Let's face it: Big Oil is used to getting its way. But not today... and we have President Obama to thank for standing up to them in spite of the political risk.
President Obama has just rejected a permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline -- a project that promised riches for the oil giants and an environmental disaster for the rest of us.
His decision represents a victory of historic proportions for people from throughout the pipeline path and all across America who have waged an uphill, years-long fight against one of the most nightmarish fossil fuel projects of our time.
But make no mistake: Big Oil is going to fight back hard and fast.
Why? Because this was a prime-time fight. The oil giants made sure of that.
Big Oil had their Congressional boosters put the president to an election-year test by forcing him to decide the pipeline's fate within 60 days. Then, the oil lobby itself rolled out its biggest PR guns to get the job done.
The head of the American Petroleum Institute sent the White House a very public and blatant warning: Approve the Keystone XL or face "huge political consequences."
Because Big Oil lost, this is not the end of the fight. This is the beginning of the real battle for America's energy future.
That battle will be fought in Congress, where Representatives who've collected $12 million from the Oil & Gas industry over the past two years are sure to try to raise Keystone XL from the dead.
So when you hear Big Oil call Keystone XL a national jobs plan -- ask "Are you kidding me?" A single pipeline project is not a jobs plan. Economic security is to be found in clean energy not in dirty energy that threatens us with oil spills and ever worsening harm from climate change.
And when you hear Big Oil say that we need Keystone XL for our security -- tell them to get real. Energy security comes from reducing our dependence on oil, not from a pipeline that would leave us with the risk but send the tar sands oil overseas.
The president stood up to Big Oil and listened to Americans saying: "We're done with fossil fuel schemes that destroy our land, poison our water and wreak havoc with our climate so that oil companies can make out like bandits." Now we need to continue to stand with the president and make it clear that tar sands pipelines are not in our national interest.
Corbin Hiar: Why the Keystone XL Rejection Won't Stop Tar Sands Development
Christopher Sands: Fine. We'll Play With China Then.
Nigel Barber: Keystone Pipeline: Gift Horse or Threat to America
David Suzuki: What's So Radical About Caring for the Earth?
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Now think about how a green revolution would affect the job market...
2.) Most of the oil will be sold on the international market because that's where it will fetch a higher price e.g. to China. Keystone as "energy independence" is a myth.
There's a lot more interesting aspects of the study.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_012312_FIN.pdf
Everything in your post indicates that the Republican and Big Oil campaign of misinformation and misrepresentation is alive and thriving.
Wake up ! The oil comes out of the ground because people are buying it. If oil companies could not sell their oil at overvalued prices, they would not drill for it. When you figure out a way that people quit buying the oil, then write something about a "victory". Please show some logic !
Also read that the Gulf drilling will be above pre-leak levels by the end of 2012. Permits are rolling !
Thank you Robert. Gorgeous on the inside and outside, as usual.
My Man!!!!
On her radio show Friday, Laura Ingraham challenged Mitt Romney on his messaging, particularly on the economy. When Romney argued that the economy was getting better but that this improvement wasn’t due to President Obama’s policies, Ingraham asked him, “Isn’t it a hard argument to make?” Romney responded a tad irritated, "do you have a better one, Laura?"
Mittens aside your party is now flirting with Newt. A man who is currently polling 11% percent behind President Obama. A man whose third and current wife was his mistress for 8 years of his second marriage which failed because his second wife wasn't into threesomes. If you go with Newt, between disaffected tea partiers and horrified Christian fundamentalists, there will be a third party challenge which will split the conservative vote. If you decide to go with Mitt then those same horrified Christian fundamentalists may stay home because they are at heart religious bigots. It wouldn't matter anyway because the economy IS unmistakably recovering with 10 months to the elections.
You people are toast.
No one is a bigger fan of your talent, but oil is not your enemy. It is, and always has been, your best friend. To regard it as a "nightmarish fossil fuel" is the height of hypocrisy. It has been involved in your life every day, at every moment and at every turn. Think what oil encompasses on a daily level? I'm truly sorry Mr. Redford but you're wrong.
Furthermore, there is a very specific reason this tar sands "oil" was to be transported all the way from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. ALL of KeystoneXL oil was intended for export,- they could bring it into the Port Arthur refineries, process it, and then export it via the Gulf without ever having to pay any taxes on it because Port Arthur is a "Foreign Trade Zone".
KeystoneXL is all about a big profit grab for the oil companies, nothing more. It would do nothing to alleviate our dependence of Arab oil whatsoever. Risking the Mid West aquifers just so the oil companies can reap a windfall profit on foreign sales, from the dirtiest kind of fuel (tar sands oil) is in no way in the national interest. The President did the right thing by refusing to green light the project.