Bold Nebraska - AUTHOR: Mark Hefflinger
Sen Jim Smith of Nebraska failed to disclose his lavish tour of Canada's tarsands operation, sponsored by ALEC, the Canadian government, and possibly even TransCanada.
Also the Nebraska state chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council, and author of unconstitutional bill LB 1161 that fast-tracked Keystone XL approval in Nebraska--Sen. Smith now faces an ethics complaint filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission.
Bold Nebraska
"Sen. Jim Smith could not answer fellow state senators’ questions about LB 1161," Bold Nebraska Executive Director Jane Kleeb told CMD, who suspects that TransCanada wrote the bill to fast-track Keystone XL in Nebraska and Smith was merely doing their bidding. "Everyone in the hearing room knew exactly why Sen. Smith kept on referring the majority of questions he could not answer to TransCanada's lawyers."
"Nebraskans have a right to know if their legislators are being lobbied by foreign countries and foreign corporations," Jack Gould of Common Cause Nebraska told CMD. "When an issue as important as the XL pipeline is being studied, all lobbying activity should be visible."
Click LIKE to thank journalist Nick Surgey with the Center for Media and Democracy for uncovering this story.