Professor Sandi Zellmer testified before the Natural Resources Committee of the Nebraska legislature in support of LB1, a bill to authorize state routing authority over interstate oil pipelines.
Her testimony touched on four topics: (1) LB1 is not expressly preempted by federal law; (2) LB1 is not implicitly preempted because it does not conflict with federal law, and because the exercise of state authority to regulate land use and to conserve natural resources is an important aspect of state sovereignty and of an effective federal-state partnership regarding oil pipelines; (3) a supplemental environmental impact statement, if triggered by a decision to re-route the pipeline, would not be an excessively burdensome requirement; and (4) state routing requirements would not result in a Fifth Amendment taking.