NASA’s James Hansen: tar sands is the “dirtiest of fuels” and “game over for the climate” James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, made another appeal this week to end our reliance on tar sands oil or it will be “game over” for the climate. If we continue to approve pipelines bringing in the dirtiest of fuels like tar sands he said, “there is no hope of keeping carbon concentrations below 500 p.p.m. — a level that would, as earth’s history shows, leave our children a climate system that is out of their control.” The production of tar sands oil has three times the global warming emissions as conventional oil production. Hansen rightly cautions that turning to these “dirtiest of fuels” for our gas tanks derails efforts to reduce our dependency on climate-changing fossil fuels. Read more.
“Under attack from the left, White House defends Obama’s environmental record” - Houston Chronicle
Let’s be clear: Obama approved the Keystone XL oil pipeline, allowed arctic oil drilling in Alaska, increased natural gas fracking, doubled-down on deepwater ocean oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, approved several foreign mining operations on public lands, ditched the UN’s climate conference, and, one of my favorites that I’ve blogged extensively about - subverted the ESA to allow hunting wolves.
Obama’s legacy on the environment will be apocalyptic.
“The company planning the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline has proposed a new route through Nebraska that avoids the state’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.
Calgary-based TransCanada submitted a series of proposed routes — including a preferred alternative — late Wednesday to Nebraska environmental officials.
The state has become a focus of concern for the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. President Barack Obama blocked the pipeline earlier this year, citing uncertainty over the Nebraska route, which would travel above an aquifer that provides water to eight states.”
We have added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the earth and then some. So we are drilling all over the place, right now. That’s not the challenge. That’s not the problem.
Obama speech in Cushing, Oklahoma March 22, 2012. Video here.
“From New York to Philadelphia, refineries that turn oil into gasoline have been idled or shut permanently because their owners are losing money on them. Sunoco Inc. is expected to close the region’s largest refinery in July, taking another 335,000 barrels per day in production capacity off the market.
The East Coast refineries are getting squeezed by the soaring cost of crude oil, the major component in gasoline. The cost of oil has jumped in the past year due to global economic growth and rising tensions between Western nations and Iran, a major producer. Refineries haven’t been able to increase their own prices enough to compensate.
TransCanada has claimed that Keystone XL will
be the “safest pipeline in the U.S.” However, since
the initial Keystone 1 pipeline began operation in
June 2010, at least 35 spills have occurred in the
U.S. and Canada. In its first year, the U.S. section
of Keystone 1 had a spill frequency 100 times
greater than TransCanada forecast. In June 2011,
federal pipeline safety regulators determined
Keystone 1 was a hazard to public safety and
issued TransCanada a Corrective Action Order.
“In a new report, The impact of Tar Sands Pipeline Spills on Employment and the Economy, the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University has concluded that spills from pipelines of tar sands-derived oil are three times as likely to occur per mile as spills of crude oil. And when they do, the researchers say, the damage is greater, the public health risks larger, the clean-up harder, the costs higher. Not exactly good news for the people, water resources and ecology of the six states that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline will cross if it is approved.”
Lakota Indians Block ‘Keystone XL Pipeline’ Trucks in Six-Hour Standoff
“Five Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota were arrested Monday after attempting to block two tarsands pipeline trucks from entering their land. According to the Lakota activist the six-hour standoff started when the trucks refused to turn around claiming they had “corporate rights that supersede any other law.”
Tell your senators to keep anti-environment amendments off the transportation bill.
Senate Republicans are trying to use a transportation bill designed to fund highways and public transit as a vehicle to push through an anti-environment agenda. Tell your senators not to hold the transportation bill hostage to unrelated anti-environment amendments.
The White House issued a statement supportive of TransCanada’s latest plan, saying, “The President welcomes today’s news that TransCanada plans to build a pipeline to bring crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico.”
“As the President made clear in January, we support the company’s interest in proceeding with this project, which will help address the bottleneck of oil in Cushing that has resulted in large part from increased domestic oil production, currently at an eight year high,” the White House said. “Moving oil from the Midwest to the world-class, state-of-the-art refineries on the Gulf Coast will modernize our infrastructure, create jobs, and encourage American energy production.”
The White House said, “We look forward to working with TransCanada to ensure that it is built in a safe, responsible and timely manner, and we commit to take every step possible to expedite the necessary federal permits.”
Update: To be clear, the pipeline will be built in sections, starting in Oklahoma down to the GoM. It is not clear when the Canada/US section will begin being built, though it seems nearly all the land is secured to begin the northern section. I suspect Nebraska is the only hurdle.
Medina and her fellow tea partyers oppose TransCanada’s use of eminent domain to claim private land for pipeline use, and they say Texas laws don’t protect landowners and city councils in the event of a spill.
Eminent domain has been used for years by government agencies and private companies to build roads and pipelines, as well as parks and environmental protection areas. But a recent Texas Supreme Court decision suggested that landowners may have the legal grounds to challenge companies that use eminent domain.
Essentially, republicans support the government using eminent domain to take private property and hand it over to a foreign oil company. In a surprising alliance, some Tea Party factions joined enviros to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline via an anti-eminent domain argument.
A Media Matters analysis shows that as a whole, news coverage of the Keystone XL pipeline between August 1 and December 31 favored pipeline proponents. Although the project would create few long-term employment opportunities, the pipeline was primarily portrayed as a jobs issue. Pro-pipeline voices were quoted more frequently than those opposed, and dubious industry estimates of job creation were uncritically repeated 5 times more often than they were questioned. Meanwhile, concerns about the State Department’s review process and potential environmental consequences were often overlooked, particularly by television outlets.
What is "Climate Adaptation"? Adaptation is not about carbon, greenhouse gases, or energy. It's about lowering risks from environmental impacts caused by climate change. Adaptation is the sweet-spot between environmental policy, climate science, land-use, and engineering. When the sea-level rises, we build wall or move the buildings. We build levees to protect homes from floods; manage forests to prevent wildfires and droughts; build smarter, stronger infrastructure for long-term economic resilience; and prepare public health officials for increased rates of pests and diseases from rising temperatures. So, adaptation is less Al Gore "save the planet" and more Bob the Builder "fix all the things!".
