Stinks of political imagery:
"Obama cites global warming in Keystone XL pipeline rejection" by Matt Viser Globe Staff November 06, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama, following a recommendation laid out by Secretary of State John Kerry, formally rejected the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, capping a controversial seven-year federal review and sending what environmentalists hope is a message that the United States is a leader in fighting climate change.
This as the biggest polluter on the planet is the American war machine, which just wasted more fuel buzzing China's man-made atolls and is flying jets over football games. Don't let that interfere with the delusion or narrative, though.
“America’s now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Obama said at the White House, with Kerry to his left and Vice President Joe Biden to his right. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face, not acting.”
This guy (blog editor shakes his head) is nothing more than a script-reading narcissist, and a dangerously delusional one at that.
Obama’s decision enraged Republicans, who hope to reverse the decision if they retake the White House next year, and could elevate the Keystone project as an issue in the presidential campaign.
PFFFFFFFFFT!
“Today, misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science — rhetoric won out over reason,” Russ Girling, TransCanada’s chief executive, said in a statement. He said the company would review its options and potentially file a new application. The company had asked to withdraw the project earlier this week, fearing Obama would kill it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking their side, either.
This is what we call a false debate. The energy companies and banks are controlling both sides. They want the carbon tax -- despite methane from oil and gas drilling being 25x more potent than me breathing -- while sowing confusion so that fossil fuels are maintained. Wars and economic manipulation are fought over it, while less than a handful of renewable energy projects have been funded and completed lo these many years. What does that tell you? What does energy companies coming out in favor of carbon taxes tell you?
New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is “disappointed by the decision” but added that “the Canada-US relationship is much bigger than any one project and I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama.”
He's leaving soon -- isn't he?
The announcement came as gas prices continue to decline — less than $2 per gallon in many states — and on a day when the Labor Department announced that a healthy 271,000 jobs were added last month.
Keystone is a potent symbol in the nation’s battles over climate change, a fight that not only divides Americans along partisan lines but also because the pipeline was supported by unions, created divisions between traditional Democratic constituencies.
I love mixed messages and contradictory crap all in one paragraph.
Environmental groups warned that a spill along the pipeline route — which would cut from Alberta to Steel City, Neb. — would contaminate drinking water.
Oh, yeah, speaking of spills:
"A former BP engineer accused of obstructing an investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by deleting a string of text messages pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge, avoiding prison time and ending a legal ordeal that spanned four years. Prosecutors declined to comment after dropping the obstruction charge that could have landed Kurt Mix in prison for 20 years. Instead, he was sentenced to six months of probation. Mix’s attorney said the plea agreement resulted from an ‘‘unraveling’’ government case. Mix himself said he felt vindicated and relieved, but he also expressed disillusionment."
Yeah, I sure know the feeling.
Thought I could Mix that one in there.
“President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental leader whose group 350.org helped make the project a national issue. “That gives him 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.”
Controlled-opposition creep.
The State Department was charged with assessing the project’s environmental impact and deciding if it would be in the national interest. Kerry went to the White House on Friday morning and met with Obama before the decision was announced.
“For years, the Keystone Pipeline has occupied what I, frankly, consider an overinflated role in our political discourse,” Obama said on Friday. “It became a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than a serious policy matter. And all of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others.”
Then why kill it?
During the early part of 2014, Kerry began doing his own work on the issue, diving into the substance and having discussions with his top advisers. Kerry was particularly concerned about the impact the issue was having on his ability to negotiate with other world powers on climate change issues, according to a former administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Kerry has been trying to get other countries on board for broad climate change measures, including curbing emissions.
“What I know is rock solid is that people think the United States tries to have it both ways on climate,” the former official recalled Kerry saying. “I’ve been in those meetings. I’ve heard it from India and China for the last 20 years and this is going to be Exhibit A at a make or break time in the international negotiations.”
This from a guy flying all over the planet, pffft!
Btw, I wouldn't worry about China making much of a fuss:
"China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, is burning far more annually than previously thought, according to new government data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming. China has been consuming as much as 17 percent more coal each year than reported, according to the new government figures. Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month. The new data, which appeared recently in an energy statistics yearbook published without fanfare, show that the revisions were based on a census of the economy in 2013."
I predict China will be scolded at the conference.
Kerry did not speak from the podium on Friday, and he declined requests for an interview.
“To Kerry, this was a question of American credibility on the issue that animates him more than any other,” said David Wade, a longtime Kerry aide who was his chief of staff at the State Department until earlier this year. “How could he press another foreign minister not to build dirty coal-fired power plants if we were building this pipeline to bring in the dirtiest oil on the planet?”
What a whoopee cushion!
They don't have any left, period, on any issue.
The Keystone rejection could help Obama and Kerry as they head next month to an international conference on climate change being held in Paris.
PFFFFFFFFFFFFTT!
Kerry has a long history of environmental activism, dating to the first major meeting on international climate change in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He met future wife Teresa at an Earth Day rally and in 2007, they wrote a book together called “This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future.”
In 2009, Kerry crafted a bill that would have established a cap-and-trade system on US emissions of greenhouse gases. The legislation failed.
Thank God.
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As for the credibility of leadership:
"Obama won’t agree to delay Keystone pipeline decision" by Julie Hirschfeld Davis New York Times November 04, 2015
WASHINGTON — The White House announced Tuesday that President Obama had no intention of bowing to a request from the company behind the Keystone XL oil pipeline to delay a decision on the project, saying he wanted to take action before his tenure ends.
The State Department is reviewing a request made Monday by TransCanada to pause its yearslong evaluation of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which has become part of a broader debate over Obama’s environmental agenda.
Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, said Tuesday that “there’s reason to suspect that there may be politics at play” in TransCanada’s request. He strongly suggested that the review, which has been widely expected to result in a rejection of the pipeline as soon as this month, remained on track.
Yeah!
Environmental protection advocates say that Obama is poised to reject the pipeline project in large part to make a bold statement about his commitment to curb climate change in advance of a UN summit meeting in Paris.
PFFFFFT!
All about the POLITICAL IMAGERY and $YMBOLI$M!!!
“It’s really a headache they didn’t need going into Paris,” said Heather Zichal, a former senior climate adviser to Obama. “There’s a general sense among a lot of the groups that the president is trending toward killing this thing, and they expected a decision soon. This puts pressure back on the administration in a very real and meaningful way.”
The company’s request has reignited a fierce debate about the pipeline that had quieted in recent months. On one side are Republicans and oil industry executives who have championed the pipeline proposal as a boon for job creation and economic growth. On the other are environmental advocates who call the pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, a dirty and dangerous project.
Democraps in the middle.
TransCanada’s move raised legal questions for the Obama administration. The nightmare possibility, Zichal said, is that Obama would reject the pipeline only to face a lawsuit from TransCanada, then lose in court and inadvertently hand the company license to move forward with the project.
But former administration officials familiar with the review process said that was exceedingly unlikely. Neither the executive order process nor State Department procedures for review contain any provisions for suspending the evaluation, they said.
It would be hard for TransCanada to make a viable legal claim in an American court if the State Department refused to delay the review and rejected the project, the former officials said, since so much of the process is left to the president’s discretion. The former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity so they would not be identified in commenting on confidential work they did for the government....
I suggest they take it to the WTO then.
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Well, that's enough regarding Keystone.
Time to head for France:
"France will reinstate border controls for a month around the coming climate change conference in Paris, the interior minister said Friday. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, told the BFM TV news channel that checks at the French border would be reinstated around the time of the event, which is sponsored by the United Nations and will run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11. More than 40,000 participants and about 80 heads of government, including President Obama, are expected to attend. Cazeneuve cited security concerns, saying there was “a context of terrorist threats or of risks of disturbances to public order that could come and sully this large international gathering . . . ”
That is meant to suppress protests, but the cast of cretins that are attending have already done that.
Finally, air is starting to clear.
NDU:
Must have been a Globe SBD.
