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"Green Groups" -Not NIMBY's Oppose XL

Mike

Well-known member
Green groups rally on climate, urge Obama to reject Keystone project
The Hill | 2/17/13 | Zack Colman

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, the 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.”
 

Mike

Well-known member
US protesters urge Obama to act on global warming
By Chantal Valery (AFP) – 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Washington Sunday to generate pressure on President Barack Obama to take concrete measures to fight global warming.
Waving banners and signs with slogans like "What will be your climate legacy?" the protesters called on Obama to reject the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada to Texas, and order the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set carbon standards for power plants.
"We want to challenge president Obama to be a main actor as opposed to being a puppet of the big oil companies," Canadian-born actress Evangeline Lilly, star of TV's "Lost," told AFP. "It's about telling him his speech did not fall in deaf ears."
The event at the National Mall was organized by local and national environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, under an umbrella group named Forward on Climate.
"It's time for the country to wake up, the US has been dragging its feet too long," said Mimi Brody, one of the protesters.
Among the protesters was Nolan Gould, the 14 year-old star of the TV series "Modern Family."
"I'm very hopeful things will change for kids and we'll start realizing we need to take it even further -- take further steps to save this world, because it's all we have and it's not fair to mess it up," Gould told AFP.
"It's by far, by far, the biggest rally on climate in US history," environmental activist Bill McKibben told the crowd as it assembled at the Washington Monument at the Mall. Organizers said that protesters had arrived aboard buses from 28 states.
Van Jones, a one-time Obama adviser on the environment, was strident in his demand for change.
"President Obama, all the good you've done will be wiped out by floods, by fires, by superstorms if you fail to act now!" he told the crowd, indirectly addressing the US leader.
Celebrities who have signed a petition supporting the protesters include Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Morgan Freeman, Robert Kennedy Jr and Yoko Ono.
The rally comes after the United States last year endured record high temperatures and lengthy droughts, as well as superstorm Sandy, which devastated the New York-New Jersey coastline.
The protest is "very significant," said Jeff Brown, who traveled from the northeastern state of Massachusetts for the demo. "It's demonstrating a strong environmental movement" which is "not fringe, it's mainstream."
Obama mentioned climate change during his inauguration speech in January, and in Tuesday's State of the Union he vowed to take action "for the sake of our children and our future" if Congress fails to do so.
"I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy," Obama said in his speech.
The United States is the world's second largest CO2 emitter after China. Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama presented an ambitious measure aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. But the bill ran into stiff resistance from the Republican opposition.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Sierra Club Canada president Howie Chong boasted on Twitter Sunday that “There are over 130 buses bringing people into Washington DC” for Sunday’s “Forward on Climate” march outside the White House. But despite Chong’s excitement about the protesters and their air-polluting buses converging on D.C., the protest drew far less of a crowd than organizers had hoped for.

The “Forward on Climate” march, co-organized by the Sierra Club, was designed to urge President Obama to stick to his environmentalist agenda and reject the oil industry’s request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline that would allow the U.S. to import vast amounts of oil from Canada. Obama is expected to make his decision on the Keystone pipeline any day now.

Organizers said that 35,000 protesters showed up for the Sunday event, but many left early and only a “straggling column” of demonstrators reached the White House after two cold, wind-bitten hours. Numerous climate activists in the crowd reportedly expressed disappointment with the turnout.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/18/sierra-club-executive-bragged-that-130-buses-full-of-climate-protesters-traveled-to-d-c/#ixzz2LIBwIFP9
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Mike said:
Sierra Club Canada president Howie Chong boasted on Twitter Sunday that “There are over 130 buses bringing people into Washington DC” for Sunday’s “Forward on Climate” march outside the White House. But despite Chong’s excitement about the protesters and their air-polluting buses converging on D.C., the protest drew far less of a crowd than organizers had hoped for.

The “Forward on Climate” march, co-organized by the Sierra Club, was designed to urge President Obama to stick to his environmentalist agenda and reject the oil industry’s request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline that would allow the U.S. to import vast amounts of oil from Canada. Obama is expected to make his decision on the Keystone pipeline any day now.

Organizers said that 35,000 protesters showed up for the Sunday event, but many left early and only a “straggling column” of demonstrators reached the White House after two cold, wind-bitten hours. Numerous climate activists in the crowd reportedly expressed disappointment with the turnout.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/18/sierra-club-executive-bragged-that-130-buses-full-of-climate-protesters-traveled-to-d-c/#ixzz2LIBwIFP9


they musn't have heard Barry was in Florida, golfing on an environmentally unfriendly golf course with Tiger.
 

smalltime

Well-known member
I'm sure this is a dumb question but why does'nt Canada build it's own refinery and sell the finished product to the U.S.Would'nt that be more profitable for Canadians?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
smalltime said:
What is the holdup then big muddy rancher?


NAFTA

A US Dem. signed an agreement (Clinton), that they wanted our oil, and then another Dem. comes along and says they won't adhere to the agreement.


There are four specific clauses within NAFTA Chapter 6 that directly or indirectly affect Canada’s ability to restrict exports:

Article 603(2) prohibits the use of minimum or maximum export-price requirements in cases where restrictions on the volume of exports are prohibited.
Article 604 explicitly prohibits NAFTA members from imposing any export tax or duty on the sale of energy or petrochemical products, unless the same tax is placed on all NAFTA members, including the exporting party.
Article 605 outlines the conditions under which Canada can restrict energy exports. It can do so only if all of the following conditions apply:
exports as a percentage of total Canadian supply do not fall;
Canada cannot charge a higher price to the United States or Mexico by means of taxes, licence fees, minimum prices or any other regulation; and
any restriction cannot result from a disruption of normal supply channels.
Article 607 outlines four specific national security-related scenarios under which energy exports could be restricted:
to fulfil a defence contract or supply a military establishment;
to respond to a situation of armed conflict;
to implement policies related to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons; and
to respond to threats of disruption in the supply of nuclear materials for defence purposes.

These four clauses apply only to Canada and the United States. Mexico reserves the right to control its own energy industries in most cases and is explicitly exempt from the provisions of Articles 605 and 607.
 
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