BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
WANT to know how your elected officials rate on the environment? Check them out on the League of Conservation Voter's 2015 Environmental Scorecard.....
The 2015 National Environmental Scorecard numbers have been crunched, tallied, and posted. Let’s be honest: It wasn’t pretty.
This past year, the new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time getting to work on behalf of his polluter allies, pushing through legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline as his first order of business. And by the end of the year we can say with confidence that the extreme leadership of both the Senate and the House had made this the most anti-environmental Congress in our nation’s history.
We scored 60 votes — the most we have ever included! Here are just five of the votes we saw in the Senate — click one of the links below then search for your senators’ names to see how they voted:
Blocking the biggest step the United States has taken to fight climate change: Just months after President Obama and the EPA finalized the Clean Power Plan, Congress used an extreme and rarely used legislative maneuver to try and permanently block it. See if your senators stood in the way of the biggest step our country’s ever taken on climate change.
Extreme Attacks on Drinking Water Protections: This vote sought to permanently void the EPA’s new drinking water protections for millions of Americans. See if your senators stood up for clean drinking water.
Acknowledging Climate Change: This amendment called on Congress to acknowledge the reality of man-made climate change and take action to cut carbon pollution. See if your senators accept the reality of climate change.
Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline: This vote tried to automatically approve the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline. See if your senators voted to transport the world’s dirtiest oil through America’s heartland.
WE DID!!!! ONCE transcanada asked for a delay on approval for their proposed keystone xl pipeline things moved very fast considering decisions had to be made in D.C. Thankfully, Pres Obama made the right choice. To grant a delay on the decision would have wiped out any credibility the American delegation to the Paris Climate Summit. While Pres Obama said he didn't like the way the whole debate over keystone xl became so politicized by both those for and against the proposed pipeline, his decision to deny the application for keystone xl is nothing but political. He has not been the champion of the environment he claimed he would be when campaigning for the presidency. He can not go to Paris empty handed and expect to be taken seriously. So he stopped the whole transcanada project through the U.S. One of the best direct results of his decision? shell oil canceled their new tar sands operations in Alberta. Be assured, this issue is not over, and if a republican wins the presidency in 2016 transcanada may be able to reapply to the state department and would probably get fast track approval. Here's a bit of a time line of how this played out this week from +350.org , Scientific American and +NPR FROM 360.org 2NOV15
BREAKING: TransCanada asks for KXL application "suspension"
Bill McKibben and 350.org's Keystone XL Team<350@350.org>
Well, somewhat astonishing news tonight. Transcanada—the
company that was so sure it would be building the Keystone Pipeline that
it mowed the 1700 mile route and stockpiled the necessary pipe across
the Midwest—tonight said it wanted to suspend its application.
This is—make no mistake—a massive victory for people power. You
emailed, you phoned, you marched, and in record numbers you went to
jail. That’s what it took to persuade the arrogant oil industry they
simply couldn’t prevail in their plan to pump the world’s filthiest oil
across the heart of the continent. They’re clearly pursuing a gambit—knowing they’ve lost,
they’re trying to ask for some extra innings from the umpire, on the
theory that they’ll re-submit a new route for the pipeline after the
next election. President Obama shouldn’t give it to them. He
should finally break his silence on Keystone and say the most important
thing: it fails the climate test that he laid out. It will help cook the
planet. It’s a bad idea no matter what route it takes, because it’s a
fuse to one of the planet’s nastiest carbon bombs.
If President Obama rejects this pipeline once and for all, he’ll go
to Paris with boosted credibility—the world leader who was willing to
shut down a big project on climate grounds. Truthfully, though, we know
it was a movement that shut it down: First Nations and Indigenous
Peoples, climate scientists, farmers and ranchers, ministers and rabbis,
young people and old people. Tell President Obama not to let TransCanada play for time. It’s time to reject this pipeline once and for all.
They told us it was a done deal. We are an inch away from undoing it
completely. And in the process, we’ve helped build a movement ready to
take down hundreds of other fossil fuel projects and keep fossil fuels
where they belong—underground. Thank you all for your relentlessness. Let's not stop now.
Onward,
Bill, Sara, Jason, Rae, Jamie, Deirdre and the rest of 350.org's KXL team 350.org is building a global climate movement. Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.
Tough times have come to Alberta's tar sands.
The oil-rich region enjoyed a long boom in the early 21st century. A
truck driver could make $100,000 per year hauling bitumen-rich sand. Man
camps sprang up in the boreal forest to house workers from as far away
as Venezuela and Angola. Strips of cleared land crisscrossed the
seemingly endless woods so that geologists could precisely tell where to
mine for oil sands or flood the depths with steam to melt the bitumen in place. Clouds of steam and pyramids of sulfur rose at the vast industrial machines to turn bitumen into oil.
But with oil hovering around $50 per barrel, companies working the
oil sands could barely make existing projects worthwhile, let alone
start new ones. For example, oil giant Shell not only withdrew from its Arctic oil ambitions but also shelved plans for more oil sands action at Pierre River and Carmon Creek, eating billions of dollars in investment.
What did Shell blame for its retrenchment? The lack of infrastructure to move oil from the tar sands into the global oil market.
That problem just got worse. The builder of the 830,000 barrel-per-day Keystone XL Pipeline—enough
alone to increase oil sands production by more than 40 percent—wants a
time out. TransCanada has asked the U.S. State Department to pause its
review (pdf)
of the pipeline that crosses an international border for roughly a year
while the state of Nebraska deliberates about changes in the proposed
route, also, perhaps, amid concerns that the Obama administration might
reject the pipeline outright.
In fact, with hindsight, if TransCanada had simply followed this new
route from the beginning in September of 2008, the $8 billion, nearly
2,000 kilometer-long pipeline would likely be up and running today. The
new route follows existing easements rather than cutting a new swath
through private properties and seizing land. Instead of a quiet
approval, there have been seven years of delay, legal wrangling and, most importantly, activism.
A quiet approval is no longer possible. Activists have helped to
hamper the expansion of pipelines like KXL while also organizing against
the railcars, tanker trucks and other conveyances that transport the
oil instead. Canada's attention has turned to other pipeline projects to
transport oil from the tar sands either west to British Columbia, a
project known as Northern Gateway or east to the existing infrastructure in Ontario and Quebec, dubbed Energy East. Both do not cross any international borders.
TransCanada could also be holding out for a more friendly U.S.
administration, one easier on the industrial infrastructure that
supports the fossil-fuel economy and more favorable toward Canada's tar sands.
The company could also be hoping for more expensive oil to revive the
good times in Alberta's tar patch. But the momentum of this fossil-fuel
juggernaut is hard to stop and oil production from the tar sands will
continue to increase even as the companies producing it may end up
suffering a loss on that low-price oil. The excess oil will help keep
global prices low.
Still, Keystone XL is not dead, merely sleeping.
While the pipeline proposal slumbers, circumstances will continue to
change, however. Already, Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic
candidate for president, has explicitly rejected the pipeline. While
Republican contenders Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have indicated they would
approve the pipeline as soon as possible. And it's possible the current
occupant of the White House could reject the pipeline before leaving in 2017.
Regardless of what happens at the national level, Nebraska and the
issue of state's rights still mean the pipeline might not go through.
After all, even if the federal government approves the border-crossing,
that does not obligate the Cornhusker State to approve the pipeline's
path through its territory. And if the world decides to get serious
about climate change, tar sands—among the world’s most polluting forms of oil—may not find favor anywhere.
Bill McKibben and 350.org's Keystone XL Team<350@350.org>
Friends, We just made history together. 4 years to the day after we
surrounded the White House, President Obama has rejected the
Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline! This is huge.
A head of state has never rejected a major fossil fuel project
because of its climate impacts before. The President's decision sets the
standard for what climate action looks like: standing up to the fossil
fuel industry, and keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Make no mistake: this victory belongs to us, the movement.
President Obama's courage today is a reflection of the courage shown by
thousands of people who have sat in, marched, organized, (and opened a
lot of emails) across North America against this pipeline.
This fight started with First Nations in Canada where the tar sands
are extracted, and spread to farmers, ranchers and tribal nations along
the pipeline route. Since then people from all walks of life have joined
hands against Keystone, and the 830,000 barrels per day of destructive
tar sands oil it would have carried through the country to be burned.
Together, we have shown what it takes to win: a determined,
principled, unrelenting grassroots movement that takes to the streets
whenever necessary, and isn't afraid to put our bodies on the line.
Politicians in Washington DC didn’t make this happen. Our movement
did. We want to thank everyone who has been a part of this campaign --
from calling Congress to getting arrested on the White House fence. You can join us in appreciating everyone who made this day
possible by co-signing our thank you card to the movement -- we’ll
deliver personalized versions of the card with your messages to everyone
who has led or attended an action against Keystone XL since 2011. Click here to sign the thank you card to the #NoKXL Movement.
Powered by our organizing, the tide is turning against the fossil
fuel industry -- every major new project they propose is being met by
organized opposition on the ground, and politicians are lining up to
stand behind our movement and say that we must keep the vast majority of
fossil fuels underground.
Resistance is growing because the fossil fuel industry is more
reckless than ever: from Texas where the Southern leg of Keystone XL
pumps toxic tar sands, to Alberta where Big Oil foolishly plans to
expand its mines, to California where they want to frack during a
historic drought, to the enormous coal pits of Appalachia and Australia.
We have more tools than ever to work with. A strong fossil fuel
resistance is already taking shape across the globe. Since we began
fighting Keystone XL, the movement for divestment from fossil fuels has
grown into a global powerhouse able to move tens of billions of dollars
and undercut the social license of the fossil fuel industry. Fracking
bans have stopped drilling in towns, counties and now whole states
across the country. Communities are seizing their energy futures by
demanding 100% renewable power in record numbers.
And when world leaders meet in Paris later this year, they’ll do so
knowing what our movement can do, and what climate action really looks
like: keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
Today we can approach all of our work with new eyes. We know that we can fight, and we can win. This isn't just a victory for the climate movement -- it's a
victory for everyone who believes in the power of organized people, from
the streets of Missouri, to the border crossings of Arizona, to the
hills of South Dakota and Nebraska.
Together, we're on the path to real, substantive change.
With joy, and immense gratitude,
The 350.org Keystone XL pipeline fighting team:
Bill, Cam, Clayton, David, Deirdre, Duncan, Jamie, Jason, Joshua, Linda, Matt, May, Phil, Rae and Sara
President Obama, flanked by Secretary of State John Kerry
(right) and Vice President Joe Biden, announced the Keystone XL pipeline
decision Friday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Ending a process that has lingered for much of his time in the
Oval Office, President Obama announced Friday that the U.S. has rejected
TransCanada's application for a permit to complete the Keystone XL
pipeline.
The president said that "after extensive public
outreach" and consultations, the State Department determined that the
proposal "would not serve the national interests of the United States."
He added, "I agree with that decision."
YouTube
Back in February, Obama vetoed congressional legislation
that approved the project. The Senate failed to override that veto in
March. The first application for approval of TransCanada's plan was filed in September of 2008.
After
the formal rejection was announced, TransCanada issued a statement
saying it's reviewing the U.S. administration's reasons for denying the
permit, and that it might reapply.
We've updated this post with today's news.
Saying
he's "disappointed" with the U.S. decision, Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau adds, "The Canada-U.S. relationship is much bigger than
any one project, and I look forward to a fresh start with President
Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and
cooperation."
Trudeau, who won his leadership post last month,
added that his government "will work hand-in-hand with provinces,
territories and like-minded countries to combat climate change, adapt to
its impacts and create the clean jobs of tomorrow."
Proposed And Existing TransCanada Pipelines
Obama made the announcement in the White House's Roosevelt Room,
alongside Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry,
whose agency has been conducting a review of the project for more than
seven years. The statement came shortly after Obama and Kerry met
privately Friday morning.
In rejecting the proposal, Obama said
the Keystone debate has played an "overinflated role in our political
discourse" — something for which he blamed both parties.
The
president also disagreed with what he described as critics' claims that
the completed pipeline would be "the express lane to climate disaster."
Discounting
Keystone supporters' claims that the pipeline would boost the U.S.
economy, Obama later added, "Shipping dirtier crude oil into our country
would not increase America's energy security."
Obama also said that American industries have moved quickly to adopt renewable energy.
"Today,
the United States of America is leading on climate change," he said,
citing gains in efficiency and environmental protections.
"Ultimately,
if we're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not
only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we're going to
have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and
release more dangerous pollution into the sky," Obama said. TransCanada says
that despite the permit rejection, the company is reviewing its options
— including the possibility that it will file a new application for a
cross-border pipeline.
"TransCanada and its shippers remain
absolutely committed to building this important energy infrastructure
project," said Russ Girling, the company's president and CEO.
Reacting
to the news, Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh
called Obama's rejection of the permit "a courageous leap forward in the
climate fight."
She added that the pipeline extension "would
have locked in, for a generation or more, massive development of among
the dirtiest fuels on the planet — posing a serious threat to our air,
land, water and climate."
Bill McKibben, co-founder of the group 350.org,
said the move gives Obama "new stature as an environmental leader, and
it eloquently confirms the five years and millions of hours of work that
people of every kind put into this fight."
McKibben added:
"We're still awfully sad about Keystone south and are well aware that
the next president could undo all this, but this is a day of
celebration."
Speaking out against the decision, American
Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard said, "It's ironic
that the administration would strike a deal to allow Iranian crude onto
the global market while refusing to give our closest ally, Canada,
access to U.S. refineries."
Calling the permit denial "politics
at its worst," Gerard added, "the White House has placed political
calculations above sound science. Seven years of review have determined
the project is safe and environmentally sound, yet the administration
has turned its back on Canada with this decision, and on U.S. energy
security as well."
The official rejection, which had been
rumored for days, comes after TransCanada on Tuesday asked the State
Department to suspend its review of its permit application, citing
ongoing debate over its route in Nebraska. Plans for the pipeline had
called for it to stretch from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico.
Hundreds of miles of the projected route have already been completed.
As NPR's Jeff Brady reported this week,
the Keystone project became a target for activists and others who want
new energy policies to focus on renewable energy instead of fossil
fuels.
Jeff added, "A big reason environmentalists don't like
the Keystone XL is because of the oil it would transport. Much of it
would come from Alberta's oil sands, which have to be mined. Then the
gunky mixture has to be processed before it's usable. That emits more
pollution than traditional methods of oil production."
THE house will be voting on the keystone xl pipeline sometime today. Environmentalist, ranchers, Native Americans, renewable energy advocates in Canada and the U.S. have been campaigning against this pipeline for the past several years. It is bad for the environment, a very real threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, it will not come close to creating as many good paying, permanent jobs as investing in renewable energy would, it is a threat to our nation's breadbasket in the Midwest and the mining and refining of this filthy tar sands oil will increase the carbon pollution of the U.S. and Canada. The only ones who will benefit are the tax dodging oil companies and the politicians they own. Please send a letter to your representative and tell them to vote NO on HR 5682 by clicking the link. This from the LVC / +Gene Karpinski, League of Conservation Voters
There’s literally no time to waste, so I’m going to get right to it: The
Keystone XL pipeline, the massive environmental threat that we’ve been
battling against for years, will be voted on in the House tomorrow. A Senate vote is also on the way, so now more than ever we need our voices to be heard if we are going to stop this pipeline.
You
and I know the facts — Keystone poses a huge risk to our lands, water,
climate, and our planet’s future. Tar sands oil is the dirtiest fuel on
the planet, and with an atrocious safety record for the company behind
Keystone XL, spills in America’s heartland could be imminent. There’s no
question about it: Keystone is all risk and no reward. We have just hours to act.
Our
country has relied on dirty fossil fuels for too long. There was a time
when it seemed there was no way around using fossil fuels for energy,
but that’s not the case anymore. So why are so many members of Congress hell-bent on continuing to invest in dirty oil?
There
have been enormous advancements in clean energy, and President Obama
has made it clear that our country needs to act on climate change now. From the EPA’s historic Clean Power Plan to Tuesday’s agreement with China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, our country is moving forward in the fight against climate change.
But if Keystone XL is built, we will be taking a giant step backward. We will be playing right into Big Oil’s hands
— keeping us addicted to oil is exactly what they need to pad their
wallets even more. We can fight back, but we have to act now before the
House votes tomorrow.
Time
and time again we have marched, petitioned, and DEMANDED that the
Keystone XL pipeline be rejected. And the incredible thing is that
President Obama has heard us. That’s why when he announced his climate
action plan last year, he emphasized that Keystone’s impact on climate
change should determine whether or not the pipeline is built. Now we need to make sure our representatives in the House hear us too. There’s not a moment to spare — contact your member right now and tell them to vote NO on Keystone XL.
Craig, thank you for keeping up the fight. We can stop Keystone, but we can’t do it without you.
Kristin Brown
Director of Digital Strategy
League of Conservation Voters
1920 L Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036 202-785-8683
HERE is the NRDC's BioGems news with 2 calls to action. One is a petition campaign calling on Pres Obama to take action to protect Utah's Greater Canyonlands. The other is a e mail letter campaign to Sec of Defense Hagel calling on him to order US Navy explosives and sonar testing be move out of areas heavily populated by whales, dolphins and other marine mammals to prevent the deaths of approximately 1000 whales alone. Watch the video by Pierce Brosnan and click the link to send your letter.
March 2014
NRDC Takes Navy to Court to Save Whales
We've
filed suit in federal court to stop a reckless Navy plan for training
with sonar and explosives that could injure or kill thousands of marine
mammals over the next five years. We’ve also launched a powerful online
media campaign, led by Pierce Brosnan, to mobilize public pressure on
the Navy to end its senseless assault on whales. BioGems Defenders have
already sent more than 193,500 messages to Defense Secretary Hagel. Make your voice heard now.
It's Time to Protect Utah's Greater Canyonlands
Located
in the heart of Utah's Redrock Wilderness, Greater Canyonlands is truly
one of America's last wild places. Its vast expanse boasts stunning
plateaus and canyons, archeological sites more than 10,000 years old and
habitat for a diverse range of wildlife. This irreplaceable landscape
is threatened by potash mining, oil and gas drilling and potential tar
sands development. This past week, President Obama took a bold step for
wildland protection by adding Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands to the
California Coastal National Monument. As the president continues to
build his legacy on public lands, we are urging him to also permanently
protect Greater Canyonlands.
A Message from Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan is committed to fighting a Navy training plan that could kill nearly 1,000 marine mammals.
Judge Kills Keystone Route
In
a victory for landowners in Nebraska, a court has ruled that a state
law which fast-tracked approval of the Keystone XL pipeline route in the
state is unconstitutional. The court ruling is a major blow to
TransCanada's plans to build Keystone through Nebraska. Learn more.
Tufted Puffins in Peril
NRDC
is petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the tufted
puffin as an endangered species. In the last three decades, these
football-sized seabirds -- which sport red bills and yellow tufts --
have seen their numbers along the Pacific coast plummet from more than
30,000 to fewer than 4,000. Learn more.
We
now have more than 1,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 1 million
views. Please subscribe here to get the very latest video updates.
BioGems Defenders sent more than 100,000 messages,
calling on President Obama to stop the Pebble Mine by directing the
Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean
Water Act. Our voices have been heard! The EPA has just initiated that
process.
![Pay Dirt: How to Turn Tar Sands into Oil [Slide Show]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vfwIA79Kt-xdEz-iD3-PRJfjwXvbL6va3hSXO7oOokrakUNdoADz3oy_Xh3pVjO4Kwv51xp_mtD1VVMzrSWV2CVnnmidhMaVH-bOJAg1HN89Ob2yWb1V_vR8QtwXRErw0eLuGBDPE0_0_tC52V5WhtSVj-Koge6zjizj5yR8BM9hWJcQ=s0-d)
