This week, President Obama will find hundreds more people in front of the White House -- us included -- willing to go to jail for peacefully protesting the President's short-sighted decision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama's decision on this enormous fossil fuel project will not be a quiet deal with oil industry lobbyists; it will be witnessed by millions of voters who had hoped that President Obama would have the vision to get America off of oil with a moonshot program for oil-free cars by the next decade. Instead, oil profits have been pitted against the world that our children will live in, hooking America to some of the highest polluting oil without moving America quickly to a foreign oil-free future.
For many Americans, Obama's promise to begin to move the United States away from its growing dependence on fossil fuels and address global warming was foremost among his promise of change. For many more, it was Obama's assurance that his presidency would change a political system dominated by lobbyists and their narrow interests, instead of the public interest. President Obama's commitment on both of these promises -- to the volunteers who knocked on doors, the young voters who elected him, and the country he leads -- will be tested by his decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
If approved, the pipeline construction would allow greater exploitation of the environmentally destructive tar sands, ripping up some of the world's last, most intact rainforests and wildlife habitat that has taken 10,000 years to evolve. The pipeline also threatens communities along its route with toxic oil spills. And by opening a new source of highly polluting tar sands, it could cause even more global warming, as James Hansen and 19 other prominent climate scientists have warned. This is why Keystone XL is opposed by Nebraskan ranchers, communities near the dangerous refineries in Texas, the nation's largest environmental organizations, and so many more.
The State Department on Friday showed the extraordinary influence that the fossil fuel industry still has in Washington, when it absurdly claimed that the environmental impacts of the pipeline would be 'minimal.' While these State Department reviews are "welcomed" by the American Petroleum Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency objected to earlier drafts as insufficient. For a glimpse of how the State Department's Keystone XL reviews could release such an unrealistic conclusion, look no further than Transcanada's lead lobbyist for the pipeline, a former top campaign aide for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This appears to be the kind of cronyism with the oil industry that Obama promised to end, but with several major oil companies involved in the project, it really is just a glimpse of the enormous lobbying pressure the oil industry has brought to bear.
This post was originally published on Greenpeace.org
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Rachel Ryan: Daryl Hannah: You Are Free to Protest. Saudi Women Are Not
Keystone Pipeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keystone XL Pipeline | Friends of the Earth
Keystone XL Pipeline Obama's 'Biggest Climate Test,' Green Groups ...
too bad because green energy is cheaper and better.
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/10/solar-power-graphs-to-make-you-smile/
Great chart of energy source amounts: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/23/solar-power-intro-3-key-solar-power-points-top-solar-power-news/
Solar energy payback 1-3 years:http://www.motherearthnews.com/energy-matters/dispelling-the-myths-of-solar-electricity-energy-payback.aspx
http://www.solar-photovoltaic.info/payback/siemens-solar-panels-energy-payback-time-is-one-to-three-years/
Wind 6 months energy payback: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/wind_turbine_lca.php
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/EnergyBalanceofWindTurbines.html 3 months
panels lasting longer and better than predicted http://solar.gwu.edu/Research/EnergyPolicy_Zweibel2010.pdf Great article about price of solar now 3$/W installed. last 100 years, 1-2 cents pwer KWH after the first 20 years and the loan is paid off.
Solar pv panels have dropped from 100$/Wp in 1980, to less than 75 cents per Wp 2011.
Leave the tar sands in the soil.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110830151234.htm
" Earlier this year, Williams and his team figured out a way to release hydrogen from an innocuous chemical material -- a nitrogen-boron complex, ammonia borane -- that can be stored as a stable solid.
Now the team has developed a catalyst system that releases enough hydrogen from its storage in ammonia borane to make it usable as a fuel source. Moreover, the system is air-stable and re-usable, unlike other systems for hydrogen storage on boron and metal hydrides."
http://www.amazon.ca/Ethical-Oil-Case-Canadas-Sands/dp/0771046413
"This review is from: Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands (Hardcover)
I enjoyed this Book. It provides great Ammo to shoot down someone at the Office cocktail party who has swallowed the popular line on Alberta's Oil riches and how their extraction compares with the alternatives we face. He makes many compelling points that compare the reality of Canada's energy program vs the alternatives we don't like to think about. Namely oil from Saudi, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Sudan,Nigeria,Mexico. Another interesting point driven home is the cost of oil coming out of the Middle East and the hidden tax associated with it. Namely the 50 Billion the US pumps into the region with their military to keep the oil flowing. After reading this, it makes you think the only responsible oil producers are ourselves (Canadians) and the Norwegians. The best parts are when Levant drags out the dishonest practices and contradictions of Greenpeace and other so called "Ethical" investment players.
If anyone should read this, it is Americans. Know what you are buying and funding. "
They are a fund raising corporation, not an environment group.
China builds non-combined cycle coal fired plants.
20 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world are in China yet Greenpeace has as their main concerns disposable chopsticks and recycling cell phones.
If Greenpeace mentions that, they won't be allowed to fund raise there.
Missed the 'denier' tag being hung on AGW sceptics?
Missed the word 'sceptic' being turned into a perjorative by the left?
Get real.
Try looking at both sides of the issue.
and it's "skeptic"
I'm done. We had better find a real candidate we can believe in and TRUST for 2012.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/early_obama_letter_confirms_inability_to_write.html
Like Hide The Decline?
Like using the term concensus and thinking science is decided by a show of hands to a misleading question?
Too funny!
HILLARY 2012