Posted on 03/07/2013 11:07:52 PM PST by neverdem
PRESIDENT OBAMA began his second term with a promise to push harder on energy and climate change. The events of the past week remind us that he wont have to contend just with Republicans and coal-state Democrats determined to oppose reasonable measures to combat global warming. He will also have to sidestep environmentalists demanding that he fight the wrong battles.
Last Friday, the State Department released a new draft analysis of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, opposition to which has become a counterproductive obsession of many in the environmental movement. In its 2,000 pages, the report dismantled the case that nixing the Canadian pipeline must be a priority for anyone concerned about climate change, explaining anew that accepting or rejecting the project wont make much difference to global emissions, U.S. oil consumption or world oil markets.
Under anti-Keystone activists very best scenario Keystone XL and all other new pipeline capacity restricted they could hope to reduce Canadian oil-sands production by only 2 to 4 percent by 2030. As long as the world demands oil, energy companies will find it profitable to extract and transport their product in all sorts of ways. If new pipelines are out of the picture, companies will rely more on rail, the use of which they could easily ramp up.
The analysis underscores the extent to which activists have trumped up a relatively mundane infrastructure issue into the premier environmental fight of this decade, leading to big marches and acts of civil disobedience to advance a cause that is worthy of neither. The activists ought to pick more important fights. Until they do, the president should ignore their pressure.
Mr. Obama should also ignore the complaints about Ernest Moniz, whom the president nominated Monday to head the Energy Department. Mr. Moniz, an MIT professor, favors...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It seems some leftys realize the tax dollars they can squeeze out of this project.
Progressives want us to rely on ME energy. Their policy keeps the US mired in unending wars.
Well, we at least know what Obama wants thanks to the ComPost editorial (the ComPost might as well be merged with the DNC): he wants to allow the pipeline and impose a carbon tax.
The unions won’t stand for the pipeline to be stopped.
And they’re about 1000 times more important to Democrats than the environmental watermelons
Frankly, that means right here, where we already have some of the most restrictive measures on the planet.
Guaranteeing that things are done elsewhere without regard for the messes made is contrary to their supposed mission of protecting the planet.
(Which is actually, I know, the destruction of Western Industry, not protecting the planet.)
Guaranteeing that things are done elsewhere without regard for the messes made is contrary to their supposed mission of protecting the planet.
(Which is actually, I know, the destruction of Western Industry, not protecting the planet.)
BINGO!
Serendipitiuos, I am sure. Nothing to see here.
The election is over. He doesn’t need the Greenies anymore and has to pay off the union for their support.
Well, the push on "climate change" isn't working, in less than 2 weeks winter will turn to spring. /s
They have put up with it being delayed for years when good jobs have been needed now.
Al Gore sued for lining his pockets with oil money
Global Warming on Free Republic
That’s a better solution (absent one involving NO carbon tax) than doing what the environMENTAL throwbacks want.
But, but, but liberal elites feel soooooooo alive when they're giving the finger to the middle class. They love to prance around jeering at police officers - letting the world know they don't need to have jobs... That's what they live for... their antics almost NEVER have anything to do with the environment.
Thanks neverdem.
Partisan Media Shills have some meme-building to do, in order to make approval of the Keystone XL look like Zero’s idea all along. This is being brilliantly stage-managed by Zero and Co (regardless that, to say the least, I don’t like them) in preparation for the election next year.
WaPo is running interference for the Obama Administration again.
Obama has decided he’s going to let the project go through. So he makes sure the report says the pipeline won’t hurt the environment. And then his buddies at the WaPo write an editorial saying, “Let’s build it!”
I have only one question: What are the “reasonable measures to combat global warming” mentioned in the first paragraph?
Probably carbon taxes, IMHO.
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