environment: corporate irresponsibility Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 17: But Think Of The Jobs Gained In Oncology!
The September 13 issue of the Mitchell, SD Daily Republic has a pro Tar-sands editorial, filled with the usual delusional advocacy:
EnSys Energy’s report notes that if the XL isn’t built, Canadian oil will still make it to Texas via trucks, trains and barges. That’s likely encouraging to refiners, but not to environmentalists, who say pipelines are dangerous and the oil that comes from tar sands is exceptionally dirty, possibly adding to global warming troubles.
We prefer that it reaches Texas refineries in whatever way best benefits South Dakotans.
Since the oil originates in Canada and is delivered to Texas, we don’t suspect trucking the oil through our state would generate jobs or tax dollars. It also could be detrimental to our roads.
Barge traffic isn’t realistic. The Missouri River’s dam system inhibits any such commerce in Montana and the Dakotas.
Shipping by train could be good for the state. Rail lines would need to be kept at a high level of maintenance or renovated completely. The trouble with rail transportation is that it, too, is potentially bad for the environment. Spills can happen, and the trains themselves release emissions into the atmosphere.
A $7 billion pipeline generates much economic impact in the form of construction dollars spent during the building process and also in tax revenue in the coming years.
Based on what we know so far, we prefer piping the oil from Canada to Texas.
Profit roolz! Sent September 13:
Ignore the recent report from Oil Change International, which concluded that the oil flowing through the Keystone XL pipeline will be headed for overseas markets, not the American consumer. Ignore the global warming impact of burning all the tar sands crude oil — which NASA climatologist James Hansen calls “game over” for the climate. Ignore the millions of acres of Canadian forest ravaged. Oh, and don’t forget to ignore the fact that the oil industry’s assurances aren’t worth a hill of beans; their record of malfeasance, corruption and incompetence over the past century is second to none.
But don’t ignore the fact that pipelines always leak, releasing crude oil into the environment — killing wildlife, damaging agriculture and polluting ground water. Don’t ignore the fact that cleaning up aquifers could cost billions of dollars, and don’t ignore the disastrous public health consequences of crude oil entering the water supply. Please.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama EPA Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 12: Who?
The President gave his September 8 speech on jobs, and it was a good one. There were even some en passant words about environmental regulation, as Daily Kos diarist roubs makes clear in this piece.
The Boston Globe ran an article on the speech, and I used that as the hook for a LTE as suggested in the DK piece (which it turns out was partially inspired by a diary I wrote a little while back). Cool.
Sent September 9:
President Obama’s jobs speech to Congress was noteworthy in many respects. Particularly noteworthy was his statement that America “shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards.” Implicit in this sentence is the notion that short-term economic gains must not come at the expense of the environment; trading jobs for environmental degradation is unacceptable.
Well said, Mr. President! Respect for the planetary ecosystems that support us all is essential to a sustainable Ameican future — a vision that is impossible if polluters are given free rein.
Last week’s suspension of new EPA regulations on air pollution, and the possibility of administration approval for the environmentally devastating Keystone XL project, are indicators of an unfortunate disconnect within the administration when it comes to environmental issues. President Obama should heed his own words, and block the tar sands pipeline.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: corporate irresponsibility fossil fuel idiots Tar Sands
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 9: The Rent Is High But It’s Not So Bad If You Don’t Pay It
The Sept. 5 Daytona News-Journal has a piece of predictable, mealy-mouthed, pipeline advocacy:
According to the Houston Chronicle, the pipeline builders have agreed to 57 provisions beyond federal environmental law that will enhance environmental protections. The Chronicle reports the extra provisions include dropping the pipeline to greater depth at river crossings and in the Ogallala Aquifer region.
Piping the oil is safer than deep-water drilling, as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 proves. Drilling on land and in shallow water allows for quicker resolution of spills and pipeline problems.
In Alaska, the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System has had minimal problems, transferring 16 billion barrels of oil since 1977.
Canada is already our No. 1 source of foreign oil, and our northern neighbor is booming with new finds of oil. If the U.S. turns away the 700,000 barrels a day from the tar sands, the oil is likely to be sold to China — and that won’t help the price of gasoline here.
It sounds really plausible for a moment or so. Then you remember they’re speaking on behalf of some of the world’s most notorious liars and criminals. Sent September 5:
Careful scrutiny of the claims made by advocates of the Keystone XL pipeline is revealing. For example, saying that “the project would decrease American reliance on Middle-Eastern oil” doesn’t make it so — according to a recent study from Oil Change International, the tar sands oil is destined almost entirely for overseas markets. Without stringent enforcement mechanisms, the pipeline builders’ “57 provisions beyond federal environmental law that will enhance environmental protections” is a meaningless cosmetic gesture. The oil industry’s history is chock-full of legal malfeasance, bad intentions and simple incompetence — why would any sane person trust their bland assertions that the pipeline will be completely safe? And then there is the statement, offered without qualification, that “America needs the oil.” Yeah, we need that oil — and an addictive smoker needs that cigarette. But what America (and the rest of the world) really needs is to kick the habit entirely.
Warren Senders
Uncategorized: James Hansen Tar Sands
by Warren
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Year 2. Month 9, Day 8: Variations on a Theme (I)
The August 31 LA Times reports on the arrests of James Hansen and Darryl Hannah:
The arrest of actress Daryl Hannah at a protest this week outside the White House led to headlines. But it’s the detainment of NASA’s top scientist on climate change that’s generating talk.
James Hansen was arrested alongside Hannah and several other people at a sit-in to protest the Keystone XL project, a proposed $7-billion, 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast. Environmentalists fear the project will destroy pristine forests and pave the way for another devastating oil spill, but proponents say it will create jobs and reduce the nation’s reliance on oil from places such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
Hansen heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which examines such hot-button issues as climate change and humans’ effect on the planet. Before being taken away by authorities, Hansen used a microphone to urge President Obama to act “for the sake of your children and grandchildren” and stop the pipeline project, according to a Bloomberg report.
I want to shake Hansen’s hand. But this letter will have to do; it’s a variation on yesterday’s theme of “this ain’t no game.” Sent Sept. 3:
James Hansen’s assertion that burning the oil of the Canadian tar sands would mean “game over” for Earth’s climate is profoundly wrong.
Not because his science is faulty; if there’s anyone equipped to prognosticate about our planet’s future it’s the NASA climatologist, a man of enormous personal and intellectual integrity.
No — it’s because the future of Earthly life for the next million years is not “only a game.” There’s no replay button; we cannot shuffle and deal a second time. If anyone knows this, it’s Hansen; I’m sure he’s just trying to tell our political and media figures the scary truth in language that’s easier to grasp. While his words make the facts more accessible, they also deceive us into believing our species will get another chance to get it right. The scariest thing about this “game” is that humanity’s not going to get a mulligan: losing is forever.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: James Hansen Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 7: The Odds Are Better In Russian Roulette
Rebecca Buckham and Samuel Smith write in the September 1 Pennsylvania Patriot-News about their experience and motivation for committing civil disobedience at the White House over the tar sands issue:
We were arrested just before noon on Aug. 26 in Washington, D.C. What did we — two normal, law-abiding citizens — do to merit being handcuffed, searched and trundled into police wagons in front of hundreds of people at Lafayette Square?
We joined 57 other normal, law-abiding citizens in a nonviolent act of civil disobedience protesting the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline designed to bring toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries in Texas. In the week before we were arrested, 322 other citizens were arrested for participating in this tar sands action.
Approving this pipeline will reflect a decision to commit our nation to deadly fossil fuels well into our future.The nation’s foremost expert in climate science, former NASA chief James Hansen, has said that going forward with toxic tar sands oil means “game over” for our planet. If we commit ourselves to toxic tar sands oil, we put ourselves on a trajectory to turn Earth into a Venus within a few centuries.
I’ve been using that quote for a while now…and I started thinking about it a little differently. Sent September 3:
James Hansen is an exceptional public figure — a scientist of recognized integrity and towering intellectual achievement, and an unimpeachable sense of ethics and responsibility. But his recent statement that burning the oil of the Canadian tar sands would be “game over” for Earth’s climate is profoundly wrong.
Why?
Because a game can be replayed if the outcome is unsatisfactory, while a shattered climatic equilibrium will require recovery times on the order of tens of thousands of years. Dr. Hansen’s words are perhaps an attempt to convey a terrifying truth in language that’s easier for our politicians and media figures to grasp — and for that he is to be commended; America’s ADD-formed political culture is ill-equipped to deal with long-term threats. But if Earth’s future is a “game,” then our lives and those of countless generations to come are at stake — and our opponents are cheating.
Warren Senders
environment: corporate irresponsibility Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 6: Y’all Are A Buncha Sissies!
The September 1 issue of the Ithaca Journal (NY) has a guest columnist whose take on the Keystone XL is shrill:
The Keystone XL Pipeline Project is being proposed as a way to bring oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of the Gulf Coast. It is a project that has alarmed thousands of environmentalists and launched one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the history of environmentalism in this country. As of Aug. 28, 381 people have been arrested and 2,100 have committed themselves to do likewise.
What has caused this concern? In the words of NASA scientist James Hansen, the pipeline is “a 1,500-mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet.”
Simply being another source of non-renewable petroleum is not the only concern. Turning the tar sands into usable energy makes it one of the world’s dirtiest fuels. It takes three barrels of water to create one barrel of oil. The amount needed is staggering: 400 million gallons of water per day, with 90 percent of that water going into tailing ponds which become home to a toxic sludge containing, among other things, cyanide and ammonia.
Indeed. I took advantage of their 200-word limit and let myself stretch out; I’m in a hurry tonight and didn’t have time to write a shorter letter:
The Keystone XL pipeline is much, much more than just a disaster waiting to happen. This ill-begotten project has potential for short-term environmental impacts (spills, leaks, aquifer contamination, habitat destruction), medium-term damage (deforestation and loss of carbon sequestration capability), and devastating long-term consequences (climatologist James Hansen puts it simply, saying that burning the oil in the Alberta tar sands would be “game over” for the climate). In other words, the pipeline offers us a chance to trigger catastrophes on multiple time scales, ruining lives and ecologies for years, decades, centuries and millennia.
Gosh. We must really need that oil if we’re willing to risk so many levels of destruction. Well, actually, it turns out TransCanada isn’t planning to sell that oil on the American market; a recent study from Oil Change International shows conclusively that it’s headed for overseas markets, leaving America nothing but irreversible environmental damage.
On the other hand, a few extremely wealthy oil-industry magnates are going to get even richer. Perhaps they’ll let some of that wealth trickle down on the rest of us. What could possibly go wrong?
Warren Senders
environment: assholes corporate irresponsibility idiots Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 5: No Problem. We’ll Do It Fast And Cheap. Just Sign Here, and We’ll Be Back At The End Of Next Week. Don’t Drive On It Until Then.
The Sept. 1 Great Falls Tribune (MT) notes that:
HELENA — A new report from a Washington, D.C., oil policy advocacy group claims that much of the oil that would be pumped through the planned Keystone XL pipeline that would pass through Montana would be bound for overseas markets rather than shoring up America’s domestic fuel supply.
(snip)
TransCanada disputes those claims, dismissing the report as “the latest concoction by activists who are trying to stop the oil stands.”
Well, they would, wouldn’t they?
Honestly, this whole project is the most obvious scam I’ve ever seen. These people remind me of fly-by-night driveway repair guys.
Sent Sept. 1:
And now there’s yet another reason to oppose the Keystone XL project. If the Canadian crude is meant for foreign sale, as the Oil Change International report states, then the only Americans likely to benefit are oil company executives and refinery operators. TransCanada’s vehement denials are hardly persuasive; the whole fossil fuel industry has a long and ugly record of mendacity, malfeasance and misrepresentation.
Extracting oil from Alberta’s tar sands is a hideously destructive process involving the destruction of huge swaths of boreal forest; the potential impact on the Earth’s climate is devastating (climatologist James Hansen simply says that the project would be “game over” for the climate). Factor in the likelihood of spills, leaks, and aquifer contamination as the crude is piped to refineries thousands of miles away, and it’s obvious: the Keystone pipeline is a recipe for short-, middle- and long-term disaster. President Obama should say no.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: aquifers corporate irresponsibility Nebraska pollution Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 4: My Hen Has A Tooth.
Nebraska’s Governor is a Republican, Dave Heineman. He appears to have a modicum of sense, according to the August 31 Lincoln Journal-Star:
Gov. Dave Heineman is calling on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to deny a permit to TransCanada to build a 36-inch petroleum pipeline through the Nebraska Sandhills.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, Heineman cited concerns about potential oil spills and contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer as grounds for denial.
“I want to emphasize that I am not opposed to pipelines,” the governor said. “We already have hundreds of them in our state. I am opposed to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer.”
Perhaps this will give President Obama the necessary “bipartisan” cover to do the right thing. We can hope. Sent August 31:
Governor Heineman is right on target. The Keystone XL pipeline has no business in Nebraska. While the Governor specifically cited issues of aquifer contamination and the potential for oil spills in his letter to President Obama, there are so many other arguments against the tar sands oil project it’s mind-boggling: the destruction of vast areas of Canadian forest along with its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide; the devastating environmental impact of the extraction processes; the long-term consequences for Earth’s climate (Dr. James Hansen has stated flatly that the pipeline’s impact would be irreversible and catastrophic); America’s urgent need to end its addiction to fossil fuels; the oil industry’s long history of malfeasance, incompetence and venality (why trust a proven liar?) — the list goes on and on. On the other hand, there’s exactly one argument for the pipeline: money. It’s going to make a few extremely wealthy people even richer.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: droughts extreme weather idiots Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 29: The Tip Of A Rapidly Melting Iceberg
The August 25 Hartford Courant runs a piece by Robert Thorson, addressing the reality of drought conditions in the United States as a consequence of climate change:
No part of New England (according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climatic data center) is experiencing drought. In contrast, 61 percent of the southeastern United States is experiencing moderate drought or worse, with Georgia taking the strongest hit. Things are much drier in the Southern Plains between Louisiana, south Texas, Arizona and Colorado. There, 84 percent of the land is experiencing at least moderate drought, with 47 percent experiencing exceptional drought.
Climate records are falling by the wayside: more than 6,100 records for warmer-than-usual nights, and 2,740 for hotter-than-usual days. Centered over west-central Texas is the largest footprint ever recorded for “exceptional” drought, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Texas is the launching pad for a presidential hopeful who denies that climate is being changed by human influence, and who seems to have forgotten that having a tea party requires water to make the tea.
I’m going to try and work the tar sands issue into as many of these letters as I can. Sent August 26 — I’m back from India and back at this grimly necessary work.
Increasingly frequent and severe droughts are only a part of the multiple vulnerabilities we and our descendants will have to cope with as climate change escalates. There’ll be heavier rains, too, since storms and extreme weather are part of the long-term forecast for humanity’s carbon-enhanced future. The conservatives’ simplistic caricature of “global warming” is a strawman; the work of climate scientists has predicted for decades that a runaway greenhouse effect won’t simply make the planet uniformly hotter, but will trigger innumerable local and regional effects, potentially disrupting and destroying ecologies, infrastructure and agriculture. While it’s too late to avoid many of the consequences of our civilization’s century-long oil and coal binge, we can still mitigate the severity of the coming storms if we rapidly reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuels from our energy economy. Conversely, projects like the exploitation of Canadian tar sands are a decisive step in the wrong direction; if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, droughts will be the least of our worries. It’s time to get serious about the reality of climate change.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama James Hansen Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 27: Please Don’t Let This Happen.
I’m writing this on August 9 — two days before I leave for India, and one day before I stop writing climate letters until I get back.
And this letter will see the light of the intertubes on August 27 — two days after I get back. I’m cool…and looking forward to my vacation!
This is about the potentially disastrous Tar Sands Pipeline project, which absolutely MUST NOT be allowed to happen.
Faxed to POTUS at 1 AM, August 10; mailed in an actual envelope with a stamp later that same day.
Dear President Obama,
In a sane universe, the notion of opening the Canadian tar sands to exploitation would never have arisen. The consequences of bringing this extraordinarily dirty form of energy into circulation would be catastrophic for North America and for our planet.
It would also, of course, pretty much doom any chance you would have to be remembered as an environmentally-conscious president. All the other advances you and your administration have made thus far would be nullified by the grotesque effects of the tar sands.
Tar sands will make impede our progress to a sustainable on many levels. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the greenhouse emissions from the tar sands oil is almost twice that of the average crude refined here in the USA. The yearly emissions from the Keystone XL project would be “roughly equivalent to annual CO2 emissions of seven coal-fired plants.”
It’s not just that tar sands oil is dirty at the point of extraction. The Keystone project necessitates significant deforestation, with an enormous loss of carbon sequestration function from the destroyed forests. Pipelines are highly vulnerable; leaks can have devastating effects on local ecosystems.
Climatologist James Hansen has warned us in very direct terms that putting the tar sands’ carbon into the atmosphere would be an irreversible tipping point to a runaway greenhouse effect. President Obama, your legacy should not include pulling this trigger on the planet. Please stop the tar sands pipeline.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders