Obama allies’ interests collide over Keystone pipeline

Washington Post ^ | October 17, 2011 | Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson,

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In May, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben — pondering a simmering energy issue — asked a NASA scientist to calculate what it would mean for the Earth’s climate if Canada extracted all of the petroleum in its rich Alberta oil sands region.

The answer to McKibben’s query came a month later: It would push atmospheric carbon concentrations so high that humans would be unable to avert a climate disaster. “It is essentially game over,” wrote James E. Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is one of the nation’s leading voices against fossil fuel energy.

That was the moment when McKibben — who had already mobilized a global grass-roots climate movement from his home in Vermont — decided to join the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry heavy crude oil from Canada’s Alberta province to the Gulf Coast. It was a decision that eventually landed McKibben in jail, along with Hansen and more than a thousand other pipeline foes who have been arrested in front of the White House.

The Keystone permit decision has landed literally and figuratively on the White House’s doorstep. Several key union allies and the Canadian government are pitted against environmental and youth activists who are threatening to turn Keystone into a campaign issue for President Obama.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Marchers took to Washington’s streets earlier this month to protest a proposed
pipeline that would carry oil from Canada’s tar sands to Texas’s Gulf Coast.

From left, Terry O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North American;
TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling; Jack Gerard of the American Petroleum Institute; and Jay
Timmons of National Association of Manufacturers take questions at a news conference regarding
the Keystone XL pipeline project earlier this month.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Oct 14, 2011 CSM: Rick Perry jobs plan: Make rest of America more like Texas -- Working ........."Not all economists would put domestic energy production among their top five priorities for job growth. But many do see significant potential in this field, as the Perry campaign does.

For example, economist Peter Morici at the University of Maryland, in a recent analysis of the nation's employment crisis, wrote that "shutting down US oil and gas development is costing the US economy millions of jobs."

His view: An emphasis on domestic production could create jobs by dramatically reducing America's trade deficit, thus recycling more consumer dollars in the domestic economy. Promotion of energy production would also spill over into job creation in other industries, Mr. Morici says, as a need for refineries and pipelines boosts demand for construction workers, steel, and heavy machinery.".......

Governor Rick Perry’s plan is based on a simple premise: Make what Americans buy. Buy what Americans make. And sell it to the world.

PDF

Speech

Press Release

Sections: [ Policy Recommendations with each section]

Energizing American Jobs and Security

Our Conservative Philosophy
ENERGIZING AMERICA

The Failed Current Approach
BARACK OBAMA’S INCOHERENT ENERGY POLICY

Our Approach
AN ALL-AMERICAN ENERGY POLICY

American Energy, American Jobs
DEVELOPING AMERICA’S DOMESTIC RESOURCES IN THE GULF

American Energy, American Jobs
PENNSYLVANIA’S MARCELLUS SHALE

Maintaining Reliable and Affordable Energy
POWERING AMERICA’S ENGINES OF COMMERCE

Renewable Energy
THE VIRGINIA CASE STUDY

Maintaining Reliable and Affordable Energy
EPA REFORM

Energizing America: Jobs and Security
A NEW PRESIDENT, A RENEWED AMERICA

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Why Rick Perry’s Energy Plan Might be a Game-Changer “Bryan Preston -October 14, 2011

The United States of America is in a bad way fiscally. The US Treasury reports:

that the U.S. deficit for the fiscal year ended September 30 is $1.29 trillion, the second largest in history (after 2009).

The national debt is $14.8 trillion. Our GDP is $14.9 trillion.

The financial crisis of 2008 reached critical mass almost precisely three years ago. And in Washington, the band plays on.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The band in Washington isn’t really playing on; they took their hands off their musical instruments and put them around the country’s economic throat years ago. We are by talent and resources among the richest nations on earth, and by our political freedoms, far and away the greatest. But for going on 30 years now, while we have spent more money that we take in, we have chosen to put much of our natural wealth off limits. That choice has led in direct and indirect ways to the straits we find ourselves in now, at the mercy of some of the world’s worst actors to fuel our economy, and on the precipice of bankruptcy. The current president has taken just about every negative fiscal trend and choice and accelerated them. The best line about Obama is simple: He made it all worse. He has made it harder for us to exploit our natural wealth, by making more of it off-limits and by using regulations to make it either too difficult or even illegal to tap. Whether he believes he had noble reasons or not is irrelevant; the effect of Obama’s actions is that everything is more expensive, jobs are more scarce and America is less secure.

In his energy plan, Perry shows that he understands all of this, and will fix the problem.”…………………

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Barack Obama visits Solyndra, his $500,000,000 U.S. taxpayer funded failed investment in solar manufacturing. SOLAR! Yes -- that's the ticket (Obama's money laundering scheme and the "green" club for dismantling the U.S. economy) while China loads up our coal in our ports and heads home to build more crap for us to buy so they can build up their armed forces - and level that world playing field just like Obama's Science and Technology adviser John P. Holdren (right out of Romney's old government think-tank -- along with Gina McCarthy, the chief EPA clean air regulator) told us must be done to make the world a better place.

Gov. Rick Perry delivers Energizing American Jobs and Security
Source speech at the United States Steel Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pa

October 14, 2011..........Gov. Rick Perry: "The plan I present this morning, Energizing American Jobs and Security, will kick-start economic growth and create 1.2 million jobs.

It can be implemented quicker and free of Washington gridlock because it doesn’t require congressional action. Through a series of executive orders, and other executive actions, we will begin the process of creating jobs soon after the inauguration of a new president.

There is, of course, an important role for Congress to play. And in a matter of days I will offer to the American people a broader package of economic reforms that I will take to Congress when I am elected President. My complete economic growth package will tackle tax reform, entitlement reform and real spending reductions in order to address our growing debt crisis."............

Sections: [ Policy Recommendations with each section]

[thackney]

What these fools fail to realize is blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline expansion does not stop the extraction of the Alberta Oil Sands, or even slow it down in the long run.

If the pipeline capacity is not built to the south, the proposals have already been considered to build the pipeline capacity to an export terminal on the west, to ship it to Asia.

The result of blocking the Keystone XL expansion, only creates more energy waste and associated “exhaust” due to the extra energy spent both on transporting the Canadian petroleum longer distance, but also importing the replacement fuel to the US for a long distance.

We won’t use less fuel due to blocking the Keystone XL, but we will waste more fuel bring it to market.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Perry slashed environmental enforcement in Texas .........".....Cyrus Reed, the Texas legislative director for the Sierra Club, said the state may lose the progress it's made toward cleaner air. "We've had to come forward with citizen suits to get the law enforced," Reed said. "It's not our job to launch citizen suits, but we've had to do it in Texas."

Another new measure made tightening air quality permits on the oil and gas industry more difficult. That law, which Perry signed in June, requires the Texas environmental agency to analyze the effect of new regulation on the economy - including how it might hurt a company - before implementation. The economic impact could override the environmental benefit of the new regulation.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

....If the pipeline capacity is not built to the south, the proposals have already been considered to build the pipeline capacity to an export terminal on the west, to ship it to Asia......

January 13, 2011 West Virginia: Agency Revokes Permit for Major Coal Mining Project “WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency revoked the permit for one of the nation’s largest mountaintop-removal coal mining projects on Thursday, saying the mine would have done unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities in West Virginia. It was the first time the agency had rescinded a valid clean water permit for a coal mine. …….”

Consol Energy's Coal distribution facility in Baltimore. Coal is brought in to the Marine terminal
from several different coal mines and then it is shipped and exported to many places including China.

June 11, 2011 Baltimore: Coal exports through port booming Cross the Bay Bridge on any day of the week, and you're likely to see several giant freighters anchored in the water below.A surge in coal exports from the port of Baltimore has turned the Chesapeake Bay into a maritime parking lot.Demand from China, India and other countries for high-priced metallurgic coal to fuel steel production has grown so strong that ships are backed up south of the bridge waiting to gain a berth at one of Baltimore's two coal terminals…….”

China, Asia and many developing countries are turning to the U.S. to make up for coal supply shortfalls

CALIFORNIA: …..“Texas Gov. Rick Perry has become a folk hero for people like Stewart as he's marketed his state as a low-cost and business-friendly alternative to California, which is fertile job-hunting ground for Perry. Texas has added 929,000 jobs since 2001, while California has lost approximately 635,000 manufacturing jobs in that same time, Stewart said.....

Perry has taken the state's regulatory process and managed it himself, Stewart said……… [CA Economic Development Corporation President Mark] Lascelles emphasized that it does no good to belabor California's regulatory environment. "Unfortunately, we can't avoid it. We have to deal with it," he said. Speaker focuses on job creation

July 2, 2011: Montana: Legal gamesmanship threatens our energy future “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is able to boast about job growth under his watch, noting that over 265,000 jobs, or nearly 37 percent of the jobs created nationwide since the summer of 2009, have been created in the Lone Star state. He credits this growth to a few simple conditions: low taxes, a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable, and a legal system that limits frivolous lawsuits. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly one-fourth of the 70 companies that left California this year relocated to Texas. When new or relocating companies and investors survey the landscape and consider Montana, what do they see? Well, when it comes to natural-resource development, the landscape looks risky. Recent headlines highlight two major resource development projects slogging through endless legal and regulatory challenges. Investment flees this kind of uncertainty, so Montanans interested in the future economic stability of this state should be wary of the signals we send…” --- [relates short history of 2 outrageous examples] -- “The common experience for Tongue River Railroad and Tonbridge Power is this: Even if you play by the rules, even if you follow the letter of the law, even if you engage with the public during a planning process, even if you get formal approval from the regulatory authorities, you are certain to face organized opposition whose sole intent is to frustrate project development to the point of financial starvation….”

December 27, 2010: EPA, Texas go to war over carbon-emission rules "And so it begins, and on the most fertile red-state territory in the nation. Texas, which got four more seats in the House through the 2010 Census reapportionment, has had its air-quality rules superceded by the EPA as part of its aggressive new action on carbon emissions. Governor Rick Perry promises a fight:............."

Sept 12, 2011:Luminant sues EPA, says it will shut two coal units, cut 500 jobs …”At the Big Brown power plant in Freestone County, Units 1 and 2 will switch over to Powder River Basin coal and the nearby lignite mines will close. The moves will lead to about 500 job cuts, the company said.

“While Luminant is making preparations to meet the rule’s compliance deadline, this morning it also filed a legal challenge in an effort to protect facilities and employees, and to minimize the harm this rule will cause to electric reliability in Texas,” the company said in a statement.

The company is asking an appeals court for a stay implementing the Cross-State rule, saying it is illegal because the EPA didn’t include Texas in the draft rules released in 2010. The final rules released in June 2011 included a heavy emissions reduction burden for Texas.

Sept 12, 2011 From Treehugger - A Discovery Company “………..For a flavor of what's to come we have only to look to Texas Governor Rick Perry, who seems to channel the vibe pretty well and gets only the rare local challenge….. Instead of dealing with the realities of climate change--regardless of whether you or they think it is caused by human activities--Texas politicians will keep playing the lynch mob role toward EPA, at least until the next Presidential election is over. It works as a political strategy - for now…..”

[Smokin' Joe]

You see, this is obviously a diabolical Canadian plot.

Most of Canada is cold.

Not just cold, nor merely cold-cold, but freeze-the-b@lls-off-a-brass-monkey cold.

That's where they film most of Ice Road Truckers, where they drive on ice, cause when it gets warm (anything above freezing is considered "warm"), the ground turns to goo.

That ground needs a little time to dry out and become, say, useable cropland.

So, all they have to do is get this oil out of the ground and sell it to someone who will use it.

Then the climate will get warmer, the goo will thaw and dry out enough to plow, and they'll be off to the races, breadbasket to the world, eh.

The pipeline, of course, is central to their scheme.

(/s, of course, but I wonder how long the ecowhackos will take to start nodding their heads. )

[EQAndyBuzz]

Here is an idea. Build a second pipeline and send water down to Texas. You can have a third pipe traveling along the Mississippi to pick up additional water.

We need to figure out how much pipe, and what type of pumping stations and run off gates we would need to move flood waters away from the flood zones and towards Texas to be used for farming.

There is the infrastructure project to end all projects.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Canadians are a clever bunch.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thinking outside the box!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Today’s WSJ reports a CNG loading terminal is already in the works to load natural gas out to Asia.

[shield]

Perry Ping....

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[Carry_Okie]

We won’t use less fuel due to blocking the Keystone XL, but we will waste more fuel bring it to market.

In my years of study of the environmental move-mint I have seen VERY few proposals advocated that do not consume more petrochemical energy. Consider recycling for example, thermal oxidation of VOC, or substituting concrete, steel and plastic for wood products.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Re post #5, EXACTLY.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Re post 8, curses, you have found us out.

[thackney]

I believe you mean LNG.

Canada Grants LNG-Export License
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204774604576631340487537416.html

The license is an initial, but significant, step forward for the project. Estimated to cost 5.6 billion Canadian dollars, or $5.65 billion, the project is still undergoing a feasibility study by the partners. KM LNG, a joint venture among Apache Corp., Encana Inc. and EOG Resources Inc., received the license from Canada’s National Energy Board to export from a deepwater port in Kitimat, B.C.

If the partners decide to go ahead, the terminal could begin shipping natural gas to markets in Asia by late 2015, eventually shipping as much as 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day.

The project reflects a big shift in North American natural-gas markets. Horizontal drilling and other drilling technology have unlocked vast new supplies of gas from shale rock across the continent. The new supplies have sent North American gas prices plummeting and triggered some companies to scrap plans for import terminals in the U.S. and Canada, and instead try to export some of the extra gas.

- - - - - - - - -

Just like the natural gas, if we don’t need/want it, someone else will buy it.

[calex59]

Simple, build nuclear desalinization plants in the gulf and pipe the water to Texas. Of course the government(EPA)will stop that BS in a hurry.

[TheOldLady]

Click the Kitteh

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[jonrick46]

The Global Warming theory is being used as a political football to kill the Capitalist system and replace it with a central government controlled system of wealth redistribution. Environmentalism is the holy sacriment for these Marxists who have rejected the Judeo-Christian system of civilization. Environmentalism is a systematic tool to end all ability to engage in commerce in America. Their method of attack is fearmongering, which is a means to beat down the resistence a grand strategy which seeks to end the Capitalist system. Communists are opposed to the individual and his desire to be free of the collective group of dumbasses. The dumbasses are those who the Communists have suceeded in securing allegiance to the collective mob.

We must defeat the Marxist dumbasses tools who are mindlessly trying to destroy the constitutional American republic.