The Keystone XL oil pipeline distraction
You’re an environmental activist, and President Obama has finally catapulted global warming into the top tier of national issues after four years of near-silence. What do you do?
In Obama’s second inaugural address, perhaps the most prominent speech of his second term, the president promised to “respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” More specifics are certain to come soon in the State of the Union Address. Now, then, is your time to press for big, creative policy that will demonstrate to other nations that America will cut its carbon dioxide emissions, if they will, too.
You could also declare war over a near-irrelevant side issue.
Yes, certain environmental groups seem determined to waste more time generating gratuitous and distracting strife over the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Over the last few days, signs advertising a big anti-Keystone XL rally in February have been pasted up all over Washington. Following Obama’s Monday speech, Environment America’s Margie Alt said that the president must first reject the pipeline if he is to make climate change “a central priority.” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune even said that, in the fight against Keystone XL, his storied organization is willing to commit acts of “civil disobedience” despite its ban on such tactics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/01/24/keystone-xl-oil-pipeline-distraction-obama/?hpid=z3
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