General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThread on Biden re: Willow drilling (Biden had no leverage re Willow. Lease was signed decades ago)
Link to tweet
He could have challenged in court and delayed it 6mos, or he could negotiate and make it less bad.
He made it a LOT less bad.
Youre not an environmentalist if youre mad about that.
Link below detailing how Biden slashed Willow by 40% while permanently protecting sensitive land.
All this on top of passing IRA and Infrastructure, representing the largest climate investment in world history.
This is an environmentalist president.
Interior Department Substantially Reduces Scope of Willow Project
Drill Pads Reduced by 40%; ConocoPhillips to Relinquish Rights to 68,000 Acres of Existing Leases
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-substantially-reduces-scope-willow-project
From that DOI link
Walleye
(31,016 posts)Now the progressive side of our party has a reason to feel butt hurt. I keep thinking of the 2016 democratic convention and the idiots with tape over their mouths and their no TPP signs. Remember they heckled John Lewis. I dont know what we can do about this kind of thinking. There is too much willful ignorance all around
Roland99
(53,342 posts)This will largely be forgotten by then
Heck. Forgotten by summer I bet
Walleye
(31,016 posts)I know we could surely use Lisa Murkowski vote on a few things
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Demsrule86
(68,556 posts)thought they learned their lesson in 16.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Hru feeling?
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)These days many scientists believe the personality traits we are born with can be roughly as determinative as environmental influences.
Glad you're feeling more up to making the spread of alt-wisdom not as satisfying as it should be.
yardwork
(61,599 posts)We fight to get the word out.
PatSeg
(47,418 posts)was on The Tonight Show and Colbert asked her about this. I was surprised that she did not really explain it like in the OP. She had a captive audience, it was such a missed opportunity.
Magoo48
(4,707 posts)At a time when every single thing we do should be scrutinized through the lens of Climate Catastrophe, it is, as Greta so aptly put it, The same old blah, blah, blah.
Walleye
(31,016 posts)Delphinus
(11,830 posts)to learn this and spread it around. The truth matters.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)And, while many in our party want progressive initiatives to move forward quickly, that doesn't generally happen.
And fringes never have broad enough appeal to win elections (without manipulation such as 2016).
IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)PatSeg
(47,418 posts)IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,896 posts)Carlitos Brigante
(26,500 posts)PatSeg
(47,418 posts)PatSeg
(47,418 posts)Those look like professional photos.
ancianita
(36,034 posts)Biden's only partial decision making power on this.
Wounded Bear
(58,648 posts)femmedem
(8,201 posts)I was misinformed.
CousinIT
(9,241 posts)Cha
(297,167 posts)Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)The media again is telling only one side of the story. That Biden promised to prevent drilling during his campaigning and is now going back on his promise. When in truth he reduced the impact by 40% and got other concessions.
Perhaps he was over ambitious to proclaim "No more drilling on federal lands, period" while campaigning. At the very least he should have clarified that to where there wasn't already leased land. OTOH, the media as usual did not specifically explain what he did accomplish and how much he did protect.
As Biden weighs the Willow oil project, he blocks other Alaska drilling
March 12, 20239:53 PM ET
By
The Associated Press
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/12/1163003146/alaska-drilling-protections-biden
He or a spokesperson needs to explain exactly as you did. The way it stands now it appears that Biden capitulated and just gave Conoco what it wanted. When in truth, he could not stop them from drilling, but managed to gain significant concessions.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,106 posts)out front of it...hell it deserves a Press Conference of it's own. It is THAT important.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)of this information has been "out" for months other than the final outcome. You don't have to DIG for anything.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,106 posts)Don't bother answering. I'm done with this conversation.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)It's not a good idea to rely on the media. For anything. EVER!
News Junkie
(312 posts)The three pads will produce 92% of what they initially sought to develop, not 60%.
Cha
(297,167 posts)faced with the FACTS it doesn't seem to matter to some..
TY for Shining the Light
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,938 posts)I was going to post a different article that says pretty much the same.
Sometimes half a loaf is better than none.
Malmsy
(297 posts)But they put the environment first, rather than politically pandering to those who think that there is always a "right" and a "wrong" choice in politics, instead of understanding nuance and that damage control is the only alternative to the "wrong" choice.
I'm glad that our administration didn't use the tactics of Republicans - such as the ones who know that Planned Parenthood actually reduces unplanned pregnancy and therefore abortions, but will scream about defunding PP for the sake of "purity."
Reality isn't always clean and defined in black and white terms.
But yes, Biden will lose votes because many on the far left who are looking for a reason to oppose him in 2024, no matter the actual options open to the administration.
The Biden administration is acting for the best possible outcome for the environment, despite the political cost.
rather try a multi-pronged strategy with moderate Rs, the McCain types are already leaving the party in droves because of Trump and DeSantis stand on Ukraine, why don't we reach out to the fiscal conservative wing of the GOP as well, I think we can gain a lot more votes with non crazy if we improved our messaging, and make our own crazies dispensable.
BumRushDaShow
(128,896 posts)so nothing has happened in that area for the past almost 25 years.
I wish some of these same people would advocate so strongly to get rid of and CLEAN UP stuff like this in Los Angeles, in deep dark blue and supposed "green" state California -
no drilling where we're living | Feb. 10, 2022
L.A. Just Banned Oil Drilling. Now Comes the Hard Part.
By Alissa Walker, a Curbed senior writer
Across Los Angeles, oil wells bob in yards, near schools, and at parks. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
In a city aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2035, neighborhood oil wells have become an increasingly incongruous element of the Los Angeles landscape. About 600,000 Angelenos live within a half-mile of one of L.A.s 1,000 active wells, where a recent study demonstrated that toxic particulates can travel up to two-and-a-half miles, blanketing local communities with chronic respiratory issues and higher cancer rates. Starting in 2013, the unusually broad coalition of groups known as Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling (STAND L.A.) began a campaign under the slogan No drilling where were living. And last week nearly a decade after the campaign began L.A. finally passed a motion to officially phase out oil and gas extraction. Its a first step toward holding oil companies accountable for the damage they have inflicted upon L.A.s most vulnerable neighborhoods for over a century. Its a vision beyond oil drilling, says Eric Romann, an environmental-justice coordinator for Physicians for Social Responsibility and a co-leader of STAND L.A.s campaign. Its the vision that communities that are overwhelmingly Black and Latino and working class who have borne the brunt should actively have a role in shaping what their future will look like.
The oil companies wont exactly quit drilling tomorrow. New drilling permits would likely stop being issued by the end of 2022, but oil companies may get up to a 20-year period to phase out everything thats already siphoning fossil fuels out of the ground. That will mean not only properly plugging wells including cleaning up 3,000 inactive drilling sites and another 1,000 abandoned wells located around the city but also fully remediating the land. If the city can prove oil well operators have already recouped their initial investment, it may go faster. Neighboring Culver City recently conducted a similar study for its oil wells and is requiring full remediation by 2026.
Since 1892, L.A. has been dotted with oil wells, which lined up along beaches and sprouted out of backyards. But whereas drilling sites in wealthier neighborhoods have largely shut down over the last 25 years a few continue to operate, cleverly camouflaged and with improved safety measures in place many of the sites in lower-income communities have persisted. The citys new ordinance would start to chip away at L.A.s many land-use inequities, from its freeways to its port, says Romann: We have an economy based not only on the extraction but the production and consumption of fossil fuels, and in order for that to function, we have placed this in the neighborhoods where the people with the least power live.
Thats a start, but theres a lot of petroleum infrastructure left in L.A. County, and that means the hardest part comes next. The region is home to multiple refineries that pollute the same neighborhoods affected by oil drilling. Remember that one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history was a gas leak at a storage facility in Aliso Canyon. Six years later, residents are still experiencing health issues, yet officials recently voted to expand the facility anyway. Reforms at the county and state level are helping, like new rules governing setback requirements around schools and parks. (The state also continues to issue new fracking permits but says it wants to phase out oil extraction by 2045.) Theres assistance coming from the Biden administration as well: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited L.A. in December and promised federal funds to clean up drill sites.
(snip)
https://www.curbed.com/2022/02/los-angeles-ends-oil-drilling-stand.html
and here in Philly -
Green
How to Tear Down an Oil Refinery in the Middle of Philadelphia
There are some 130 aging oil refineries in the U.S., most of which will need to be decommissioned if the country is to meet its climate goals.
By Josh Saul
September 30, 2021
After part of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery exploded into flames one night in 2019, its owners filed for bankruptcy and put the 1,300-acre site up for sale. Hilco Global, a company with a track record of transforming fossil-fuel infrastructure like coal-fired power plants, bought the South Philadelphia facility out of bankruptcy with a grand new vision that includes logistics facilities and research labs.
But first the company has a daunting task: safely dismantling over 100 buildings, 3,000 tanks and 950 miles of dirty pipeline.
The Problem
Oil refining has taken place on the banks of the Schuylkill River since just after the Civil War. By the time the explosion scattered debris across the site and even over the river, the PES Oil Refinery was turning 330,000 barrels of crude day into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products such as heating oil and jet fuel.
Right now, some parts of the PES Oil Refinery have the feel of a ghost town. Weeds sprout head-high among the pipelines, Canada geese strut down empty roads and small herds of deer bound past a silent railyard. But other parts are bustling with workers and big, yellow excavators as Hilco enters the second year of taking apart equipment and preparing the site for construction. The first tenants are supposed to move into the site in 2023.
(snip)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-decommissioned-philadelphia-oil-refinery/
A Vast Refinery Site in Philadelphia Is Being Redeveloped and Called The Bellwether District. But for Black Residents Nearby, Justice Awaits
Three years after a fire and explosion shuttered what was once the East Coasts largest refinery, toxic benzene continued leaking well into the cleanup.
By Victoria St. Martin
July 4, 2022
One minute, the 3-year-old was playing tag in the grassher braided hair bouncing with each stepwhile the hulking remains of a 150-year-old oil refinery loomed nearby. Then, suddenly, she couldnt breathe. Many residents here in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia live with asthma and other chronic health conditions that they, advocates and even some medical experts attribute to the close proximity of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery, which was destroyed in an explosion in June 2019 and closed shortly afterward.
Now, at a recent gathering of her neighbors and environmentalists in a local park to celebrate the refinerys closure, the toddler was experiencing an asthma attack. When an inhaler offered no relief, family members rushed her to a nearby hospital where she was treated, released and made a full recovery.
Look at all the damage thats been done, the toddlers grandmother, Sheryl Russell, 45, said of the health ailments that many residents trace to the refinery. And its, like, where do they pay? They need to pay for that.
The closure of the 1,300-acre refinery hereonce the largest on the East Coasthad been cheered as a major victory for those working at the intersection of equity, social justice and environmentalism. Yet in the three years since the refinery closed, the kind of sustained change sought by residents and environmental activists has proved elusive.
(snip)
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04072022/philadelphia-refinery-health-black-residents/
The people who live in some of those impacted areas and who still take the time to vote ARE the BASE of the Democratic party. But many of their neighborhoods have ended up with some of the lowest turnouts recently because they are not "heard" - especially when you have a focus on RURAL areas (like Willow or East Palestine, OH) and the RECENT negative environmental impacts for them and completely dismiss the obvious, in-your-face nightmares of the sustained negative URBAN environmental impacts. Much of that is why a certain segment "fled the cities to live in the suburbs" to leave all that behind - literally and figuratively.
Nar1987
(22 posts)Media outlets that would bash Dems for stuff like this, not anymore.
I hope the John McCain voters of the GOP would help us make these wannabe revolutionaries dispensable.
They'll upgrade their smartphones and gaming PCs on a yearly basis, (manufacturing of which requires drilling , drilling that can't be done without diesel or other hydrocarbons ) , but will refuse to go into further details and think that a 300 character post on Twitter has all the answers.
orthoclad
(2,910 posts)You think the oiligarchs don't know how that works? Ask for 5, settle for 3? That's Neolithic age used-wheel bargaining. Trump learned that in kindergarten.
The ocean tradeoffs are worthless, the oil companies don't even want them. They tried and failed.
When Rs are in power they do whatever they want. Few or no restraints. Law and order be damned.
Now suddenly there are restraints.
This project eclipses the climate parts of the IRA, making it useless.
We have to stand for something, or we stand for nothing. We're out of wiggle room. Physics doesn't bargain.
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)There is no wiggle room but we can all work on preparing to adapt for the calamity that is coming
orthoclad
(2,910 posts)there is plenty we can do yet to save maybe a billion lives.
We're extremely rich as a nation. Most of the world does not have our resources to "adapt" very well. We're going to see, in our lifetimes, massive refugee waves, which have already started. There will be violent conflict. Already, peer-reviewed research (in Nature iirc) lays the blame for the Syria mess on climate change. A massive drought caused rural people to abandon farms and move to the cities, destabilizing the country. Not the only factor, but a major trigger factor in that grinding misery.
When the megadeaths start, the Global South will be getting very angry. It doesn't take a crystal ball to foresee trouble. This is why the oiligarchs are buying up bunkers in New Zealand and holding seminars on how to control their security forces. They know how bad it's likely to get -- because they're causing it. Exxon scientists knew 40 years ago; their predictions of global heating were very accurate.
Everything we can do to slow the rate of change will save lives. But we have wasted our opportunities to move gradually over the last four decades, the symbolic turning point being when Reagan took down the White House solar panels that Carter put up. Every decade since then our options have narrowed and diminished.
The idea of abandoning the effort to stop using fossil and just "adapting" can serve the corporate goal of "burn everything while we can". We'll need to work with the rest of the world, not hide in a bunker.
Yes, we need to adapt, but we need time to flatten the curve, like we did for covid. And new long-term fossil projects will NOT flatten the curve.
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)We are already experiencing climate change and some scientists think the we are near it already past the point of no return.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the US has been on a slow decline since 1990. However, that has been wiped out many times over by the ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions from China and India. China now produces twice as much greenhouse gas as the US. India is in 3rd place but it won't be long before they pass the UD.
Not opening Willow will have no impact on flattening the curve nor will opening the land to oil production speed up the arrival . It's too inconsequential to matter in the grand scheme of things.
orthoclad
(2,910 posts)aka adopting a lifestyle. The corporations try to offload responsibility onto individuals. An example is plastic recycling. Very little plastic gets recycled, but petrochemical companies use "recycling" as a pass to fill the world with plastic by framing it as "consumer choice".
Can you imagine the response of other countries being asked to reduce emissions now after Willow? They'll laugh.
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)They would already be found if they wanted to. I'm talking about China, India, Russia and most third world countries.
The battle was list years ago and what people ought to be doing now is preparing to adapt to the brave new world that's coming Very few are though and that's an indication of how most don't take climate change seriously. They may say they do but their lack of action tells the truth
hunter
(38,311 posts)The U.S.A. is a wealthy nation, first built on slavery, and then by fossil fuels.
Those greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are ours. We need to own them.
My wife and I, by some planning and greater good fortune, have managed to avoid the automobile commuter lifestyle for most of out adult lives.
But I will confess that in my misspent youth I burned a lot of gasoline on the road between San Onofre an Humboldt Bay protesting nuclear power.
And more widely, other equally frivolous pursuits across the Southwestern U.S.A and Northwestern Mexico.
In 1980 I was regularly making about eight dollars an hour and more for overtime. My rent was less than a hundred bucks a month, rough places, but I didn't care, I was a rough guy. Sometimes I could pay the rent with a day's work. Gasoline was almost free.
I'll never repay that environmental debt.
All I can do now is talk.
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)As the Great Lakes region where I live is expected to be a mecca for climate change refugees, I'm doing what I can to help the kids and grandkids.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)taped his anti-Biden rant inside of an SUV.
Unsurprisingly, we were all treated to his hypocritical anti-Democratic idiocy right here on DU.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)Have a protest. Boycott the POTUS and the Democratic party. That should get the climate cleaned up in record speed!
mcar
(42,307 posts)tritsofme
(17,376 posts)You seem to think there is a magic wand somewhere that Biden just declined to use.
That is a fantasy world.
W_HAMILTON
(7,864 posts)The root of progressive is PROGRESS.
And Biden is making more progress on climate change than any other president in HISTORY, and this one act will not change that and it certainly does not "eclipse" ( ) all the work that his administration has put towards pro-environmental policies.
orthoclad
(2,910 posts)gets Hitler to agree to only take half of Poland.
As a hypothetical: does "bad faith" have anything to do with explicit, unambiguous campaign promises?
Imagine this: what would motivate the roughly 50% of non-voting US citizens to vote D? They're not going to go R, all of those votes are already firmly in the Kampf. Those votes are up for grabs. What would motivate them?
Cha
(297,167 posts)"excuses"".
Either it is understood or not.
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)He got left with a mess...
I wish people think the big picture .
Lancero
(3,003 posts)I don't know how effective a admission of weakness is when his opponents want to paint him as weak, ineffectual, and feeble.
The media will certainly play up how he lied about no more drilling, but ironically their desire to spread a lie will likely cost us fewer voters than the truth would.
crickets
(25,963 posts)As usual, when stuck with a unpleasant situation handed down by a predecessor, President Biden still finds a way to make it better. Good job, Joe.
Now if the media would just step up a bit...
Cha
(297,167 posts)don't know the Whole Picture have Threatened to NOT vote FOR PJB over This.
ripcord
(5,369 posts)mcar
(42,307 posts)People on this board yesterday were saying they knew people who wouldn't vote to re-elect Biden because of this - and some were applauding it.
IMHO, it always makes sense to wait to get the entire story before going hair on fire.
Wounded Bear
(58,648 posts)it sounds like his hands were fairly well tied on this, long before he came into office.
Cha
(297,167 posts)Geeze.. haven't we seen Enough of this Shit?
betsuni
(25,472 posts)give the benefit of the doubt, always assume worst case scenario. Light your hair on fire, run around crying to everybody that Daddy broke his promise, threaten to run away from home forever and forever. Next day find out the facts and pretend like the whole thing didn't happen. Until next time. Every single time.
progressoid
(49,988 posts)NickB79
(19,233 posts)Torchlight
(3,330 posts)Disappointment? Sure. Concern? Absolutely. Anxious? Sure, have at it (I am).
But outrage? It's not so much outrage as (what I consider to be) bad-faith actors dramatically overplaying a pair of two's by ignoring relevant information that doesn't soothe a convenient, protein-free, pre-made conclusion (just add two tablespoons of sanctimony to taste).
yardwork
(61,599 posts)Cha
(297,167 posts)this on to those who aren't aware of it till I'm Exhausted!
TY for Shining the Light
Hekate
(90,658 posts)Cha
(297,167 posts)I've read your posts, too.. Thank you!
moondust
(19,974 posts)Colbert asked her about Willow last night and she did not mention this. Instead she tried to focus on the good things they've done for the environment.
Cha
(297,167 posts)Hekate
(90,658 posts)
between now and the 2024 election. No malarkey.
Yesterdays DU fights really got to me. I mean that, Jack.
peggysue2
(10,828 posts)When your hands are tied and leverage nil, a leader will attempt to mitigate the damage making it less bad. If accurate, a 40% reduction is a case in point!