The Keystone XL pipeline should be an open-and-shut case from a climate perspective, the criterion President Obama has set for judging it. In a speech in June, he said he would approve the pipeline “only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” By that standard, this should be an easy, data-driven call to make. It hasn’t been. And the core reason the Keystone saga has dragged on inconclusively for years has little to do with the well-aired talking points both sides of the debate trot out on cable TV talk shows.
Los Angeles, CA - The Los Angeles City Council was unanimous in its support of a motion for a moratorium on fracking this morning after over 100 presentations were made by its residents who reported complaints ranging from nose bleeds, to headaches, to cracks in their homes associated with when fracking began in the city.
A State Department contractor who prepared an environmental analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline did not violate conflict-of-interest rules, even though the contractor had previously done work for TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, a State Department inspector general’s investigation concluded on Wednesday.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a victory for opponents who have tried to block the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries.
Hundreds of college students are expected to risk arrest on March 2 outside the White House to pressure President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline project. Organizers of "XL Dissent" say they hope to stage one of the largest acts of civil disobedience against the pipeline to date. The Keystone XL would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
In a growing shift that is likely to upset many environmentalists about the future of the tar sands, political groups are increasingly signalling their support for the sector if it means Alberta's oil can be refined into gasoline in Canada, rather than for raw bitumen export.
An internationally renowned environmental economist is criticizing the federal government for failing to consider climate change while reviewing pipeline applications, such as Kinder Morgan’s bid to twin the Trans Mountain line. SFU professor and climate change expert Mark Jaccard blasted the government’s absence of consideration for climate change, despite Canada’s promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help stop the planet’s temperature from rising by two degrees Celsius.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 120-car Norfolk Southern Corp train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards.
A number of environmental and First Nations groups have said they want to know whether or not the RCMP has placed informants or undercover agents inside Idle No More and other anti-pipeline movements. “We think that people ought to be able to gather together, to protest, to be engaged in community groups, and to be engaged in political groups, without having to worry that the person next to them might be providing information to the RCMP,” said Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
Here we go again. With President Obama on the cusp of a decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, on March 2, hundreds of students and young people are expected to risk arrest in an act of civil disobedience at the White House to pressure President Obama to reject the project. The sit-in is expected to be the largest act of civil disobedience by young people in the recent history of the environmental movement and it will be led by just the demographic that helped propel Obama to the presidency.
