When 10000 barrels of crude oil roll down your street

[rstrong]

Keystone XL is bad for public health and must be rejected

Keep in mind that the oil is being produced and used regardless. For Americans, it's a matter of whether the oil gets shipped to Texas by a new pipeline, or by far more dangerous rail. (Yes, you argued against this idea a year or so ago, but that's exactly what has happened.)

Granted, there wouldn't be quite as much oil shipped south, because being dependent on rail makes another pipeline to the left coast to serve China look more attractive.

For Canadians it's also a national security issue. If America gets too dependent on Canadian oil it becomes a national security issue for the US. And THAT makes it a national security issue for Canada; we've seen what the US does in the name of national security.

And so we've brought in a lot of investment in our oil fields from the EU, China and elsewhere. The new free trade agreement with the EU, signed but not yet ratified, has side deals in effect for EU oil workers to work in Canada. There's a big push for another pipeline from Alberta to the left coast to serve China, and to refineries in eastern Canada.

Sending the oil to China and elsewhere would also cut back on the roughly $1,200 per Canadian per year that we subsidize U.S. energy consumers.

[rstrong]

Still, I wonder why the Rockefellers have organized so much Keystone opposition. They've never seemed the left-wing treehugger type.

[rstrong]

When 10000 barrels of crude oil roll down your street

Stop, drop and roll?

[billy.pilgrim]

From Bundy To The Keystone XL: Where's The Property Rights Outrage Here?

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has become something of a folk hero among the anti-government, pro-property rights crowd, thanks to his recent standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management. Some landowners in the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline want to know where the support for them has been, since their private property will actually be taken away without their approval...

Federal control of land has also flared lately in Texas, where state Attorney General Greg Abbott recently accused BLM of "hijacking private property rights" in updating management plans for land bordering Oklahoma.

But many of the pundits and talking heads who rallied behind Bundy (at least before his racist outburst) are also advocating the Keystone XL pipeline -- despite the ranchers and farmers up in arms about pipeline owner TransCanada Corp. trying to force its way onto their land...

Jane Kleeb, director of anti-pipeline group Bold Nebraska, said that it's hypocritical that right-wing groups have jumped to Bundy's defense while advocating for the pipeline. "These farmers and ranchers are facing a real property rights issues, versus Bundy who just didn’t pay" fees, said Kleeb. "If this was a green energy project, or wind project, Republicans would have been outraged from the beginning."

While TransCanada has not used eminent domain in Nebraska, she said the threat of it forced many landowners to agree to settlements. "Farmers and ranchers were terrified," Kleeb said...

Good point.

and more proof that the right could care less about their supposed convictions

kinda like the 4 right wing supremes (and uncle tom) abandoning their states rights beliefs to force florida to stop the legal florida recount so they could appoint lil bush

[Boatrocker]

Most ethics and morals are situational, and the more someone pounds their chest and crows about their "values" the more likely they are hypocritical sacks of shit.

[Mr.B]

Montana Governor Declares State Of Emergency After River Oil Spill

"for every (well intended) action there is an equal and opposite reaction...."
accidents happen......it's a way of life.

[Boatrocker]

Really, it was never actually "missing," in spite of the bullshit claims in the RWNJ media. It has long been known that oil settles to the sea floor; it's the concentration and locations that matter.

[Vrede too]

Clinton on Keystone XL: 'I Oppose it'

She probably thinks that Americans will forget that her State Dept. supported it . . . and she's probably correct.

[rstrong]

She probably thinks that Americans will forget that her State Dept. supported it . . . and she's probably correct.

Well c'mon. Oil was double the price back then.

[Vrede too]

[rstrong]

BTW, Alberta, AKA Texas North, which is where the oil is coming from, recently surprised the hell out of the rest of Canada and elected a (left wing) NDP government. Which helps explain:

CBC News: Alberta Premier says she and Clinton on same side of Keystone XL debate

[Vrede too]

Wow, Alberta has been led by cons of one sort or another since at least 1935 (I'm not sure what to make of the United Farmers Party before that). What's your take on the change to the Alberta New Democratic Party in May?

[rstrong]

(I'm not sure what to make of the United Farmers Party before that).

Rural left. The left-wing politics of the NDP combined with the left-wing big-Christian-government policies of what Americans call the religious "right."

What's your take on the change to the Alberta New Democratic Party in May?

I haven't followed Alberta politics much, but the feeling I get it that it's sort of a "perfect storm" of things:

First, Alberta was the heart-land for our Tea Party - the folks who broke off from the old Conservative Party to create the Reform Party. This split the vote on the right, wiping out the old Conservative Party. The Reform Party absorbed the old Conservative Party and renamed itself the Conservative Party of Canada.... while retaining the old Alberta-based Reform Party leadership.

Now they're running the country. And so a lot of the province's best and brightest conservatives have jumped into federal politics. Which didn't help the provincial party.

Second, any party gets stale fast once in office. Especially in the internet age. And the conservatives weren't just in power for a long time in Alberta; now Alberta conservatives were in power for almost a decade at the federal level.

Third, the Alberta oil boom brought in a LOT of workers from the east. *Especially* from the far more left-wing Newfoundland. It's now often said that the true capital of Newfoundland is Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Fourth, Alberta's conservative government was unlike American Republicans in an important way: They weren't hard-core socialist when it came to corporations and the rich. They didn't tax the oil industry much, but neither did they tax everyone else to build infrastructure for the oil companies and all the people the oil companies were bringing into the north. People blamed that lack of infrastructure - including health-care services - on the government.

Fifth, the oil boom is going bust thanks to low oil prices. The writing was on the wall for the pipelines. Some oil sands projects are shutting down for now. The oil-boom-driven housing bubble is about to pop. Those who bought houses and hastily-built condos near the oil sands, will be unable to sell them and return to Newfoundland. The government will get the blame.

If the Conservatives want many more decades in office uninterrupted, best to let the NDP be the fall-guy next four years.

[Vrede too]

KXL is dead for now.

[rstrong]

CBC: G20 countries spend $450B a year on fossil fuel subsidies

All G20 countries financially support their petroleum industries to some extent. Subsidies include everything from tax breaks for exploration and purchasing equipment, to royalty breaks and direct spending on projects from government-owned banks and financial institutions.

[Vrede too]

Then, there are the indirect subsidies - air, land & water pollution, water & viewshed loss, AGW and all of its consequences, our health, support for dictators, trade deficits, oil wars, lost alternative opportunities, etc.

[Vrede too]

Action page on this exact topic:

[Vrede too]

Keystone Pipeline leaks nearly 17,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota

[rstrong]

Yup.

Wikipedia: List of pipeline accidents in the United States in the 21st century: 2016

- On January 2, 3 people were injured, and numerous homes were damaged in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when a leak gas from a gas main entered a home. Preliminary results indicate that a leak occurred at a weld seam on the gas main.

- On January 9, a 30-inch Atmos Energy gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned in Robertson County, Texas. 4 families nearby were evacuated.

- On January 11, butane leaking from a pipeline storage facility, in Conway, Kansas, forced a closure of a nearby highway for a time.

- On February 14, a 6-inch crude oil pipeline broke near Rozet, Wyoming, spilling about 1,500 gallons of crude oil into a creek bed.

- On February 16, an explosion and fire occurred at a gas plant in Frio County, Texas. 2 employees at the plant were injured.

- On February 24, a 10 inch propane pipeline exploded and burned near Sulphur, Louisiana. There were no injuries.

- On March 11, about 30,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from a leaking plug on a pipeline, at a tank farm in Sioux City, Iowa.

- On March 22, about 4,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from a 6-inch petroleum products pipeline in Harwood, North Dakota.

- On April 2, the TransCanada Corporation Keystone Pipeline was observed by a local resident to be be leaking, near freeman, South Dakota. The cause and amount of tar sands dilbit were not immediately known.

Not quite a weekly occurrence, but more than bi-weekly.

[O Really]

Yes, but Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Iowa... Do we really care?

Well, I thought I was just posting a snarky remark with a little humour, but then I thought about it. Who supports the Pipeline? Who votes for oily politicians? Who supports less regulation on everything, including oil field and pipeline safety? Oh yeah, it's the ones who have the barrels of crude oil running down their street.