LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A Nebraska Public Service commissioner said she fears that tens of thousands of emails sent to the elected state board about the Keystone XL pipeline are being treated as spam, rather than as communications sent by people expressing their views.
Commission spokeswoman Deb Collins said that the Public Service Commission has received tens of thousands of nearly identical messages sent from the same domain, the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/2okVHAI ) reported. Collins said the commission is working with the state’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to manage the emails, because the commission can’t determine whether the emails are being sent by the public or are generated by a computer program.
“People have a right to write to us and for that to get to us,” Commissioner Crystal Rhoades said. “I don’t want them to be discounted.”
Public-information officer Holly West said all state email accounts have standard spam filters and that over 80,000 emails have been received from the same location. West said the emails are being counted, and identical messages added to the public record at the request of the commission.
The commission is in charge of reviewing and approving the path where TransCanada wants to construct an $8 million underground pipeline. President Donald Trump signed off on a federal permit for TransCanada earlier this month.
The company filed an application last month with the commission for review of the 275-mile section of pipeline through the state. The commission must make a decision on the pipeline by Sept. 14, and opponents are hoping the group will use the opportunity to put a roadblock in the project.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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