As I sat with several others at a lunch table last week with Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who was about to address the City Club of Cleveland, I received a text message that the Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL pipeline was coming that afternoon. And with that decision to deny the pipeline permit, it was fitting that Chu spoke that day of Obama's plan to reduce oil imports by one-third by 2025, modernize the electric grid, support fuel-efficient vehicles, and invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The rejection of the 2,150-mile tar sands pipeline, to run from Canada to Texas, is a huge victory, but the fight will continue this week with a rally in Washington, D.C. Knowing that the effort to prevent the further extraction of tar sands oil is far from over and to keep the momentum going on the issue, 350.org will hold a rally at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 24 on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building to "blow the whistle" on the corruption that passes for business as usual on Capitol Hill.
As Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, said after the pipeline decision last week, Big Oil will do everything it can to overturn this decision and blocking one pipeline isn't enough to stop global warming.
"We'll be fighting to prevent Keystone, but we'll also be fighting to shut off the flow of handouts to the oil, gas and coal industries, and to take away their right to use the atmosphere as an open sewer into which to dump their carbon for free," McKibben said.
Despite strong threats from Big Oil and pressure from Republicans in Congress, who forced the issue by passing a 60-day time limit for a final decision on the project, Obama stood strong stating that the arbitrary nature of this deadline prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.
However, President Obama's statement on the Keystone XL pipeline, he said that he would continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase U.S. energy security -- including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico.Last weeks landmark decision proves that the power of the people can create change when individuals unite to protect human health and the environment in support of policies that promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable jobs.
During his 30-minute talk in Cleveland, Chu addressed the intellectual power of the U.S. and how clean energy innovation is a sweet spot for our country. From the most entrepreneurial people on the planet to the expertise and inventiveness of American universities, the U.S. could certainly be the world leader in the green tech industry. However, as Chu pointed out, the U.S. trails far behind other nations, including China, South Korea and Germany, and will fall even further behind once investments made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act expire.
He talked about how government plays an important role as a first early adopter of new technologies and how policies are needed to guide private investments to get these products to market and to create a draw.
As Chu sees it, if the U.S. is to regain the lead, or even to prevent it from falling further behind, Congress needs to understand the importance of passing legislation that unlocks private investment to provide new technologies a chance to succeed in the competitive market place, thereby renewing the American spirit.
Chu mentioned a time when he was under fire from Congress on how long he thought renewable energy would need incentives to be cost-competitive with fossil fuels. His response was that renewable energy should be competitive in the marketplace without incentives within the next two decades, a much shorter time span than the 100 years of subsidies provided to the oil, gas and coal industries.
In sum, Chu said, we have to get beyond sound bites, realize that energy issues are nonpartisan and that yes, indeed, "government policy drives investment."
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If you buy into what the green-beanÂs are saying, you would think they would be chaining themselves to existing pipelines to get them turned off rather than protesting one that has't been built yet......
I think we know what this is all about.....Â..........Â.
Look at what China is doing!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124259318084927919.html
an excerpt:
"The U.S. has a problem," Sergio Gabrielli, chief executive of Petrobras, said recently when asked about the loan talks. "There isn't someone in the U.S. government that we can sit down with and have the kinds of discussions we're having with the Chinese."
Mr. Gabrielli was referring to the fact that Chinese government banks are willing to extend huge foreign loans to further China's long-term energy-security goals: ensuring diverse global supplies and winning entree into competitive regions for its oil companies. A string of recent oil loans to Russia, Kazakhstan and others has pushed China's total commitments to more than $45 billion."
China is giving 10 billion.
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/01/canadas-oil-sands-are-we-exporting.html
Canada's domestic energy security should be prioritized above pipeline company profits and well above long-term energy security for China.
We don need no steenkin Energy Policy
Latest estimates indicate that the US has now spent over 4 Trillion dollars on the War in Iraq. A war basically over "cheap" oil.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iraq-war-ends-with-a-4-trillion-iou-2011-12-15
THINK of how much could have been accomplished by spending only HALF of that amount, on research and development of alternative, renewable, energy resources here at home.
President Carter got it right back in 1977. US foreign energy dependence lowered by nearly 30% during his administration, then quickly expanded after Republicans took power.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/carter-energy/
For being the supposedly most intelligent species on Earth. We sure don't learn much.
Man, the only animal with an intellect advanced enough to have created both a written and spoken language, then some of us learned (politicians) to lie convincingly........ and screwed it all up.
What a waste.
Our biggest mistake was not taxing imported oil with the price dropped. Unfortunately, higher gas prices are lethal to elected politicians.