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Coming on the heels of Superstorm Sandy, President Obama finally acknowledged The Climate Elephant in the Room on election night, saying to the nation: “We want our children to live in an America… that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
The president will soon have a chance to show his climate mettle by denying TransCanada a permit to build the northern leg of its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. But this is not Obama’s Keystone test.
If Barack Obama truly means what he says about protecting our children from climate destruction, he will put an immediate halt to the construction of the southern leg of Keystone XL already underway in Texas. The President knows full well that if he fails to intercede in TransCanada’s brutal assault on East Texas, Keystone XL will open the floodgates to tar sands exploitation in Canada, igniting what Bill McKibben has called a “fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet.”
The burden is now on the President to prove his “all of the above” energy policy does not include enabling the assault of U.S. citizens and the fraudulent seizure of private property. Will he muster the political courage to stand up to TransCanada’s corporate thuggery and defend America from this imminent economic, public health and national security threat? Not without the American people demanding it, but that is how democracy works.
This makes Obama’s Keystone test all of our test, and it is being administered right now in the Piney Woods of East Texas: pass or fail.
Photo by tarsandsaction under Creative Commons license. This blog originally appeared in The Huffington Post
14 Comments
Yeppers; and rec’d, tom weis. (Where did you leave your other ‘s’, anyhoo?) ;~)
Thanks so much for staying on this Tom, and for posting it.
For those who don’t know, Tom was arrested with Scarecrow, Dan Choi, Bill McKibben and me on the first day of the White House protests last year and one of the Tar Sands 65.
All of the above means offshore drilling everywhere, “clean coal”, fracking, and the absurdity of nuclear.
My bet would be that he will soon allow the Utah bitumen strip mine to dump all its slag directly into the Colorado. It would save time, be more economical and, of course, create jobs.
I wish I believed that Obama et al. were poised to do the right thing for the environment and those of us who inhabit it. But I don’t. The fossil-fuel pushers will wave their magic checkbooks and every American politician, including Obama, will do their bidding, just as they always have.
Obama to show his climate mettle……Keep dreaming.
I like that you said that it’s our test. We must put the pressure on Obama.
What action(s) do you recommend we take?
I’m afraid that Obama will fail this test because I think he sees it the other way around, that the test is whether he’ll “promote energy production here.” I’m afraid Obama sees the world through a Republican lens rather than through our ecological lens.
I don’t think pressuring Obama will work, although I have nothing but respect for those like Tom and Jane who engage in full throated protest at the White House.
But I think in the end if we’re serious about this we’ll need to risk our liberty to protect the Earth and do civil disobedience that includes sabotage. I’m committed to non violence towards persons, but sabotaging pipelines may be necessary to stop this.
“… by denying TransCanada a permit to build the northern leg of its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline…”
Final permitting for the northern leg of Keystone XL is a when question not an if question. I’m betting the deal will be done by March.
Recommended.
Tom, thanks for this diary and for your RIGHTEOUS civil disobedience against the pillagers of the environment.
Why would Obama stop it after already approving it?
The false advocate strikes again.
While I hope for the best, Obama’s record on the environment if you look at specifics has been worse than Bush. For verification see Environment – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/08/environment-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Obama, as ever, will simply do whatever Goldman-Sachs et al tells him to. Look back on his policy record using that presumption and it explains pretty much everything he has done.
Keystone XL’s a done deal, we have a neoliberal corporatist in the WH.
Absolutely. If people have to ask: “Will Obama have the courage to stand up against (insert issue here)…” they haven’t been paying attention these last four years.