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Came across this and noticed that the only ‘mainstream’ news pickup was by the Canadian Huffpost and netwise news wise was DemUnderground via a google search.
Seems the EU and Canada are squaring off about the tar sands/oil sands that are to slosh their way from Canada to the Gulf Coast for refining and they sold on the open market.
(Someone tell me again why the U.S. is still exporting oil products and oil?)
“Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc’s plan to label oil from Alberta’s vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February.”
“The unveiling of Canada’s threats is the latest in a series of recent embarrassing revelations. On 12 February, the occurrence of a secret strategy “retreat” in London in 2011 was discovered. High-level officials discussed the “critical” issue of winning the tar sands argument in the EU, to “mitigate the impact on the Canadian brand” and to protect the “huge investments from the likes of Shell, BP, Total and Statoil”. Representatives of Shell, Total and Statoil attended the meeting alongside the UK’s state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
“A Canadian government spokeswoman told the Guardian: “We oppose an FQD that discriminates against oil sands crude without strong scientific basis. The oil sands are a proven strategic resource for Canada; we will continue to promote Canada’s oil sands as they are key to Canada’s economic prosperity and energy security.”
The European Commission disputes the charge that its plans are not based on science. Hedegaard told the Guardian: “The Commission identified the most carbon-intensive sources in its science-based proposal. This way high-emission fossil fuels will be labelled and given the proper value. It is only reasonable to give high values to more polluting products than to less polluting products. I of course hope the member states will follow the Commission [and vote for] this environmentally sound initiative.”
Bankers, politicians/technocrats, majors, generals, financial elites….someone should create new chess pieces for a chess game (and if someone does, please a little create for the idea :->) )
And Roger Erickson has this idea:
“We need a cartoon showing the 1% as a giant leech on Congressional steroids, sucking the life out of an enfeebled, skeletal 99%.
“But you’ll die with us!” say the 99%.
“Nah,” says the leech. “The boat to China isn’t so slow anymore. We think we can make it. Once there, we think we can do just fine without you.”
As Bill Black wrote “The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One”
12 Comments
Nice catch, ubetcha; rec’d.
Nah; not a leech, too ugly to enjoy. The Vampire Squid is creepy, but not too creepy. Vultures imply the 99% are ready-for-carrion dead, so that’s wrong. Gringo had another critter, but I forget what it was. (File under: If wendydavis had a memory, she’d be dangerous)
Thought that nasty tar oil was destined for China. But good on the EU; they even ban some GMO foods. How cool is that?
Trade War by Canadia: empty threat, imo.
And WE still gets our largest amount of oil from Canada:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/14/the_rise_or_fall_of_the_american_empire
Is the U.S. using the existing oil sands imports to make product for sales overseas? I suspect so. And the Keystone is just another way for the oil companies to increase their bottomline at the expense of everyone else.
Came across this about elec/hybrid cars and it certainly makes on scratch one’s head about the ‘sustainability’ hype:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0213/Tesla-SUV-with-wings-or-not-we-should-kill-the-electric-car
But then there is this:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/20/artificial-leaf-eyed-as-holy-grail-in-energy-research/
I just happen to be one of those whose biases lead me to not see technology as ‘saving us’ as it appears to me that tech has completely overtaken human society’s capacity to integrate it into the ‘human fabric’.
Hang on ; It’s going to be a wild ride. :->) As The Doctor said: “Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself.”
The 1% are not parasites.
They are a disease. The OnePercentPox.
The only know vaccine is high marginal tax rates on “unearned income” and capital gains.
The kill the electric car article is nuts – as those in the comments told him. central sources of pollution can be controlled better than a 100 million cars and the pollution itself is less, even counting the mining. Battery work is indeed needed, but his solution, we all bike or walk and move into compact cities is great but is not going to happen.
We waste energy, lose solar energy, everyday, yet we need to move algae DNA to rice to up energy production from rice, or we need the bacteria power plant (or leaf power plants) of http://www.glasgowsolarfuels.com/mission.html research?
Let’s harvest the low hanging fruit first and worry about super bacteria tossing off electrons later.
Harper is saying the First Nation lands (Indian folks) are not “one land that has said no to the pipeline to the west” – and going village to village and getting agreement for the pipeline Plus he is set to build that extra west coast port.
The oil will be sold – to China at a discount if need be.
OT, but had you noticed that Tonio K’s ‘The Ballad of the Night the Clocks…’ has been taken down from youtube? I’m soooo glad my RealPlayer has it. ;o(
The tar sand debate needs a dose of reality. Pipeline or no pipeline, the tar sands will be mined, processed, refined, and shipped, whether it is done in the Gulf Coast or Alberta.
We need subsidies removed from dirty energy and given to clean energy. All energy should have an emission tax. Funds from the tax given to clean energy. That is the course that must be followed.
The author of the article disagrees with you about “even counting the mining.”
But he’s right about the ‘suburban sprawl’ aspect of it.
And actaully, it’s .0063 per cent that are the cancerous viruses.
Hadn’t noticed til you mentioned it; the thing about copyright infringement is so much garbage. But it probably has to do with “Interest in Tonio’s music has not expired, and Tonio himself has graciously allowed Vermont-based Gadfly Records to reissue several of his albums on CD”.
I still have the original vinyl to rip from.
Harper is a lying son of a bitch:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/18/keystone-xl-pipeline-rejected-indians-say-fight-continues-73192
And the article isn’t about whether it gets sold but about the EU saying it’s a very low quality extract that isn’t compliant with emission reduction goals. And who will blink first: Canada or the EU.
The U.S. and China -and other nations that are big time emitters- are also protesting the EU’s carbon tax on airlines.
I think that greed is a compulsion…like gambling. America needs to wake up and understand this. I think there is a fallacy that you can trust the rich,they must be smart…but GREED?POWER is a disease. It comes with highs, buzzes, just like cocaine and alcohol. It also comes with denial and rationalization and poor judgment, poor insight. Absolute power and greed are invalidating…it creates a life full of cognitive distortions about what can be done, what can’t be done inside that human spirit. It’s a truth killer. We cannot survive without truth and accountability.
America needs to understand that we are all riding on a big bus through life and the bus driver is drunk.