Keystone XL: pipeline to Obama's re-election

seafan

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Thu Nov-10-11 12:11 AM
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Keystone XL: pipeline to Obama's re-election

Amy Goodman writes in the UK Guardian:

9 November 2011

More than 10,000 people gathered in Washington, DC last Sunday with a simple goal: encircle the White House. They succeeded, just weeks after 1,253 people were arrested in a series of protests at the same spot. These thousands, as well as those arrested, were unified in their opposition to the planned Keystone XL pipeline, intended to run from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. A broad, international coalition against the pipeline has formed since President Barack Obama took office, and now the deadline for its approval or rejection is at hand.

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The president, until recently, simply hid behind the legal argument that, as the pipeline was coming from Canada, the proper forum for the decision fell with the US Department of State and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That was until a key Clinton insider was exposed as a lobbyist for the company trying to build Keystone XL, TransCanada. The environmental group Friends of the Earth has exposed a series of connections between the Clinton political machine and Keystone XL. Paul Elliott is TransCanada's top lobbyist in Washington on the pipeline. He was a high-level campaign staffer on Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House in 2008, and worked as well on Bill Clinton's campaign in 1996 and Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 2000.

Friends of the Earth (FOE) received emails following a Freedom of Information Act request, documenting exchanges in 2010 between Elliott and Marja Verloop, who FOE describes as a "member of the senior diplomatic staff at the US embassy in Ottawa." Verloop in one email cheers Elliott for obtaining the buy-in on Keystone XL from conservative Democratic Senator Max Baucus, writing: "Go Paul! Baucus support holds clout."

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Adding to the controversy, the New York Times revealed that the State Department chose as an outside group to run the environmental impact study of Keystone XL, a company called Cardno Entrix. It turns out Cardno Entrix listed as one of its major clients none other than TransCanada. The environmental impacts are potentially extreme, with, first, the potential for a catastrophic leak of the toxic tar sands extract, and, second but no less significant, the potential long-term impacts on the global climate. The Obama campaign also drew fire for hiring Broderick Johnson, a lobbyist who formerly represented TransCanada.

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Canada delivering Keystone XL pipes to U.S., CBC, Nov 8, 2011 5:45 PM ET

Pipe destined for TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline is stockpiled near Gascoyne, N.D. (Radio-Canada/CBC)

Is this already a done deal, Mr. President?

"Tar sands oil emits three times as much greenhouse gases as a regular barrel of Canadian crude, because, of course, it is in solid form. So, you have to use all of this energy to get it out and to liquefy it." -----Naomi Klein

Demonstrators carry a giant mock pipeline while calling for the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline during a rally in Washington. (Photograph: Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

Mr. President, to whom will you listen? The corporations leaning heavily on you, or the people outside your window?

We will very soon know the answer.