Peaceful Protest Underway against Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

[AndyH]

Interview with Bill McKibben.

http://video.aol.com/aolvideo/aol-v...on-the-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline/1123756838001

"We need to stop trying to use [China] as an excuse for our bad behavior."

Oil Change International establishes Tar Sands Action Activist Support Fund
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/790/donate_page/tarsandsactivistsupport

Today's arrests include Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal.

Texans protest Tar Sands Pipeline in Tyler; hit road to DC.
http://stoptarsands.org/
http://stoptarsands.org/tour-kicks-tomorrow-tyler-texas
http://www.cbs19.tv/story/15303370/...art=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6173843

 

[AndyH]

Three years ago, I spent a number of weekends going door to door in Virginia urging people to vote for our president. In that campaign I found a sense of pride, a sense of excitement, a sense of energizing virtue.

This weekend, I spent a good chunk of time training to do civil disobedience at President Obama's door in the desperate hope that he'll fulfill the promise that drove me onto the streets for him in 2008. And in so doing I've found the same sense of pride, the same excitement, and the same energizing sense of virtue that I did three years back.

More at the link... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-harrington/obama-xl-tar-sands_b_933451.html

 

[AndyH]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eDBS6-kFzI[/youtube]

 

[AndyH]

Darryl Hannah arrested - one of 595 to date

Tar Sands overview/debate on PBS News Hour

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nO3dBeh5n0[/youtube]

 

[mwalsh]

Daryl was just on MSNBC. Will post a link if and when I have it.

 

[Herm]

I'm sorry but I find such arguments disingenuous...

We are all participating in a toxic lifestyle that is basically killing other (future) humans over a period of time. Strangely enough, at some point in our world, time allows murder.

It does not really matter if the killing takes a long time, most of us will not make it past 80 years of age anyways. Cheer up Andy, gloom will kill you faster.

 

[AndyH]

I'm sorry but I find such arguments disingenuous...

We are all participating in a toxic lifestyle that is basically killing other (future) humans over a period of time. Strangely enough, at some point in our world, time allows murder.

It does not really matter if the killing takes a long time, most of us will not make it past 80 years of age anyways. Cheer up Andy, gloom will kill you faster.

I agree about the negative effects of pessimism and gloom, Herm. The good news is that I'm not in that state of mind.

I do, however, believe that one has a duty as a citizen to stand against those things that have a high probability to move the society backward.

 

[AndyH]

Daryl was just on MSNBC. Will post a link if and when I have it.

Cool! I'll look for it!

 

[mwalsh]

Cool! I'll look for it!

Here you go:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#44342189" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TomT]

Of course, she has been arrested so many times for so many things that it is pretty much a non-event... :lol:

Daryl Hannah was just arrested.

 

[jackal]

I do, however, believe that one has a duty as a citizen to stand against those things that have a high probability to move the society backward.

+1

 

[Herm]

I do, however, believe that one has a duty as a citizen to stand against those things that have a high probability to move the society backward.

I dislike that Canadians will get a shot at selling our oil to the Chinese, but we can always stop that pipeline if a national emergency (gas at $5 a gallon) warrants it.

 

[AndyH]

I do, however, believe that one has a duty as a citizen to stand against those things that have a high probability to move the society backward.

I dislike that Canadians will get a shot at selling our oil to the Chinese, but we can always stop that pipeline if a national emergency (gas at $5 a gallon) warrants it.

Sorry Herm - I'm not sure if you're being real or if this is one of your 'lib baiting' excursions.

It's Canada's oil. TransCanada is registered/incorporated in both the US and Canada.

One article I found reported that the 'contracted' price of the oil is about $85/barrel. I guess it makes sense that this sludge - which has to be cut with a lighter hydrocarbon so it'll flow thru the pipe - wouldn't fetch a premium price on the market.

In other news:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKmUoDyQEU[/youtube]

 

[AndyH]

Round one of the protest is over.

While it apparently didn't get obvious attention from the President, it appears to be working in other areas.

Like this one, for example. A Nebraska rancher is one US landowner fighting back against TransCanada.

http://www.tarsandsaction.org/nebra...ey-general-investigate-transcanada/#more-1365

Dear Mr.Bruning:

As Nebraska citizens we are asking you, our State Attorney General, to launch a full and comprehensive investigation into the trade practices of TransCanada, a foreign corporation that has been seeking easements for a massive tar sands oil pipeline across our state. It is our opinion that TransCanada has used deceptive and perhaps fraudulent tactics trying to convince landowners to grant such easements to their company.

TransCanada does not have a permit from the U.S. government to build this pipeline in our country, and yet they have been aggressively pursuing easements from Nebraska landowners. They have sent letters to many landowners threatening to use eminent domain to acquire these easements if the owners would not agree to accept the terms set forth by TransCanada. These letters have caused a lot of anguish for landowners and their families who don’t want to have this pipeline on their land, but don’t have the resources to fight a multi-billion dollar foreign corporation. Senator Johanns and other legal authorities have expressed the opinion that TransCanada has been operating way out-of-bounds regarding their authority when claiming to possess the powers of eminent domain at this stage of the permitting process. We believe that TransCanada has used these false claims of eminent domain powers to intimidate landowners into signing unwanted easement agreements.

There are also reports of TransCanada misrepresenting facts and using other unethical tactics while negotiating for easements with Nebraska landowners. One of their tactics is telling landowners they had to sign within a certain time limit even though they don’t have a permit to operate this pipeline, and even though TransCanada has continued to negotiate with other landowners long after the supposed deadline. No entity, foreign or otherwise should be allowed to come into our state unabated while subjecting Nebraskans to trade practices that we believe are unethical. It is for this reason that we are asking our state officials to stand up for the citizenry of this state by launching a full and comprehensive investigation into the practices employed by TransCanada while seeking to obtain easements across our state. We find it unacceptable that our state officials have ignored the questionable activities of TransCanada for over three years now, and we are demanding an inquiry into those activities. Mr. Bruning, as the Attorney General of this state, we believe you have an obligation and duty to investigate our concerns, and take whatever actions are needed to protect the interests and well being of all Nebraskans from the threats of foreign corporations.

Signed,
Randy Thompson
Susan Straka Luebbe

 

[AndyH]

You folks had to wake me to some of the problems, didn't you? Here's today's 'fun fact'...

Onshore oil production pipelines are major installations in the petroleum industry, stretching many thousands of kilometres worldwide which also contain flowline additives. The current study focuses on the effect of the flowline additives on soil physico-chemical and biological properties and quantified the impact using resilience and resistance indices. Our findings are the first to highlight deleterious effect of flowline additives by altering some fundamental soil properties, including a complete loss of structural integrity of the impacted soil and a reduced capacity to degrade hydrocarbons mainly due to: (i) phosphonate salts (in scale inhibitor) prevented accumulation of scale in pipelines but also disrupted soil physical structure; (ii) glutaraldehyde (in biocides) which repressed microbial activity in the pipeline and reduced hydrocarbon degradation in soil upon environmental exposure; (iii) the combinatory effects of these two chemicals synergistically caused severe soil structural collapse and disruption of microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons.

Terrestrial exposure of oilfield flowline additives diminish soil structural
stability and remediative microbial function
S.J. George, J. Sherbone, C. Hinz, M. Tibbett*
Centre for Land Rehabilitation, School of Earth and Environment, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Environmental Pollution 159 (2011) 2740e2749
Retrieved 11 Sep 11

Not only is this pipeline going thru some very sensitive parts of the country, and not only is the pipeline going to be buried (harder to find leaks?), and not only are parts of the route expected to be slightly above to 'inside' the water table, but the biocides used to keep the crude flowing will destroy the soil's ability to remediate a spill.

 

[Herm]

I dislike that Canadians will get a shot at selling our oil to the Chinese, but we can always stop that pipeline if a national emergency (gas at $5 a gallon) warrants it.

Sorry Herm - I'm not sure if you're being real or if this is one of your 'lib baiting' excursions.

We could always tax it if needed for local consumption, no one will complaint about a tax on greedy oil companies.

Supposedly the Valero refineries in the US specialize on this sour crude, much of it from Venezuela.

 

[AndyH]

http://www.tarsandsaction.org/

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj6gN8u5flM[/youtube]

Threat of Cornfinger Protest Ousts TransCanada from Cornhusker Football
News — admin September 16, 2011 @ 2:05 pm

Tar Sands Action Goes Nationwide
News — admin September 15, 2011 @ 3:42 pm
This is the week that Tar Sands Action broke out from its White House beachhead–the week this protest went nationwide.Tar Sands Action rallies have greeted President Obama at every single public appearance he’s made since Labor Day weekend – and many more are in the works. The President will likely be making a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline by the end of the year – so we really need to keep up the pressure for the next couple of months.

 

[Fabio]

We could always tax it if needed for local consumption, no one will complaint about a tax on greedy oil companies.

No One? Really? too bad it taxes less that 10 seconds w/ google to find:

http://thewyonews.net/2011/05/18/wyoming-senators-vote-against-ending-oil-company-tax-breaks/
"WASHINGTON – Both of Wyoming’s U.S. senators voted Tuesday against the “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act.”
Wyoming Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso joined the majority of fellow Republicans in voting against ending a number of tax breaks for the five largest oil companies."

Any tax on corporations will be stonewalled by the GOP, especially taxes on Oil companies

(btw. I'm sure I can find D's opposed to it as well)

 

[AndyH]

Michael Klink, a 59-year-old civil engineer from Auburn, Ill., says he reported a litany of problems when he was working as a construction inspector at several pumping stations along the Keystone oil pipeline as it was being built in 2009 -- from sloppy concrete jobs and poorly spaced rebar to bad welds and poor pressure testing.

For his diligence, Klink says, he was harassed, berated and ultimately fired. The experience has left him convinced that a controversial proposal to expand the Keystone pipeline matrix, which would ultimately deliver as much as 1.3 million barrels of crude oil a day from an oil patch in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the Midwest and the Texas Gulf Coast, should never gain federal or public support.

"They didn't care, and that's why you've seen all these leaks already," Klink said. "And I worry that it's only a matter of time before there will be another disaster like the Deepwater Horizon -- only this time it won't be out on the water. It will be right in the middle of the country.

"I'm no treehugger," Klink added. "I just think things ought to be built right, and I have no faith that these guys can do it."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/keystone-pipeline-construction-leaks_n_984662.html

 

[Herm]

1.3 millions of barrels of crude is a substantial amount of the worlds daily supply, that civil engineer was not a team player. You people understand that oil is critical to our survival?.. no oil, no diesel to deliver your groceries to your local store. We have to secure a substitute to oil BEFORE we can consider stopping these pipelines. Yes it may involve more gas fracking.