We always have believed that the best defense in any situation is knowledge. We began to educate ourselves, using every source at our disposal to learn about this company's plans for our future. The more we researched, the more nervous we became. It soon became apparent that this threat went beyond the perimeters of our own ranch and was a threat to the entire state of Nebraska.

As the media began filling our homes with news of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a pipeline leak in Salt Lake City and oil spewing from a ruptured pipeline in Michigan contaminating the ocean, lakes and rivers, we knew that the lifeblood of the entire Midwest, the Ogallala Aquifer, was in imminent danger.

One hundred thousand letters were submitted, testimony was given, officials were contacted and good news was received. The State Department delayed the permitting process until more information could be gathered and until a more complete environmental impact statement could be drafted. As we relished in this small victory, TransCanada remained relentless, going so far as to threaten eminent domain on landowners who refused to sign easements on a project yet to be sanctioned by our own government.