General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWill Keystone Pipeline go ahead no matter who is elected?
I read in a financial newsletter today that Wall Street thinks it will be a "lock" that no matter who wins the November election Obama or Rmoney the Keystone XL Pipeline will be approved. He thinks that investors will get "rich from the torrent of Canadian black gold that will boost shares prices of a select group of stock, reignite the US economy and redraw the global energy map"
It was the biggest piece of crap I have ever read. Do these people get it that they are ruining our environment and the it's only Canada that stands to make big money and the jobs will be short lived?
The newsletter also says one thing I agree with he thinks this election is no ordinary election and that it is a toxic election that will be a threat to income investors. He feels it is a recall referendum on the President and he states how the recall tore apart Wisconsin and our nation is so polarized that it's going to roil the markets. (Thank you right wing media and Fox)
Raster
(20,998 posts)1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Tippy
(4,610 posts)patrice
(47,992 posts)fracking, and Keystone.
Personally, I am hoping for a safe secure bright GREEN line to be established in at least one of those arenas and I hope ALL advocates on any and ALL sides strive for that too, rather than harming the whole issue by going for mutually-assured destruction.
klook
(12,157 posts)I'd like a world where all the petroleum extraction techniques you mention would be heavily restricted or eliminated, but I'm not sure if the votes will be there.
The reality is that there will be compromise, and probably none of us will be overly happy with the outcome.
patrice
(47,992 posts)strategy, long-term strategy and it's going to take some toughness and some creative intelligence to get that.
patrice
(47,992 posts)on the other areas, which is really just fucking evil, because fracking also is not a bluff, not even a feint.
This means that, though a deal MUST be made, Environmentalists MUST also hold their ground, because they very well could get NOTHING for compromise.
It's one very very messed up situation, oil technologies have alternative technologies by the throat and they WILL do whatever they want no matter what anyone else tries to deal.
ashling
(25,771 posts)unless we first nationalize all domestic oil & gas production.
patrice
(47,992 posts)ashling
(25,771 posts)this is just to counter the Drill baby Drill! meme. As long as they are producing it here and shipping it overseas and selling interest in it to China then we are corporately screwed!
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)n/t
patrice
(47,992 posts)steps if "the center" justified that even a little and some might even REACH a little if there's a way to do that.
Then, even if it all does go dysfunctional anyway, at least you have that much more (towards critical mass) that you can pull out of the wreckage . . . maybe.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Wake the hell up, America. We have a problem.
Until we stand up to the banks and corporations and get them out of our electoral process and our government, nothing will change. The rest of the world is waking up. We have better wake the hell up, too.
MadHound
(34,179 posts)The only reason Obama hasn't made the move before now is he needs the environmental vote. After the election, when that no longer matters, all bets are off.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Environmental activists gather outside the White House in Washington, Monday, August 22, 2011,
as they continue a civil disobedience campaign against the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from
Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
For years, polling analysis on the environment has been grouped with other policy concerns like the economy and national security, rather than with culture issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. But when the idea of environmental stewardship and care for the earth is articulated as a moral concern, this takes priority with voters above those traditionally listed culture issues. For their part, faith groups on both sides of the aisle are becoming bolder in their commitment to tackling climate change as a moral issue.
...climate activism has recently been in abundancefrom the more than 60 religious leaders putting themselves at risk of arrest in Washington, D.C., at the Keystone XL protest in August 2011 to faith groups kicking off the first-ever nationwide antifracking rally in July 2012.
But as extreme weather continues to dominate headlines, a collective sense of urgency has energized existing and new multifaith contingents who look to both the church and the government for leadership and are unafraid to demand specific action on climate change from Congress and the Obama administration. Many of these groups feature an impressive roster of civil rights, social justice, environmental, and public health-minded faith leaders, and their demandsfrom preventing pipeline construction and ending Appalachian mountaintop removal, to capping carbon emissions, to dramatically reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency and renewablesare increasingly rooted in climate science.
Fast facts
57 percent of voters in 2010 cited the environment as very important to the congressional elections. This ranked higher than either abortion or same-sex marriage.
47 percent of regular churchgoers say their clergy speak out on the environment, almost always to encourage environmental protection. When presented with the idea of a spiritual obligation to act as good stewards of the environment, three out of four believers were somewhat or strongly convinced.
81 percent of all Americans favor greater legal and regulatory protections for the environment. Strong majorities of each religious group polled said that Earths average temperature is getting warmer.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2012/10/02/40301/the-new-values-voters-climate-change/
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)study that is being done show that the pipeline can be built and operated safely. But expect the builders and operators to give up something, like agree to strict environmental controls like multiple containment and internal sensors to detect leaks before those leaks break outer containment.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)Transported doesn't really describe it. The material is sand in a slurry, it is both toxic and extremely abrasive, and it will be pumped at high temperature and pressure across the full north->south width of the country across the acquirer that feeds a third of the country, its "breadbasket". What could possibly go wrong. And who will profit from the operation of this timebomb? The Canadian company that is building it of course. Aside from some initial ditch-digging and pipe laying jobs - which will disappear from each community along the way just as fast as the dozer's can move taking what few jobs they create with the pipeline's southern progress, there will be nearly no long term employment generated by the death-defying project.