Science: Democrat Rep. Raúl Grijalva borrows lab coat, makes ‘best pro-Keystone XL video ever’

Twitchy ^ | 06/01/2013 | Twitchy

[Rusty0604]

We’re used to hearing that Republicans are the anti-science party, but that criticism is especially hard to take in light of Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s new video, warning of the dangers of building the Keystone XL pipeline. We’ve also been assured that conservatives don’t understand the nuances of metaphor, but there’s just something about Grijalva playing politics while wearing a “borrowed lab coat” and pretending to be a scientist that makes you miss Al Gore’s relatively sophisticated hucksterism. The video’s so bad, in fact, that the National Republican Congressional Committee is urging people to view it, calling it a “must watch.” Spoiler: the rocks sink.

[CedarDave]

Thanks. I’ve been trying for some time to figure out why this one pipeline out of the hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines in the US, is supposed to be uniquely harmful. The opponents are acting like a pipeline is some type of radical new dangerous idea.

It's not the pipeline itself, but what it represents to the enviros and libs -- mining tar sands destroys forest areas and requires large amounts of energy to separate the oil from the sand, both of which release carbon to the biosphere, much in the form of CO2. Beyond that the final product would be burned which would release even more CO2. So if you believe CO2 is the world's worst boogyman, you do anything to stop it from being built. In this case it crosses an international border which they believe gives them lots of leverage with the current administration.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Athabasca "tar sands" are processed to extract a heavy petroleum product called "bitumen." Alberta has many such processing plants. The pipeline will transport synthetic crude oil (syncrude) and dilbit (diluted bitumen) made from bitumen, not the tar sands themselves.

Here is Suncor's plant in Athabasca. The first commercially viable tar sands operation began in Alberta in 1967 with the opening of the Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor).

So these are plain old pipelines transporting processed petroleum. The envirokooks raise many issues with the project. Their main problem with the pipeline itself is potential erosion caused by these types of products causing spills. But this is a red herring -- they mainly do not want any additional fossil fuel projects built that will potentially derail their holy grail of covering the country with eagle-chopping windmills and solar panels.

The kooks call this "dirty tar sands oil," but the oil itself is no different than other heavy oils. When they say "dirty," they mean that it takes a lot of heat to recover the heavy bitumen from the sands.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Rusty0604. Demagogic Dunce ping.

[petitfour]

That was two elections ago. The most recent election was against another female. I think she intends to run again. She did not have the organization in time to give him a good fight. I know of multiple persons who will vote for her who are Democrats and female. It will be interesting to see how he pulls off another win. I predict he will retire and put his idiotic daughter up for his seat.

[man_in_tx]

Thank you for the correction and update!

Hope the Republican opponent wins this next time!

[petitfour]

I hope she does, too! Too bad I can’t remember her name. I’m trying to remember . . .

I voted for her . . .

still can’t remember!

[man_in_tx]

You must be old like me. :-)

[petitfour]

Gabriela Saucedo Mercer is her name.

[AdmSmith]

Is this for real? Re-introduce literacy tests - but not to vote but to be elected.

[AdmSmith]

Here is another one that is sad to watch: (Guam would tip over) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nq_EUIGULek a

[man_in_tx]

The Republican he beat, that is, correct?

Thank you!

[wjcsux]

Her name is Gabriella Saucedo Mercer. She is running again, so I am told.