Again Why The Keystone XL Pipeline is a BAD IDEA.
NOTE: This is a guest post from Alex Ralston, Online Organizer at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Less than two weeks after President Barack Obama rightly rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would allow Congress to approve the pipeline.
There are plenty of good reasons to reject the pipeline; here are five of them:
1. It will spill. The State Department’s review of the project clearly says Keystone XL will spill oil. Not may, but will. The existing Keystone pipeline has already leaked 14 times since it began operating in June 2010, including one leak that dumped 21,000 gallons of tar-sands crude. Keystone XL would carry up to 35 million gallons of oil every day — so any leak has the potential to be massive.
2. It won’t be a major job producer. The State Department estimates that Keystone XL will result in only 20 permanent, operational jobs in the U.S and 2,500 to 4,650 temporary jobs. What’s more, after Keystone XL oil makes it to Texas, much of it will be exported beyond U.S. borders without paying U.S. taxes – never benefitting our economy or slacking our thirst for oil.
3. It will threaten vast pristine landscapes, rivers and wildlife. Running between Alberta, Canada and the Gulf Coast of Texas, Keystone XL will cross nearly 1,750 water bodies, like rivers and steams, and risk contaminating the Ogallala Aquifer (the drinking water source for millions of people). It would also cut through the heart of prime wildlife habitat, including homes for at least 20 imperiled species.
4. It will expand the destruction of Canada’s boreal forests. Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on Earth. Producing oil from sand has terrible impacts on the environment, including the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of boreal forest, pollution of hundreds of millions of gallons of water — each barrel of oil from tar sands requires three barrels of water to produce.
5. It will dramatically deepen our addiction to climate-killing fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions from tar-sands development are two to three times higher than those from conventional oil and gas operations. That’s exactly the wrong direction for reversing global warming. Scientists tell us we must reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less. Today, it’s 391 ppm, and Keystone XL would certainly drive that up and worsen the devastating effects of global warming — from rising oceans to melting glaciers to extreme and dangerous weather events – that we’re already seeing around the world.
Simply put, it’s not in our interest to court oil spills, worsen climate change and jeopardize rivers, streams, drinking water, people and wildlife. It’s time to tell Congress to stand up to Big Oil and Gas and reject Keystone XL, permanently.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-reasons-keystone-xl-pipeline-is...
Top Opinion
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2468 2012/02/25 21:21:45
“A Serious Conflict of Interest?”
January 15, 2010
Minneapolis, MN — The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) today released the results of their eight-month investigation into a high-ranking Obama Administration official’s close ties and apparent conflict of interest regarding the economic stimulus package and its energy efficiency provisions.
Last year Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or the so-called Stimulus Bill). The U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) received $16.8 billion of those ARRA funds to be used to promote green energy and conservation programs including the popular $1,500 tax credit for homeowners who install energy-efficient windows. The Assistant Secretary of Energy, Cathy Zoi, is responsible for oversight in disbursing these stimulus funds.
Ms. Zoi is married to Robin Roy, a top executive at Serious Materials, a privately held manufacturer of “sustainable green building materials”...
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“A Serious Conflict of Interest?”
January 15, 2010
Minneapolis, MN — The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) today released the results of their eight-month investigation into a high-ranking Obama Administration official’s close ties and apparent conflict of interest regarding the economic stimulus package and its energy efficiency provisions.
Last year Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or the so-called Stimulus Bill). The U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) received $16.8 billion of those ARRA funds to be used to promote green energy and conservation programs including the popular $1,500 tax credit for homeowners who install energy-efficient windows. The Assistant Secretary of Energy, Cathy Zoi, is responsible for oversight in disbursing these stimulus funds.
Ms. Zoi is married to Robin Roy, a top executive at Serious Materials, a privately held manufacturer of “sustainable green building materials” located in California. On the Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure submitted by Ms. Zoi to the White House Ethics office as part of her confirmation, Ms. Zoi disclosed ownership with her spouse of 120,000 vested and unvested stock options in Serious Materials, a company her office regulates and that she may profit from.
According to several news reports and the trade magazine Window & Door, Serious Materials was “[A] company, and a man, virtually unknown in the window and door industry just a short time ago.” Yet this small California manufacturer suddenly burst on the scene in Washington as what Vice President Joe Biden called the “poster child” for green jobs and economic recovery. For the past several months, the White House has repeatedly praised and promoted Serious Materials.
What has all of this praise from the White House meant to Serious Materials? “The new administration is a huge boon to what we are doing,” Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials said in a June interview. “The White House issued a press release specifically thanking Serious Materials a few weeks ago. We had a 22 minute press conference with the president. In a national address, he opened with Serious Materials. I don’t think we can ask for better coverage. We are very close to the White House and Department of Energy…”
And, it’s Assistant Secretary Zoi’s office that has disbursed billions of dollars taxpayer dollars for the very windows that Serious Materials manufacturers and her husband works for.
“On the surface, this appears to be another case of government using tax dollars to pick winners and losers,” said Annette Meeks, CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. “Yet upon closer examination, it appears to be a bit more than that. Our research suggests that one window manufacturer that has very close ties to this Administration has received lavish attention and special tax breaks…"
The Washington Examiner’s Timothy P.Carney picked up the story this time last year:
Obama’s green subsidies attract do-gooder bandits
By Timothy P.Carney
February 23, 2011
… First, Serious Materials benefited from free advertising by the White House: President Obama praised a new Serious factory in March – before he officially nominated Zoi – and then Vice President Biden made a public visit to a different Serious plant in April, just after her nomination but before her confirmation. Finally, Serious was also the first window company to pocket a stimulus tax credit – worth $584,000 – for investing in new equipment.
Zoi testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in favor of a HOMESTAR program, also known as cash for caulkers, which became another subsidy for Serious.
At the time of her nomination, the couple owned between them 120,000 stock options in Serious Materials, according to her April 2009 personal financial disclosure. She also owned at least $265,000 of stock in a Swiss company called Landis+Gyr that makes "smart meters," high-tech thermostats that the administration has promoted for saving energy…
Earlier in February 2011, Ms. Zoi left the Obama administration to go to work for a new ‘cleantech’ private equity (!) fund sponsored by George Soros.
Now Zoi has left Energy’s EERE, where she advanced and implemented subsidies for renewable energy, and is going to work for a Soros-backed green-tech fund: Silver Lake Kraftwerk, a partnership between Soros Fund Management and Silicon Valley private equity giant Silver Lake.
Zoi’s boss will be veteran tech investor Adam Grosser, who gave more than $50,000 to Democratic candidates last election. Soros said the fund, for which he is employing the former head of the federal Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office, will focus on "developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency." …
Meanwhile, all of those struggling workers at the window factory are once again out of a job.
But Obama’s crony landed on her feet.
Billions to Chinese companies to build Windfarms in California that are now killing endangered species.
The Solar thing just got a little more interesting: The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's Department of Energy.
The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ 45 permanent workers. That's costing us just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG). The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi, who is the brother to Nancy 's husband.Just move along folks. Nuthin' goin' on here. Want verification?
http://nation.foxnews.com/nan...
And what most people forget is that for ever Megawatt of Solar or Wind, there must be a comensurate and Equal Coal Fired of Gas fired power plant to provide power when there is no Wind or sun.
That as solar and wind kicks in, the cost per KWH on your Electric bill rises. Eventually here in the Northwest, from about 9 cents per KWH to an estimated 22 Cents per KWH.
and this
Good luck with your election in November 2012. Dimwits.
You progressives will be landslided to epic proportions in November and will be out of power for at least a couple of generations ............ get ready, it's coming and there isn't a damned thing you can do about it. ROFLMAO
You can't have it both ways. Join the greens and you may find you get more support from conservationists.
And remember Teddy Roosevelt would be rolling over in his grave right now if he could see what we're doing to our protected lands.
Teddy would turn over, and you know it.
Even Planned parenthood makes a larger profit margine on Abortions.
As to abortion, that is a completely different topic and not at all something I want to discuss on this thread, if you don't mind.
And if you have lights, and a car and all the other comforts, it was those billionaires that made it possible. By investing their treasure, and effort to provide those things.
One goes into business to make money. You go to work to make money. The harder you work, the more you can make. Take night classes, and advance. Thats the american way.
I want an answer. No need for proofs. Just answer.