Today was... quite a day. The bell that people struck last August when they sat in at the White House to block the Keystone Pipeline was still resonating. Not loudly -- the oil money in Congress muffled the sound. But loudly enough that we squeaked through by a 4-Senator margin, defeating a Republican amendment mandating the pipeline's construction.
A year ago almost no one had heard of the pipeline. Even four months ago, a poll of 300 "energy insiders" still found 97 percent predicting it would get its permit. But it didn't -- TransCanada can of course re-apply, but that will be another battle, down the road. For now, people power (the largest civil disobedience action in 30 years, 800,000 messages to the Senate in a single day, bodies encircling the White House shoulder to shoulder five deep) overturned the odds.
And though most Americans don't know it, today is also International Women's Day, appropriate in this case because many of the very strongest fighters against this project right from the beginning were women of unusual distinction.
I was reminded of that earlier this week, when Debra White Plume was arrested on the Lakota reservation for blocking trucks carrying giant equipment up to the tar sands. She's an eloquent fighter, part of the large crew of indigenous leaders who were the first to sound the alarm about the tarsands and have been at the center of the battle ever since. But this time she wasn't outside the White House or at a Congressional hearing -- she was on a lonely reservation road with a small crowd of other people facing down giant semis and tribal police. You need to read her full account of what happened, both because it's powerful and because she's a great writer. My favorite passage:
On the ride home from jail, I shared with my children my jail time, they were curious what the cell looked like and what I did in there for 3 hours. I told them it was empty, nothing in there but a toilet, not even drinking water. I told them I just paced back and forth, and read the grafitti scratched into the walls that said "this cell is 11 by 6," "Tristan loves Luke," "Angel and Wildflower have outlaw love," and "I used to work here, now I am IN here." My teens were sad, but understood why this happened, and they were glad me and their Poppa were coming home.I thought of Women's Day again in the afternoon, when the votes in the Senate were being tallied and we were all doing the digital equivalents of biting our nails (refreshing Twitter, mostly). After the drama of the arrests and of encircling the White House had died down some, the hard work of maintaining this victory in the oil-soaked Congress fell to a small corps of Capitol Hill environmentalists. A few were men -- Jeremy Symons from National Wildife Federation, Jason Kowalski from 350.org -- but at the center were several indefatigable women, like Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz from the National Resources Defense Council, and Lena Moffitt from the Sierra Club.
The work they did was not glamorous -- it was absolutely necessary, however.Day after day they tracked how each Senator was leaning, figured out which arguments would persuade which staffer, carted around briefing books, gave powerpoints, convinced donors to call the pols they'd funded. I don't think I could do it -- the constant match of their conviction against the cynicism that rules so much of Washington seems tougher for me to endure than my three days in Central Cell Block. But they did it with quiet grace, and they won
And in the end, the two events -- on the Lakota Reservation, and on the Hill -- were the perfect summation of the whole Keystone campaign. The most grassroots of activists meshed easily and powerfully with the most entrenched of Washington enviros; there was no bickering or infighting -- people seemed naturally to take the parts they were good at and trust others to do likewise, from Jane Kleeb running the Nebraska fight to Kenny Bruno coordinating the funders. Everyone worked toward a common goal with the resources they had at hand, and together we made them enough.
Just enough, mind you, and our victory may not last forever. But today big oil actually lost something big. If you want to understand how, all those women are the place to start.
Follow Bill McKibben on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmckibben
Get your facts straight.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57361212/keystone-pipeline-how-many-jobs-really-at-stake/
It's going over the Ogallala aquifer that supplies 8 states with water for drinking, irrigation and livestock. Because of the Ogallala that area is known as America's bread basket as it supplies 30% of all our agricultural needs. Since tar sands (read tar) is heavier than water it can be cleaned up conventionally, and any spills could po ison the aquifer.
It was tar sands that ran through Marshall Michigan in Enbridge’s Pipeline 6B that ruptured on July 26, 2010 sending over one million gallons into the Kalamazoo river. As of today, nearly forty miles (dead zone) of the river is still restricted, even to residents.
U.S. is using 18.8 million barrels a day or 70 billion barrels per decade.
Today, the most optimistic estimate suggests that non-OPEC countries have 300 billion barrels of conventional oil. Including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including the Outer Continental Shelfthe (with the Gulf of Mexico), including brazil's oil reserves....
The world is using so much oil that non-OPEC countries cannot any more control the oil market.
his "Walk On Water" Act at the Belagio . . yup! . . a holdin back the oceans rise . .
Domestic oil producers in the USA are pushing for this phase so the glut (GLUT) of oil can be distributed out of the large oil tank farms and distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
On November 16, 2011, Enbridge announced it is buying ConocoPhillips' 50% interest in the Seaway pipeline that flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the Cushing hub. In cooperation with Enterprise Products Partners LP it plans to reverse the Seaway pipeline so that an oversupply of oil at Cushing could reach the Gulf.
On November 16, 2011, Enbridge announced it is buying ConocoPhillips' 50% interest in the Seaway pipeline that flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the Cushing hub. In cooperation with Enterprise Products Partners LP it plans to reverse the Seaway pipeline so that an oversupply (OVERSUPPLY) of oil at Cushing could reach the Gulf
Hope this link works for you. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/03/chris-cook-the-ghost-of-enron-past-explains-oil-market-manipulation.html
A very interesting article.
Fanned!
It seems to be a successful strategy so far but very short sighted.
The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie
Yet when the Democrats proposed an amendment that would dictate the oil actually be used for American markets and that all construction be done by American workers using American steel, the Republicans voted unanimously to defeat the measure.
The hyperbolic rhetoric from the right relies on an enormous misinformation campaign, and, as usual, the confidence that the main stream media will not weigh in on the actual facts.
The fact that the southern portion of the pipeline is already approved and slated to begin construction, shows the confidence that the oil companies and their politicians have in their ability to control the public discourse.
Beyond the environmental considerations, the economics simply do not add up.
The pipeline is designed to carry Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries for EXPORT to other countries. As it will consume a large portion of our already limited refinery capacity, it is expected to actually INCREASE gasoline prices in the Midwest.
At the end of the day, the pipeline is a huge fraud being perpetuated on the American people.
It will do nothing to create jobs, help insure energy independence, or reduce the price of gasoline.
The only thing it will accomplish is increase the profits of an industry already awash in cash.
Trans Canada means Across Canada so that's where it should go.
F&Fd
Educate yourself.
To state as if it were a fact that oil is abiogenic (NOT a fossil fuel) is almost as wrong as stating that it is factually biogenic in origin.
Even if it is abiogenic, that doesn't easily translate into a self renewable resource because it says nothing about how much material was available in the early Earth from which petroleum could be generated, or how long it takes to create a particular quantity relative to the rate at which it is presently consumed.
What is without a doubt, however, is that older oil fields produce less, we know of plenty more that's a little more difficult to obtain, and few of us are privileged to measure the resources of unfriendly countries or privately owned sources.
It would do us all good to give oil some competition.
December 1998
More than 5,000 Ijaw Youth gather in the ancient Kaiama Town, Bayelsa state, proclaiming the “Kaiama Declaration” and start peaceful protests against oil corporations for the years of environmental abuse and neglect of the region. The major demand of the youth is ‘resource control and self-determination’.[1] The government and oil corporations respond with violence through the deployment of military troops into the region, targeting the Ijaw communities – Yenagoa, Mbiama, Bomadi, Port Harcourt etc. Many youths are killed by the military.[2]
January 1999
In January 1999, Opia and Ikeyan villages of Delta State are razed in circumstances linking the American oil giant, Chevron. In the invasion carried out by Nigerian soldiers paid and ferried in Chevron helicopters, scores of people are killed and the communities are completely destroyed.
http://www.nigerdeltarising.org/resources/timeline
What's blocking refining the goop from the tar sands in Canada? Then shipping the refned gas, via a pipe, but much smaller and under way less pressure to the US