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by: Joe Duggan
LINCOLN — Tickets for next month’s Keystone XL pipeline protest concert headlined by Neil Young and Willie Nelson sold out Thursday, a day after they went on sale, according to the etix.com website.
Although the northeast Nebraska farm where the event will take place could have fit as many as 10,000 people, a decision was made to cap sales at 7,000 tickets, said Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, the group organizing the event. The tickets sold for $50 each.
Proceeds from the Sept. 27 concert will benefit Bold Nebraska and two other organizations fighting a proposed pipeline that would move crude oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas.
Organizers started selling tickets at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The show will take place on a farm near Neligh lying on the path of the proposed pipeline.
Pipeline company Trans Canada remains in a holding pattern as it awaits a decision by the U.S. State Department on whether the project meets the national interest.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama said he would postpone the decision until after the Nebraska Supreme Court settles a constitutional dispute on the pipeline’s route.
The State Supreme Court will hear arguments in the pipeline appeal Sept. 5, but is not expected to rule on the matter until late in the year.
Project supporters say that the pipeline would bring jobs and economic benefits while tapping a supply of oil from a friendly trade partner.
Opponents say that ramping up production from Canada’s oil sands region will boost greenhouse gas emissions and that potential leaks from the pipeline are a threat to land and water, specifically the vital Ogallala Aquifer that underlies much of Nebraska.
Nelson and Young have not played together in Nebraska since the 1987 Farm Aid show at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Both are advocates of alternative energy who notably have run tour buses and other vehicles on biodiesel fuel.
The concert also will feature musical performances by Lukas Nelson, Willie Nelson’s son, and hip-hop artist Frank Waln, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
