Meanwhile...
Posted on 02/17/2013 3:15:59 PM PST by Libloather
Environmental groups gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Sunday and marched on the White House for a climate change rally largely aimed at pressuring President Obama to reject the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.
Organizers said 35,000 activists attended the rally, where speakers portrayed the battle over the pipeline as a struggle between grassroots green groups and deep-pocketed special interests.
“They’ve got the lobbyists. They’ve got the super-PACs. They made the campaign contributions. They’ve got this town in their pockets — they have got the situation under control. And then you show up. And then we show up. And we change the game,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told the crowd not long before it marched on the White House.
Obama will decide whether the project goes forward because it crosses national boundaries.
The pipeline would bring fossil fuels from Canadian tar sands fields to the Gulf Coast. Environmentalists are painting Obama’s upcoming decision as the litmus test for whether he plans to make good on recent comments about tackling climate change.
Activists at Sunday’s rally said approving the pipeline would taint Obama’s record on climate change. They said they hoped the demonstration would give the president the will to nix Keystone, even when a majority of both the House and the Senate want it built.
“His heart is there. The question is can we change the politics enough so he can do what he knows is right. And I believe that he will,” Van Jones, a former Obama adviser, told The Hill.
The politics surrounding the project are formidable.
Blocking Keystone would play into Republican assertions that the president is scuttling a project that could enhance energy security and create thousands of jobs to appease environmental supporters. They have pressed the White House to green-light the pipeline.
Oil-and-gas groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute, have helped lead a lobbying effort to get Keystone built.
Canada also has tried to sway the administration into approving the pipeline, as it would benefit that nation's oil sands industry.
Obama also has his own base to consider, as several union groups are eager for the jobs Keystone would bring to their members. The AFL-CIO’s building and construction trades division has endorsed the pipeline, and that department’s leader expects the full labor federation to lend its support.
But there is no time to delay when it comes to climate change, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) international program, told The Hill.
“There is no deal to be done,” she said. “We need to do everything we can on every front.”
That is why NRDC and other green groups also want Obama to pursue more stringent carbon emissions standards.
The environmental community is pushing the White House to set emissions standards for existing power plants to build on proposed rules in Obama's first term that effectively barred construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Greens also want Obama to forge ahead with clean-energy research and deployment on federal lands, measures to boost energy efficiency in homes, buildings and manufacturing and efforts to make coastal towns and cities more storm resilient.
The green groups are focusing their pressure on Obama because of gloomy prospects for passing climate bills this Congress. Republicans will not accept fees on carbon emissions — the same goes for some conservative Democrats.
In an interview with The Hill, Whitehouse said killing Keystone and pushing ahead with stronger regulations could jolt polluting industries into working on climate legislation.
“That’s what’s going to bring them to the table very quickly,” Whitehouse said. “And as soon as the polluters want it, then obviously the Republicans are right there with them.”
Meanwhile...
Two weeks ago gas was 3.25. Today it was 3.50.
Haven’t heard too much about those evil speculators lately.
My brother in law and his family are like these nuts. He yelled that anyone that doesn’t believe in global warming should be shot.
No, he only listens to MSNBC like it was The Gospel.
Probably your b-i-l and his family also support gun control too while calling for deniers to be shot. The irony of it all.
Estimates of 35k protesters at the rally? They would have said 8 million but not even msnbc would have bought that.
“No, he only listens to MSNBC like it was The Gospel.”
___________________________________________________
That should be good grounds for divorce. ;)
That being said, take a look at a North American pipeline map.
http://www.theodora.com/pipelines/north_america_pipelines_map.jpg
They are all over the country.
What is the big deal over this new pipeline?
I love the way these braindead dildoes think. "Nobody says you can't pollute. We just want YOU to pay US to do it!" Yeah. That's gonna help the planet.
the RATS say they don't want the pipeline built because it harms the earth more to extract oil sands petroleum than drilling, what these geniuses fail to realize is, that it WILL BE EXTRACTED whether it comes to America OR goes to CHINA!!! when in truth they couldn't care less, they simply hate oil as much as they hate America
Elitist earth-worshippers.
I'm calling BS on that.
Organizers said ... ORGANIZERS said ... ORGANIZERS SAID!!!
Disorganizers are saying Bullpoop. I am SAYING BULLPOOP. If there were 35K "activists" out there I'll buy you a new Toyota Pious.
The photos I saw looked more like a couple dozen fried-out 60s miscreants and few dozen "journalists" and their little helpers. And all the signs they were dragging around had some perversion of Obamalamadingdong's campaign graphic mixed into their stoopid slogans.
What Washingstoned DC needs is a good asteroid strike.
I heard it was a crowd of 35 gazillion but only a few thousand showed up. They must have run out of pot or Doritos..
Still blaming Bush and Cheney running the government for Big Oil.
“Green groups.” Ha! Associates of northeastern and other export/import interests.
To borrow from Rush Limbaugh for those living Riolinda a Judas goat is being used to lead US sheeples to the slaughter pen . The Republicans were given a chance to use a wedge issue to split up the democratic party and blew it.
Besides being unable to equate Obama’s socialist schemes particularly his energy policy running up the costs on everything and still is thus forcing those with limited incomes to go on the dole. BTW the angle here is to blame the system not the folks using it. Because they have to. But it’s a signature of Rove’s past performances when with Bush. The demo-coms used it because it fell into “heartless Republicans”.
Blaming Obama and explaining that policy in terms those proverbial LIV’s could understand wasn’t even considered. Refusing to attack Obama was based on MSM polling showing his popularity suggesting an intellectual inability by Rove and the GOPES to rejoin any racial charge.
....Does anybody remember what the Democrats did at their convention ??? First they eliminated any mention of the word GOD...and when they thought twice about doing that they reintroduced the resolution what happened ? They booed God....That resolution was rammed through just like the Affordable Health Care Act ...
Was that fact used in any of the material Rove’s RINOS spewed forth during the 2012 Romney or US senate races his group of GOPES (Government Ofthe People Elite Snobs) used on their hit list ? I like using that acronym because it rhymes with dopes.
Noooo ! They could have used that episode to point out how far to the left the democrat party has hyphenated into; Demo-Coms ...Instead well we don’t like Aikin ...He said what ? OMG OMG he’s unqualified ...If there was a chance he would have been burned at the stake by Rove’s RINOS and the so called “conservative “ talkies spouting Rove’s tripe.
Why ? What drove this ? They were responding to the miss-direction driven by Obama’s instuments of oppression Mainline Socialist Media (MSM).The Aikin or O’Donnells response to a set up phoney issue had nothing to do with any thing that would ever occur in any legislation that would pass their respective desks had they been elected.
THE RESPONSE YOU DIDN’T HEAR WAS THIS “”While at their convention the Democrats were busy denying God . Aikin believes in something like the ten commandments. Including Thou shalt not steal and doesn’t believe that getting elected to office gives you a license to do steal ... Which his opponent seems to have done rather well since being in office. The same thing with Mourdock,O’Donnnell, etc,etc, etc.
That presentation could have been expanded to Reid, Pelosi, and the slew of Demo-Com pigs at the trough. Expanding their personal wealth at the expense of the US taxpayers.
“Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council”
How’d ya get there, Susie—didja walk?
Another Soros investment
green groups SAID 35k reality was probably 35 (thirty five)
I have only seen really tight close in pictures.
If they did not rent porta pottys then it was an unmitigated failure.
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