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So Kerry – the “environmentalist” – in addition to finding no concerns in public comments about the XL Pipeline, has in the initial report of his new agency found “little environmental harm.” This despite the concern of experts that it would be “game over” for the environment. Dr. Hansen’s webpage Keystone XL Pipeline Does Little Environmental Harm, US Finds and Time Magazine Quote
First the AFL-CIO betrayed working people by not forcefully opposing all of Obama’s NAFTA-like agreements that Obama was able to push through where Bush failed. See Economic Graphs The Economy under the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party and Unions Under the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party The AFL-CIO played cute about supporting the pipeline, but the result is they once again sold out major benefits for temporary gains. A.F.L.-C.I.O. Blocks Keystone Oil Pipeline, if Indirectly
They are just the latest in a long line. Remember Robert Redford asking us all to write thank you letters to the White House the first time the XL Pipeline was postponed for the election? Bill McKibben urging us on his fall 2012 tour to vote for Obama and being sure not to have the annual 350 international event or any White House Protests during an election year? The Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, many other organizations, and even some members of the Green Party urging us to vote for Obama without preconditions of any kind? And if you think this is an anomaly for Obama please see The Environment under the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party
There will be no apologies to future generations. This will be like segregation: Everyone will pretend they were on the side of the angels all along.
If published credentialed scientists are correct then that means time is of the essence. This building travesty means that working within the system just does not work, thanks in large part to the many who view the electoral success of the democrats more important than any principle. The streets are the only option left. I hope and pray non-violent protests will be sufficient.
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Here is your street crew:
Tar Sands Blockade
Don’t underestimate the effect of using the bureaucratic process to delay and exact costs on the project. It has been delayed once by the move to generate this Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. Effective and massive commenting causes the EPA/State Departments to have to address more comments, which delays the preparation of the final environmental impact statement and shows the size of the opposition (even those who might not feel comfortable taking to the streets). Working the other agencies that might comment during the inter-agency comment period can delay that part of the process. This is a tactic of not foregoing what little power you still have in the system. It also does not take a whole lot of effort on the part of folks working on other tactics.
With the declining cost of alternatives, the ability to bypass this project by deploying alternatives fast enough to make it uneconomic is more of a possibility. That has to be pursued at the same time as obstructing the deployment of additional fossil fuel extraction and mining. In the case of tar sands, the use is transportation. So that alternative technology and different social arrangements have to be accomplished outside the system
The DC-based non-profits do not have the flexibility to do what is needed nor sufficient funds to move members of Congress. They are struggling for relevance and survival as their volunteer base evaporates because of longer working hours in this economy.
I guess we’ll all have long faces from now on.
Here’s a link to an article I wrote two years ago titled “Massachusetts is Embarrassed, Humiliated by Senator Kerry’s Disgraceful Climate Fraud Bill.”
http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2010/05/14/massachusetts-is-embarrassed-humiliated-by-senator-kerrys-disgraceful-climate-fraud-bill/
You’ll see FDLers in the Comments defending Kerry and viciously attacking me for bringing it out. One of our writers here at FDL who is an internationally known climate activist reprinted that 2010 article about Kerry’s fake environmentalism: He reprinted it on his Facebook page, to ridicule me, calling me a “nut” or a “dufus” or an “idiot” (I forget which), for pointing out that Wind Farms cause massive Global Warming:
They do so emitting Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6), the worst Greenhouse Gas known: One pound of SF6 Warms the Globe more than 9 tons of Carbon Dioxide: The world’s biggest marketer of SF6 (Vestas) is also the world’s biggest marketer of Wind Farms. I had to explain all that to Mr. HW, sarcastically calling him “Einstein,” which is not as bad as what he called me. We are now “Friends” on Facebook, but he probably doesn’t remember the exchange.
Very well said and great work TarheelDem! The New Progressive Alliance already allied with Tar Sands Action and has their website on our webpage.
I will keep fighting, but it is discouraging how many major organizations support the Pipeline and how many buy the “Obama is an environmentalist” line.
“The streets are the only option left…”
The key point about yesterday is that it was not the approval of the pipeline, although the wording of the conclusion is ambiguous enough to allow a decision-maker to approve.
And there is a 45-day window for comments that if handled tactically can require detailed technical answers in the discussion that accompanies the final environmental impact statement. And if nothing else can delay the issuance of the final statement while that drafting is going on.
After the final environmental impact statement, there is an inter-agency review in which concerns from, say Interior, Energy, Agriculture, must be addressed. If Idle No More can put pressure on BIA, those concerns could in principle be brought up in this review.
My estimate based on the bureaucratic process involved is that the decision on the permit will likely come in August or September. But this needs to be kept in perspective. There are alternative means of transportation. Thinking that stopping this pipeline stops Canadian tar sands exploitation or Bakken shale extraction in the US is an illusion. There should be some action on the bureaucratic levers that citizens can pull, but it should not be the main part of the strategy, which is rapid deployment of alternatives.
See also Environmentalists diss State Dept.’s Keystone pipeline review
Thanks for the post, goNPA. Someday when historians discuss the turning points, or the game over points for our democracy, the rule of law, the climate, the loss of the commons, and other aspects of our situation, they may find this is one of those points of failure.
It’s very discouraging, but your continued updates on the multiple similarities in the policy failures of the uniparty are an important contribution to helping us understand what we’re facing.
Recommended, of course.
All good points, Tarheel – and each of them dependent on the belief that Big Energy cannot short-circuit the review process at any moment by buying off those who administer it.
A belief to which I, speaking purely for myself, no longer adhere. Obama’s thinly-veiled approval of “certain parts” of the pipeline tell us all we need to know about what will happen – and the fact that absolutely credible energy alternatives have been blocked at every juncture for the past 30 years bespeaks the absolute commitment of Big Energy’s drive squeeze every last drop of oil from every last source before giving serious attention to those alternatives.
Why? Because it is only when the alternatives become the only option that the law of supply and demand will permit Big Energy to exact the highest possible price for converting its resources to the “efficient” production and use of alternatives. An “efficiency” that will no doubt cost us more in terms of energy-unit-per-application performed, cost us ***far more*** than oil and coal are today, in whatever happens to be the “real” dollars of tomorrow.
And here’s one thing that is left out of the discussion so far:
Suppose there were a Pipeline running through the Heartland: Wouldn’t it be a constant target for Terrorism? I can’t see them leaving it alone.
Making “terrorism,” the excuse to arrest and aggressively charge, hold and punish, dissenters and protestors.
Nearly EPU’d but slow to getting to read everything.
It’s obvious the decision was made long ago to go ahead with the pipeline. Since there really is no rule of law in this country anymore,what’s a person to do?
I had high hopes for Kerry in’04 as I did Obama in ’08. What a sucker I’ve been.
The plutocrats are running the show and all the rest is bullshit theater. Mass street demonstrations are our last chance, unless we all drink the kool-aid and live happily ever after. PEACE
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