Pipeline Foes Condemn Neb. Congressman's Mock Playlist

Rep. Lee Terry is duking it out with oil pipeline fighters again, this time over a mock playlist Terry's people sent out last week to poke fun at the anti-pipeline prairie concert Willie Nelson and Neil Young will play later this month.

The ribbing began just a few days after Bold Nebraska announced the crooners would play a Sept. 27 benefit concert near Neligh. Unlike their previous concerts to benefit farmers, this time the Harvest the Hope concert will raise money to fight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas.

Days after the concert was announced, the pro-pipeline Consumer Energy Alliance came up with a suggested playlist for the concert that included slightly altered songs such as "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Build Pipelines" and "Keep on Blocking Pipelines in the Free World."

Then Terry, a Nebraska Republican, did an encore, publishing a list of his top 10 song requests on BuzzFeed but noting that he'd be unable to attend the concert because he'll be at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's homecoming football game.

He requested real songs, with pro-pipeline explanations, such as "On the Road Again," which he "dedicated to the carbon footprint left by anti-Keystone activists who drive from protest to protest all across the heartland."

Terry has staunchly defended the pipeline and pushed President Barack Obama to approve it.

Bold Nebraska cried foul because Terry's playlist was also released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which he is a leader, and posted on Terry's official Facebook page rather than his campaign page.

Bold Nebraska accused Terry of wasting taxpayer money to put together the playlist.

"Hopefully, Lee Terry's newly found song-writing career will enable him to pay for his nice house after he gets sent home in November," Randy Thompson, a rancher and poster child for Bold Nebraska, said in a press release.

"If he wants a hit record in Nebraska, I would suggest that he title it 'Take This Pipeline and Shove It' cause we don't need you representing our great state anymore."

The pipeline opponents said taxpayers' money that was spent on the playlist should be reimbursed and Terry should apologize and meet with landowners who have repeatedly requested a meeting.

"Instead of creating silly playlists for a concert that Lee Terry is welcome to attend, he should sit down with Nebraska landowners to hear the real threat of losing their property to foreign corporation TransCanada," Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, said in a press release.

Terry spokesman Larry Farnsworth acknowledged to Nebraska Watchdog that the Energy and Commerce Committee helped with the playlist, which he said "took about 15 minutes to write."

"Keystone XL is a big issue" for the committee, Farnsworth said.

The anti-pipeline post smacked of a recent report by the minority staff of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, calling Bold Nebraska a faux grassroots group used by non-Nebraska billionaires to funnel money to advance their political agenda.

Bold Nebraska also condemned that report as a waste of taxpayer dollars.