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Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts) Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:01 PM Mar 2017

Trump administration to approve Keystone XL pipeline

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- The State Department is set to approve the Keystone XL pipeline by Monday, a senior US official said, reversing the Obama administration's decision to block the controversial oil pipeline.

Tom Shannon, the State Department's undersecretary for political affairs, will sign TransCanada's permit, making good on one of President Donald Trump's campaign promises. It will greenlight the Canadian company to complete construction on the pipeline that will funnel crude oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast, the senior US official said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, recused himself from the case earlier this month. Trump in January signed an executive order to advance the pipeline's approval.

The approval follows years of intense debate over the pipeline amid hefty opposition from environmental groups, who argued that the pipeline supports the extraction of crude oil from oil sands, which pumps about 17% more greenhouse gases than standard crude oil extraction. Environmentalists also opposed the pipeline because it would cut across the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest underground deposits of fresh water.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline-trump-approve/

Stand up and take a bow, Green Party... This wouldn't have become a reality without your tireless efforts!

6 replies

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Trump administration to approve Keystone XL pipeline (Original Post) Blue_Tires Mar 2017 OP

I worked so hard against this MFM008 Mar 2017 #1

For the life of me, I can't understand the economics of this packman Mar 2017 #2

They use trains now, which are more dangerous than pipelines Recursion Mar 2017 #4

Eh. Frankly Keystone XL was one of the biggest own-goals of US environmentalism ever Recursion Mar 2017 #3

With Russian Steel aeromanKC Mar 2017 #5

Just the latest example in the mounting pile of dirt already on our collective grave... Moostache Mar 2017 #6

MFM008

(19,818 posts)

1. I worked so hard against this

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:03 PM

Mar 2017

writing, calling, petitions.
Damn him to hell.

packman

(16,296 posts)

2. For the life of me, I can't understand the economics of this

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:05 PM

Mar 2017

Doesn't Canada have its own refineries closer than piping it - God knows how many miles - to an American refinery on the Gulf coast?

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

4. They use trains now, which are more dangerous than pipelines

Reply to packman (Reply #2)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:17 PM

Mar 2017

I'm down with opposing DAPL because of the tribal sovereignty issue, but honestly opposing Keystone XL (and pipelines in general) just strikes me as bad policy. Trains are more dangerous.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

3. Eh. Frankly Keystone XL was one of the biggest own-goals of US environmentalism ever

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:17 PM

Mar 2017

Now the oil is going out on trains, which don't just leak but also explode and obliterate entire towns.

aeromanKC

(3,327 posts)

5. With Russian Steel

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:35 PM

Mar 2017

Make Russia Great Again!! MRGA!!

Moostache

(9,897 posts)

6. Just the latest example in the mounting pile of dirt already on our collective grave...

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu Mar 23, 2017, 04:46 PM

Mar 2017

Its been game over on climate change since we plowed through 350 ppm YEARS ago...the issue is most people still fail to recognize the situation for what it is - an additive, exponential problem.

The CO2 already released has passed critical thresholds that were required to avoid certain feedback loops (Methane Clathrates being the final nail in the coffin). CO2 in the atmosphere DOES NOT DISSIPATE RAPIDLY...what's there now, will still be there when nearly every living human today has died. That means from here on out, we move past the "dangerous" to the truly "catastrophic". Poor people are doomed to die by the BILLIONS in the next couple decades and as things get worse and land that was once arable become desert and water that was once abundant becomes scarce, we are going to see wars the likes of which have never been fought - territorial fights for survival have been with us since the species first left the savannas of Africa ... but those fights NEVER involved industrialized killing weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

There will be nuclear exchanges.
There will be mass genocides across Asia and Africa and parts of Europe and South America.
There will be hideous scapegoating and mass killings in other parts of Europe and North America.
There will be mass extinctions of land and sea biota.

Eventually, there will be an end to society and to humanity in its currently recognizable form, but only after the worst dystopian visions of the future are realized across the globe and some truly horrific acts are committed.

It's game over, man, game over.

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