oklahoma,
Pruitt sent an official demand
that they cease and desist,
putting the needs of oil and
gas ahead of the environment.
And he wasn't done yet.
>> Pruitt sued the
Environmental Protection Agency
14 times during the time he was
the Oklahoma Attorney General,
so our whole government in
Oklahoma is now one that's
controlled by oil and gas.
[ ♪♪ ]
>> Bob: So, consider
Scott Pruitt's involvement
with TransCanada and the
Keystone XL pipeline.
Two of Keystone's biggest
boosters in Oklahoma are the
state's Big Oil companies,
whose products would use the
pipeline, Continental Resources
and Devon Energy,
both backers of Scott Pruitt's
election campaign.
An investigation by the
New York Times revealed
what it called a secret
alliance between Pruitt
and those oil and gas companies,
which sent directions to the
Oklahoma Attorney General
as to what he should
do and say to federal
officials about matters that
might adversely affect Big Oil.
Those industry letters were
copied, virtually verbatim,
onto Scott Pruitt's letterhead,
then sent to government
agencies in Washington.
>> That's right.
>> Bob: To the EPA, the
Bureau Of Land Management,
to the White House,
to Barack Obama?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Bob: And The Fifth Estate
obtained a copy of this legal
brief written by
Scott Pruitt's office,
supporting TransCanada's lawsuit
against the Obama administration
for its handling of the
Keystone approval process.
And then there's this, a memo
from TransCanada forwarded to
Pruitt, providing the
Attorney General
with talking points for a public
hearing about Keystone,
"to just read at the time
you are called on to testify,"
as the memo puts it.
Pruitt apparently covered many
of the TransCanada's points in
his testimony.
>> I couldn't believe it.
I thought this is the most
embarrassing thing that could
happen, is to have an
elected Attorney General,
to be getting drafts of letters
telling him what to do and how
to do it.
>> Bob: But did anyone tell
Attorney General Pruitt
what you do about the
potentially disastrous problem
involving all those
Oklahoma earthquakes,
especially when the
Keystone XL pipeline
would be built at a place
that calls itself
the pipeline crossroads
of the world?
It's the world's largest oil
storage facility in Cushing,
Oklahoma, holding enough to
make gasoline that would fill
up half of all the automobiles
in the United States,
and if the Keystone pipeline
goes ahead as planned,
it'll reach from Alberta,
right through here,
all the way to
the Gulf Of Mexico.
>> Earthquake!
>> Okay, now we're
feeling this one.
>> Bob: You can
understand the nerves,
especially in Cushing,
where there are already
50 million barrels of oil in
storage underground.
Add the Keystone XL pipeline,
with another 800,000 barrels of
oil a day, and critics say
an earthquake here
could be catastrophic.
>> What's gonna happen when we
have an earthquake that's a six
on the Richter scale?
That'll be the worst
environmental disaster
in the history of
the United States.
>> Bob: But apparently none of
it diminished Scott Pruitt's
stock in the eyes of
the new president.
Just the opposite.
>> Yes or no, does the president
believe that climate change is
real and a threat to
the United States?
>> You know, it's interesting
about all the discussions
we've had through the last
several weeks have been focused
on one singular issue...
Is Paris good or
not for this country?
>> Bob: When Trump named
Pruitt to head the EPA,
US official responsible
for defending American air,
land and water, to many
it was inexplicable.
>> Oh, I was shocked.
I thought, "This is just so
far removed from reality.
"How can this happen?"
>> Bob: But Big Oil
and Pruitt gadfly,
lawyer Garvin Isaacs, says he
understands why that choice
might make perfect
Trumpian sense.
>> Donald Trump wanted him
in there because he knew he was
going to protect the big money,
the oil and gas.
>> Bob: So, now TransCanada and
Keystone have another powerful
ally in Washington,
but as you will see,
there are questions about the
tactics employed to push through
the pipeline, payoffs,
clamping down on protest,
quiet arrangements
with law enforcement.
>> I've gotten death threats.
We've been followed.
I have random people
sometimes coming up to me,
calling me by name, and I
have no idea who they are.
[ ♪♪ ]
[ Cheering ]
[ Rodeo Announcer
Speaking Indistinctly ]
>> Bob: The American frontier
spirit is alive and well in
South Dakota, and few people
represent that better
than Troy Heinert.
Though he wears a black hat,
Heinert's one of the good guys,
a pickup rider on the
professional rodeo circuit whom
the other cowboys depend on.
He is also a member
of the Sioux Nation,
as well as a South Dakota
state senator, opposed to
the Keystone XL pipeline
from the beginning.
>> The original route cut
through the heart of our
reservation, and, you know, we
were against it immediately.
>> Bob: Most of all, he says he
can't ignore what he considers
TransCanada's disregard for the
opposition of indigenous groups
to the pipeline.
>> The frustrating
part of that is,
when you have that
many people saying,
"We don't want this
in our land,"
and they just turn a blind eye.
[ Singing in
Alternate Language ]
>> Bob: What haunts those on
both sides is the specter of the
violent demonstrations last year
against an American company's
pipeline in North Dakota.
Ugly images of force
against native protesters,
pepper spray, tear gas,
rubber bullets used by
law enforcement and the
National Guard.
Next door in South Dakota,
it was a wake-up call.
Not long after Donald Trump
signed his executive order,
South Dakota legislators
approved an emergency law,
Bill 176, to severely
limit the right to protest.
The bill passed, but
Senator Troy Heinert voted
against what he saw as a
giveaway to Big Oil.
>> It was terrible,
absolutely terrible.
>> Bob: Do you believe that
TransCanada may have had
a role in that?
>> I-- possibly.
I don't know for sure.
It's darn sure in their favour.
And when they set up laws or
regulations to limit access to
free speech and
right to protest,
I have a serious
issue with that.
>> Bob: And so does
Lewis Grass Rope,
a member of the
Sioux Tribe in Lower Brule,
South Dakota.
He participated in the protests
in North Dakota and says he and
other Lower Brule Sioux were
shocked to hear their
tribe accused of
supporting Keystone XL,
which most of the state's
Sioux community did not.
>> Our tribe was actually
working with TransCanada,
and they were in cahoots
with them at the time.
>> Bob: In cahoots, he says,
because Lower Brule leaders had
talked with TransCanada about
running an electricity line
across tribal land to power the
future Keystone XL pipeline
on its route through
South Dakota.
But those leaders apparently
kept the dealings with
TransCanada a secret, even
from some of their own members.
>> It's a situation that
once money's put in front of
somebody, and we're having a
financial crisis here within
the tribe--
>> Bob: Yeah.
>> --they'll sell out.
>> Bob: Grass Rope may be
cynical about his
tribal council's track record,
but TransCanada's man in
South Dakota maintains all his
negotiations to get the tribe
to support Keystone
were aboveboard.
>> There was no secretive deals
as far as tribal relations goes.
There was no
secretive deals ever.
>> Bob: Lou Thompson was head
of the company's
Tribal Relations Unit.
His job, to overcome the doubts
the Lower Brule Sioux had about
making a deal with TransCanada
despite the opposition of the
other tribes.
>> How can we be involved
with this project at the same
time that the public sentiment
of this project is so toxic,
that from a
political standpoint,
our council cannot
endorse the project,
or even working
with the company,
because it would essentially
be political suicide?
>> Bob: Right.
>> How do you-- how do
you manage those two?
And I think the tribe really was
hopeful that the company would
come to their aid and
help them figure that out.
>> Bob: It definitely was a
challenge for TransCanada.
They needed
access to tribal land,
but unlike private property,
they couldn't go to court to
expropriate it, so Lou Thompson
set out to win Lower Brule
approval by what he
calls tribal engagement,
in other words, finding projects
for which he could
spend TransCanada's money to
build a relationship with them.
>> It's contributing to
the powwow.
It's helping renovate
the powwow grounds.
It's providing money to Elders
committees so that they can go
to sponsored events.
So we did, as TransCanada
did, provided, you know--
I don't know
what the actual number
would be-- it's in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
Let's put it that way.
>> Bob: Hundreds of thousands
from TransCanada that
the Lower Brule tribal council
chose not to tell
their membership about,
according to Lewis Grass Rope.
>> It went wholeheartedly
without the knowledge of the
people, and that was a truly
disheartening act here against
our own people, because a lot
of us have no idea what these
councils are doing.
[ Singing in
Alternate Language ]
>> Bob: Now under
new leadership,
the Lower Brule Sioux apparently
have returned some of the tribal
engagement money
spent by TransCanada,
but it all remains
a divisive issue,
and the tribe's new
chairman wouldn't speak to us
about it on camera.
The fight over Keystone
has left everyone on edge,
looking over their shoulder.
And more so, since back
in Nebraska,
the leader of the anti-Keystone
movement there,
Jane Kleeb, says she has proof
there has been quiet cooperation
between US law enforcement
and TransCanada itself.
Her group, Bold Nebraska,
received a tip that the pipeline
company initiated what were
called training sessions with
the FBI and state police.
The Fifth Estate has obtained
a copy of this PowerPoint
presentation, which TransCanada
used to identify what they saw
as potential
threats to Keystone,
depicting people like Kleeb and
her members as
aggressive and abusive.
So, how would this work?
TransCanada somehow
contacts the FBI--
>> Yes.
>> Bob: --and says?
>> We think there are some
credible threats to our business
and to the safety of Nebraskans,
and we would like to come in and
do a training with you to
the Nebraska State Patrol.
That's exactly what happened.
>> Bob: And it's also
clear TransCanada held similar
sessions with the FBI and police
in two other Keystone states,
Oklahoma and Texas.
When Bold Nebraska asked to
know what allegations had been
made against them,
the state refused.
>> And the attorney general told
us that we couldn't see that,
that it was
privileged information,
but the state patrol
actually gave us the PowerPoint
presentation, and it showed
images of activists and painted
us as if we were,
like, these extremists,
and then went through very
specific detail about how to use
terrorism laws against citizens
who are protesting pipelines.
>> Bob: We wanted to ask
TransCanada about that and more,
but the company refused all
our requests to discuss pipeline
security, or anything else.
As for pro-pipeline
lobbyist Michael Whatley,
he insists, with all that's
at stake,
precautions to identify threats
are perfectly reasonable.
>> This is a matter
of public safety.
This is really a
matter of public safety.
I mean, when you're talking
about pipelines
of this magnitude,
if you have groups
that sabotage the pipeline,
could cause a major explosion,
or on an oil pipeline that you
would cause a major
catastrophic spill.
>> Bob: After ten years
of rhetoric,
lobbying, and protest, it now
all comes down to the pending
decision of the state
government of Nebraska.
A "Yes" from those in this
hearing room
and Keystone XL can go ahead.
A "No" and despite
Donald Trump's approval,
it's over-- that is, if the
case doesn't go all the way
to the US Supreme Court,
which many believe it will.
However, for former TransCanada
executive Dennis McConaghy,
as presumably for the
pipeline company itself,
the role of Donald Trump
is now seen
as little less than miraculous.
>> Something happened
that rarely happens in life,
and that is a second chance,
and that the world got
reinvented the night that he
was going to be president,
because Canada was going to
get a second chance at XL.
>> Bob: For South Dakota Senator
Troy Heinert and other Keystone
opponents, it's a final
chance to stop the pipeline,
and after the
violence in North Dakota,
they're bracing for
the endgame here.
What do you think
will happen here?
>> I'm-- I'm worried.
I-- I am worried about
what could happen here,
because I know the level of
commitment that the protesters
have, and obviously, a huge
corporation with lots
of investors, they're gonna
be just as committed and,
you know, that's--
that's dangerous.
That can be dangerous.
>> Bob: After what has
been a long and bitter fight,
with passion still rising,
Jane Kleeb says, as others
on both sides, she has no
choice now but to fear
the worst and hope for the best.
And at a cost to you personally?
>> You know...
I mean, I, obviously,
don't see my children,
right, as much as other moms and
dads who kinda have
9-to-5 jobs, and my kids
know that, and my kids
know that their mom gets
death threats.
>> Bob: Yeah.
>> But they also know that I'm
standing up for something that
is deeply right.
Sometimes you think
this stuff only happens
in the movies, right?
That you have this big
corporation coming in and trying
to kinda take over
the little guy,
and then Nebraska
with TransCanada,
that's what we've seen
up close and personal.
They are a big corporation,
they came in and acted like
bullies, and we've beat them--
you know,
this little team of folks--
has beat them so far.
The question is, will we be
able to beat them in the end?
[ ♪♪ ]
