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I’m going to go ahead and add their ongoing insouciance toward Canada on the Keystone XL pipeline to the Obama administration’s already impressively long list of foreign-policy blunders and undervaluations; sure, administration officials will readily affirm that Canada is “one of our closest partners” and “greatest friends” and whatever else, but just saying the words isn’t quite the same thing as actually helping a brother out on strengthening their economy and building up their natural resource production. Canada is our largest commercial trading partner and the country from which we import the most oil by far (followed by Saudi Arabia,...

**SNIP** In a statement, the Democratic senator said her 2006 GOMESA legislation has already secured millions for the state, and she noted her committee already has held a hearing on her revenue sharing legislation. "I am sure the people of Louisiana are happy that Bill Cassidy has finally joined the fight for revenue sharing for the Gulf Coast," Landrieu said. She added: "Unfortunately, Rep. Cassidy voted for a bill that makes Louisiana wait to share in this revenue, and that is inconceivable and unacceptable." Over the years, state officials have argued Louisiana was owed a greater share of the offshore...

Washington, DC, Apr 17 (OneWorld) - A major environmental group has declared a ceasefire in its three-year campaign against Citigroup, the world's largest private financial institution, after new commitments by the giant lender to adopt more responsible social and environmental policies in deciding what projects to finance. Citigroup's decision to more seriously engage one of its main critics, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), came one week after the San Francisco-based group launched a major ad campaign to persuade Citigroup credit card holders to destroy their cards to protest the company's support for projects and industries that environmentalists consider particularly harmful. The...

Old man, we look at your life, and you’re not a lot like we are. And if there’s one thing that average folks don’t like, it’s rich celebrities telling them what’s best. Which is why we’re rolling our eyes at the free world rockin’ Neil Young. Young gave a press conference opposing oilsands development at Massey Hall in Toronto Sunday , prior to starting one of his Honour The Treaties concerts. He said "Canada is trading integrity for money," and that he’s embarrassed as a Canadian. He’s raising money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation to wage legal battles against...

Daryl Hannah, of "Splash" and "Blade Runner" fame, was arrested Thursday afternoon for protesting the construction of a major oil pipeline in Texas. The Keystone XL pipeline is designed to bring crude oil from Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Hannah, along with 78-year-old Texas landowner Eleanor Fairchild, were arrested for criminal trespassing and other charges after they were accused of standing in front of pipeline construction equipment on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro, a town about 100 miles east of Dallas, ABC affiliate KLTV reported. …

Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters who oppose a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The sit-in Tuesday involved dozens protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. It would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

American actress Daryl Hannah is arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters opposing a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast. Hannah was released after paying a $100 fine, following her arrest for failure to obey a lawful order, said US Park Police spokesman Sergeant David Schlosser. More than 70 people were arrested in the Tar Sands Action protest on Tuesday, which is named after efforts to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project to bring oil sands petroleum from Canada to Texas refineries.

Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters who oppose a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The sit-in Tuesday involved dozens protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. It would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.Before she was arrested, Hannah told The Associated Press the protesters want to be free from dependence on fossil fuels. The group calls for clean energy investments instead. Hannah says they hope President Barack Obama will not bow to oil lobbyists.Hannah...

Much-arrested Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah was taken away from the White House in restraints Tuesday afternoon. Hannah was taking part in an ongoing protest against the unbuilt Keystone XL oil pipeline. "Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice your freedom for a greater freedom," Hannah said in Lafayette Park before her arrest. "And we want to be free from the horrible death and destruction that fossil fuels cause, and have a clean energy future." Together with dozens of others, Hannah sat on the sidewalk in front of the White House and refused three requests from the Park Police to move. The group...

The planet is not in danger of catastrophic man made global warming. Even if we burn all the world’s recoverable fossil fuels it will still only result in a temperature rise of less than 1.2 per cent. So say The Right Climate Stuff Research Team, a group of retired NASA Apollo scientists and engineers – the men who put Neil Armstrong on the moon – in a new report. “It’s an embarrassment to those of us who put NASA’s name on the map to have people like James Hansen popping off about global warming,” says the project’s leader Hal Doiron....

Just turned on Hannity and he had some nitwit blond on who was wearing a "peace" necklace...who was that? She fit the mold of a 60's lib hippy whoever the hell she was. Anyway, they were talking about the Keystone Pipeline (I believe) and Hannity mentioned to her that he drove a hybrid and her response was, "you're a conservationalist!" WTH is a conservationalist? Can some please enlighten me?

Actress Daryl Hannah was among the protesters gathered in front of the White House on Thursday to call on the government to ban fracking on federal land. The debate over building the Keystone XL oil pipeline took a weird turn Tuesday when a Hollywood actress famous for playing a comedic mermaid called the economic lifeline the real life embodiment of some legendary “serpent” destined to doom America. “Legend tells of a black snake that will threaten our people. Keystone XL is that serpent, a 1,700-mile pipe that would carry toxic tar sands oil across our land and over our water,”...

Whenever the horrifyingly precarious fundamentals of the Russian economy are pointed out to its apologists, the response is always the same. “Russia has low debt and high reserves, so it can weather any storm,” they chant, and the melody of the anthem of the USSR can be heard in the background. This is the opposite of the truth. Far from being a strength, debt and reserves are Russia’s main Achilles heels. In Ukraine, they may prove Russia’s undoing. Russia came under withering economic fire last week as it geared up for a broader war of aggression in Ukraine. Its stock...

Several hundred Chrysler minivans are stuck indefinitely on a piece of prime Detroit real estate, unable to be transported across America. The reason? The fossil fuel boom in Canada and the United States is hogging much of the available rail capacity needed to transport the vans. Citing a report by the Associated Press, the Windsor Star reports that railway capacity – which is normally transport new vehicles – is being eaten up by deliveries of oil from both the Alberta Oil Sands and the Bakken shale formation in the United States. According to the AP, just 9,500 railway carloads of...

The environmental orgy known as Earth Day has come and gone. Disney opened their annual Earth Day movie homage, Pinterest made available a slew of Earth Day activities for kids, and public and private schools have had their requisite ceremonies. In all the celebration, the one thing that is seemingly never asked is whether or not environmentalist policies by the government are actually helping the environment? Wind energy is just one example. The United States government has provided billions of dollars of subsidies to the wind industry over the past twenty years, subsidies that have not yet been renewed in...

(Phys.org) —Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new and unconventional battery chemistry aimed at producing batteries that last longer than previously thought possible. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, ORNL researchers challenged a long-held assumption that a battery's three main components—the positive cathode, negative anode and ion-conducting electrolyte—can play only one role in the device. The electrolyte in the team's new battery design has dual functions: it serves not only as an ion conductor but also as a cathode supplement. This cooperative chemistry, enabled by the use...

The White House is pushing back against a Rolling Stone magazine story that cites two "high-level" Obama administration sources saying President Obama intends to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. "Nobody who knows POTUS' thinking on Keystone is talking and nobody who is talking knows," White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said on Twitter Wednesday evening. In the Rolling Stone story published online Wednesday, veteran climate writer Jeff Goodell writes that the unnamed administration sources told him Obama has "all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline," although the piece notes "no final decision has been made." Later, the story...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has publicly acknowledged that ethanol in gasoline can damage internal combustion engines by increasing exhaust temperatures and indirectly causing component failures, the American Motorcyclist Association reports. The EPA statements are found in a rule proposal issued by the Federal Trade Commission regarding a new label for pumps that supply fuel blends high in ethanol. According to the EPA, "[e]thanol impacts motor vehicles in two primary ways. First ... ethanol enleans the [air/fuel] ratio (increases the proportion of oxygen relative to hydrocarbons) which can lead to increased exhaust gas temperatures and potentially increase incremental deterioration of...

Since word broke on Thursday night that Chelsea Clinton will be having a baby, ABC has fixated over the news, devoting 12 minutes and 47 seconds of coverage to the arrival of America's new "royal" child. Yet, the same network totally ignored the latest delay of the Kyestone XL pipeline by the Obama administration (and the political ramifications that go with it). On Friday morning, ABC reporter Bianna Golodryga hyped, "Move over, Prince George, though. This morning, Americans have their own royal, or, rather, presidential baby, to look forward to." On Sunday, This Week avoided Keystone, yet the ABC program...

One of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s most important duties is watching his mouth. One ill-considered utterance is enough to sow panic on the financial markets. But during a press conference earlier this month, Draghi allowed himself a telling slip. Speaking to gathered journalists at the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Draghi twice almost uttered a word he has been at pains to avoid. “Defla…”, Draghi began, before stopping himself and continuing with the term “low inflation.”Yet despite Draghi’s efforts, the specter of deflation was omnipresent in Washington during the meetings. And it...