The foreign oil firm TransCanada has filed a lawsuit against the US government under NAFTA rules, seeking $15 billion in compensation for the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline project. To put that in plain language, a foreign corporation is suing the US government for $15 billion (in tax money) because the US government has
(BREAKING–Reposted from our sister site, CleanTechnica) We’ve thought for a while that the US had more leadership to contribute to the world climate process, so today’s news (still on the gossip vine at present) that President Obama has a $3 billion pledge in his pocket for the Global Climate Fund is not a total surprise.
Thanks to electronic communication—a force we usually consider an ally—humans have come to live under a 24/7 barrage of misinformation. For those of us on the progressive side of things, climate denialism on talk shows, sermons, and facebook posts can arouse instant indignation, even ire—but we don’t always get around to refuting the fallacies. (Above
Laying a pipeline across agricultural land (photo: eponline.com). Friday afternoon, and officials at the State Department are probably breathing a huge sigh of relief. The official public comment period on the northern extension of the $5.4 billion Keystone XL pipeline expired today. And the unofficial public comment that’s making the news is today’s release of
At about 1:15 Saturday morning, a 72-freightcar train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale development, bound for Irving Oil’s plant in Saint John, New Brunswick, slipped its brakes in the eastern Quebec town of Nantes. The train’s only human passenger — the engineer — had checked into a nearby hotel. Driverless and continually
One of our great writers, Don Lieber, has created a petition on MoveOn.org targeted at Obama that I thought was worth quickly passing along. It’s a Father’s Day petition pushing Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Here’s the petition statement: Dear President Obama, Father’s Day represents a celebration of our cherished obligation
Public opposition to the Keystone “Tar Sands” Pipeline continues to increase, with protests against ‘the dirtiest fuel on the planet‘ taking new and increasingly organized public forms of civil disobedience in the United States and around the world. Last week, the “National Week of Action Against Tar Sands Profiteers” resulted in over 50 protest actions against
Four days before President Obama promised, during his second inauguration address, to combat climate change, officials at the US State Department received a new report by scientists which details how a particular byproduct of the Keystone XL pipeline — “Petroleum Coke” — renders the project even more dangerous to the climate than previously estimated. The
Protests against the Keystone Pipeline — and other new fossil fuel pipelines (i.e., Enbridge) — continue across North America and are increasing in scope. From Canada to the southern United States, people are organizing a variety of protests, locally and on a nationwide basis. Among the more dramatic of these is the ongoing “Tar
Below is a good video from the folks at LUSH that I recently received on email about the wonders the Enbridge pipeline (think: ‘Keystone XL but only in Canada’) will bring to Canada. Included in the email was this text: “We’re sure you are aware of the Keystone XL debate in the US, but
The Keystone XL is still clinging for life in the U.S. Senate. Here’s a note from 350.org: It’s crunch time: the US Senate will be voting on Keystone XL very soon, as early as this week. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated that he will allow a vote on an amendment to approve the pipeline during
Say what? I thought Obama rejected that thing?! He did, sort of…. The permit was refused since adequate time was not given to conducting an environmental review. However, the administration just gave the go-ahead for the company to start work on the southern portion of what could be that project, a portion facing less controversy.
Democrats Stand Up to House GOP Senate Democrats have stood up to the constant assault on the environment a bit and told the House GOP to “stop polluting [a] middle-class tax bill with poison pills,” as Brad Johnson of Think Progress writes. “Instead of finding commonsense solutions, the Republicans are talking about things that
350.org uploaded over a dozen photos of activists delivering over 800,000 petitions against the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline to Congress, petitions which were gathered in 24 hours! Here’s the slideshow of that delivery, followed by text from 350.org: “On Tuesday, February 14, representatives from a coalition of over 30 environmental and progressive groups
Well, actually, the day before Valentine’s Day. 350.org and others were working to get half a million people, within 24 hours, to sign a petition to their Senators telling them to reject the sneaky effort to revive Keystone XL pipeline. The effort started yesterday at noon, but the target was reached in less than
You would think the Keystone XL oil pipeline discussion is over—Republican politicians tried to force Obama to push it through without any environmental review and Obama stood up to the nonsense and rejected the permit proposal. However, now, these Republican leaders are trying to push it through via completely unrelated bills, trying to skirt the
New Yorkers concerned about new efforts by GOP leaders in the US Senate to ‘fastrack’ approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline will march on Valentine’s Day to the Manhattan office of Sen. Chuck Schumer to urge him not to cave in to Oil Industry interests. “Chuck Schumer should know we are watching him” said
1. Exxon Rakin’ in the Dough, Paying Super Low Taxes ExxonMobil’s end-of-year financial summary shows that it made a whopping $41.1 billion in 2011 (35% more than in 2010) but only paid a 17.6% tax rate. Who lets them get away with such robbery? Congress obviously does. But so do we, if we don’t hold
http://youtu.be/u7n5FokvQeU “‘People Power’ behind him” is what made it possible for President Obama to veto the Keystone XL pipeline, according to Bills Moyers on Bill Maher’s HBO talkshow. And this backs up what we here on Planetsave have been promoting for a long time now — direct action and people power. Bill Moyers is one
Well, of course, Bill didn’t do it single-handedly. However, if there’s one person to credit with getting thousands of people to submit to arrest in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, and getting over 10,000 to circle the White House in protest, and hundreds of thousands to oppose the project online, it’s Bill McKibben.
This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in awhile. Of course, it’s also sad as sh**. The peak, at 48 seconds in is sooooooo insane (won’t spoil it for you). Heck, even 2% of that number is insane! And the end is classic: a quote from the company that would actually develop
OK, we all love top 10 lists, right? Obama’s decision to shut down the permitting process for the Keystone XL oil pipeline was a good one… I’m sorry, a great one! Here are 10 top reasons why: 10. The pipeline has received extremely little actual government oversight. “[T]he Department of State allowed a contractor with
Editor’s Note: yes, I just posted a victory story on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, following Obama’s announcement rejecting it. However, as Bill McKibben of 350.org points out below (and we could all expect), some in Congress thing they can force the pipeline down America’s neck still. Here’s more from Bill, and some key action
You have to love it when a politician does what he’s promised to do, especially when that thing is for the public good. Obama has done that today by going ahead and rejecting the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The pipeline, at best, would have created a few thousand jobs, and, at worst, would have
Here’s an email Bill McKibben sent to US 350.org supporters who have been working on Keystone XL last night: Just in case you thought there was anything subtle about the Keystone battle, you need to hear what the president of the American Petroleum Institute — the oil industry’s #1 front group — said yesterday:
2011 was a big year for the environment, in some good ways and some bad ways. Here’s a quick run-down of the top 10 stories of the year, in my opinion: 1. Tremendously high levels of carbon emissions continue to warm Earth. Despite efforts to switch to clean energy, increase energy efficiency, and use more
by Bill McKibben We’ve been doing our best the last couple of weeks to keep you up-to-date on the machinations about Keystone in Washington. “Our best” in this case has only been so-so, because the whole process has been incredibly confusing. But it seems to be getting a little clearer now. Today the House agreed
Studies NOT conducted by TransCanada, the company wanting to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline Republicans in Congress have pushed through for expedited review with a payroll tax cut bill, show that the climate-change-disaster-of-a-project would create between 5000 and 6000 temporary jobs (State Department Study) or only 500 to 1,400 temporary jobs but that the long-term result
Below is an important email and action opportunity I just received earlier today from Bill McKibben and Tar Sands Action. First, though, a quick note from Dr Joe Romm of Climate Progress: Obama and the Dems caved to the GOP, agreeing to a decision in 60 days on Keystone in return for a 2-month
The House GOP, despite saying last year that “riders” were an underhanded way of pushing political issues, and saying it wouldn’t use them, is sticking very unpopular anti-environment riders into a highly-wanted, bi-partisan tax cut bill. Scott Slesinger, legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, issued the following statement in response: “Leaders of both parties
One of the big arguments for the Keystone XL pipeline, which will now be approved no earlier than 2013, if at all, is that it will create a lot of U.S. jobs. Well, to put the matter bluntly, that is horse s***. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently compiled a handful of points
Well, I don’t think there’s much doubt about this: the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline that would be “the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet” or “game over” for the climate according to some climate scientists who spoke out against it was squashed (temporarily) by a groundswell of citizen action. After
The White House, and the U.S., and the world, saw the largest Keystone XL Tar Sands pipeline protest to date yesterday. Over 10,000 people (over 12,000 by some estimates) came out in opposition to the pipeline. The protesters were largely Obama supporters and came out decked in Obama gear to show him that they
The civic momentum to stop the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline continues to grow. Today, thousands of people got out and encircled the White House to show their solidarity in opposition to this train-wreck of a project. If you don’t know much about the the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline and are just tuning in
The Obama campaign recently hired Broderick Johnson, a former lobbyist for the Keystone XL pipeline, as a new senior advisor to the president’s 2012 re-election campaign. Records show that Broderick Johnson lobbied Congress on the Keystone XL pipeline while working for Bryan Cave LLP, a top lobby firm in Washington, DC. During the fourth quarter
7 more good activism stories of the week we haven’t covered yet:
Fossil fuel companies are using the same tactics as the tobacco industry once used to keep from losing their massive, incomprehensible profits — lies, lies, and more lies. Their lying is even going beyond words and statistics and are whole processes. This is known as astroturfing. For example, what seems to be an oil industry employee and Republican, as the title says, is creating tons of fake twitter accounts (something too easy to do) to make it look like there’s broad citizen support for the horrible tar sands oil pipeline project, the Keystone XL pipeline, that is on the line right now.
