Keystone vote underlines greens' isolation

reuters ^ | 3/12/2012 | John Kemp

[tobyhill]

Only intense lobbying by the president himself ensured the latest congressional bid to approve the Keystone XL pipeline was defeated in the U.S. Senate last week.

But if Keystone's opponents won the latest skirmish, it appears they are losing the war. The vote revealed deep divisions among Senate Democrats as well as the waning influence of environmentalists and the growing power of the oil and gas lobby in Congress.

It seems only a matter of time before the controversial northern section of Keystone, which goes from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma, is given the go-ahead. It will probably happen once the November elections are out of the way.

But Keystone's approval may be only the first salvo in a broader post-election effort to roll back ambitious environmental regulations enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other parts of the federal government, which critics blame for hampering the development of domestic oil, gas and coal resources.

Senate Republicans, many of whom are deeply hostile to the agency's policies on pollution control and climate change, are likely to find a growing number of allies among Democrats from industrial, energy-producing and conservative states who have broken with environmentalists over Keystone (2011) and cap and trade (2010) and are becoming disenchanted with the broad economic effects of EPA rule-making.

[pallis]

Now the previously duped need to figure out that oil is our friend.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It is essential that the next Republican president not only push this pipeline through, but bends over backwards to get America’s other pipelines repaired, upgraded and operational.

One such pipeline network carries petroleum based fertilizer slurry throughout America’s breadbasket. It is aging and far too small for the need. Yet unless it can be upgraded, the price and availability of food is going to be on an upward spiral.

Likewise, the US has virtually no margin for error with our fuel refineries. We have just enough to supply America with gasoline and home heating oil. If anything goes wrong then we face a national crisis.

Obama and the Democrats have been on an insane course of stopping America’s fuel supply. They have shut down 100 coal fired power plants, and prevented the building of another 160 of them. The Democrats bizarre ideology is threatening to not only destroy our economy but leave us utterly impoverished, FOR NOTHING! NO REASON!

The only possible explanation I can imagine is that they are infested with Toxoplasma parasites in their brains, making them commit horribly self-destructive acts. It wouldn’t be so bad if they would just destroy themselves, but they want to destroy all the rest of us as well.

[sportutegrl]

Who is the most likely candidate for Senate Majority Leader in January? Might as well start looking at Pubbie senators now.

Obama just lost the Senate for the Dems.