TransCanada is playing poker with our lives!

Only a few days after President Obama’s announcement of delaying the decision of the Pipeline for 15 months, TransCanada announced that it would reroute the pipeline. One has to question the timing of this announcement. President Obama stated that one of the reasons that the decision was delayed was to take a hard look at the environmental impact the pipeline would have on the Ogallala aquifer, and stated that “ water contamination trumped a few thousand jobs.” Now with the rerouting of the pipeline, away from Nebraska, away from the aquifer, TransCanada is claiming victory. Both Nebraska democrats and republicans are supporting the rerouting of the line.

Many are calling it a victory for the company claiming that the environmental activists no longer have claims to protest the pipeline. This quick call to victory, underestimates the power of the environmental movement. TransCanada is assuming activists will move on to another dirty fossil fuel protest. They couldn’t be more wrong. Tar Sands removal is still environmentally destructive, it doesn’t create large numbers of jobs, and the threat to our climate and health, will not be just turned away because of a rerouting plan.

Rerouting the pipeline will still have the same destructive effects on the climate, no matter where it is placed. The pipeline will also have the same impact on people’s health in a spill area. The same pipeline will still destroy the Boreal forest.

TransCanada thinks they are holding the best hand in poker. Unfortunately they underestimated the environmental activists hand. We will return to D.C., we will demand an open and honest environmental impact statement. We are going to go all in, and we will win.

This is what democracy looks like!

“If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.” Chief Joseph

On November 6, 2011, people from all across the country, from all different backgrounds, came together to protest the Keystone Pipeline XL. There were over 12,000 people surrounding the White House, locking arms, standing together, to protect mother earth. It was a learning and emotional experience. 

It was a learning experience, I knew a great deal about the science of the tar sands project and its impact. But the biggest lesson I learned was that of civil disobedience and protesting. As a 19 year old, I read a great deal about protests and movements, but to actually take part in one, was incredible. Just a few months ago very few Americans new about the Tar Sands Pipeline. The actions of Bill McKibben and friends in August protesting and getting arrested in front of the White House, started the momentum. I remember when Bill was arrested, he said not to feel sympathy for him, but rather he was lonely sitting in the jail. In a short time more than 1200 people were arrested. The call was made, more people were needed, more action needed to be taken, and as a result a 12,000 people reminded President Obama, that we would end the tyranny of oil.

There were a multitude of speakers, from Naomi Klein, and Bill McKibben,  to NASA scientist James Hansen, and actor Mark Ruffalo to civil rights activist Dick Gregory. (Plus there were a few more) Each speaker brought a unique perspective to the protest, and motivated the crowd even more.

Originally, the creators of the event didn’t know if enough people would show up to encircle the White House. We did have enough, at some sections people were 3-4 lines deep. There were chants, songs and a sense of a true movement being born and coming to life.

It was an emotional experience for a couple of reasons. First, to see so many people of different colors, different gender, different religions all coming together for one reason was moving. Second, the aftermath of the protest brought great joy. The main street media covered the protest, and Chris Hayes from MSNBC dedicated a half hour of his show to the protest. I had just taken part in something that had changed our country’s direction. The President heard our message, he delayed the decision on the Keystone Pipeline for 15 months until after the election. In fifteen months, if another decision is to be made we will return to Washington to protest the pipeline again. We will make it bigger, and we will fight just as hard, because this is truly what democracy looks like.

It's around midnight on the bus, who needs sleep

It’s around midnight on the bus to Washington D.C. for the XL Pipeline Circle the White House action and I am so excited about protesting tomorrow—so ready. I have the fire in the belly burning and I still have 8 hours to go on this bus ride. I’m not the only one still awake; there’s a lot of talk going on in the back of the bus.

One discussion I had was with Ian, a fellow Unity Student. Some of the other students are asking me about the Tar Sands action because I’m working on a Tar Sands project for my New Media class this semester. We had an interesting discussion about our expectations for tomorrow—about how moving this nonviolent protest will be and about its effects. Some of the students, like Summer, are excited to protest—especially after going to protest occupy Augusta. Olivia said that she is very excited to see all the passion people are going to have to protect the environment. All the Unity Students are very excited to be joining thousands, who are passionate about the same cause, but one person stuck out to me who is not from Unity. His name was Julian.

Julian is a student who attends COA and is interested in environmental policy and effective nonviolent protesting in the United States. So we started to discuss about our passion why we are on this bus and why we are going to circle the White House tomorrow. This will be Julian’s first protest in the United States–he was telling me about protesting in Mexico and how he thinks it will be similar here. Julian feels that we the people are a piece of this puzzle.

It’s really cool to see how two different people from two different countries can come together and have a common passion and goal and be able to work for it. We are both very excited about the symbolism of circling The White House.

We all agree that it is hard to be heard alone but, being with 6000 people surrounding the White House we are optimistic and very excited about this great opportunity to have our voices be heard on such an issue at such a critical and strategic moment in history.

An interactive map of the Keystone XL pipeline

This is a link to an interactive map about the proposed pipeline route.

http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/01/transcanada-keystone-pipeline-map#alberta

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." ~ Mark Twain

Read the non-so fine print of the contact information who is ENTRIX?

    

            As a kid I played the game Connect Four,  the idea of the 2 player game was to connect four of your colored discs vertically, horizontally or diagonally before your opponent could connect four of their discs. In this game the government has picked the black discs and the American people have picked the red discs. While doing this research the American people never got a chance to play their discs. The US government and its “black disc of dirty fossil fuels” never gave us a chance to connect 4 , we never even got a chance to play. The US Department of State required an environmental impact statement (EIS) of the Keystone Pipeline. The Department of State allowed Transcanada, the company applying for the permit to choose its own company to do the EIS statement. TransCanada picked Cardno Entrix to do the Environmental Impact Statement. If you look at the above picture they are the ones taking questions or technical comments for the Department of State’s website!

             A little background on the company Cardno Entrix. They prepared the environmental study  for  BP’s Deep Water Horizon, and we all know how that one turned out. Entrix has also represented BP, TransCanada, Exxon Mobile, Dow Chemical company, and FEMA. I see a little bit of a pattern, here do you see thepattern? So who are the key players? 

            The first player, David Goldwyn is a former state department staff member.“Former State Department key staff member, David Goldwyn, is now a tarsands lobbyist. While still at the State Department, he coached TransCanada staff and their lobbyists on messaging and “studies” they needed in order to alleviate all of the valid concerns being raised about the safety of the project.” Jane Kleeb (http://www.boldnebraska.org/entrix) 

           The second player is Paul Elliott is the former national deputy director for Hilary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign run."Elliott — who served as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's national deputy campaign manager in 2008 — sought to broker multiple meetings between senior State Department officials and TransCanada executives. He offered to enlist TransCanada officials’ aid in helping State officials forge an international climate agreement. And he deluged administration officials with letters testifying to the virtues of the Keystone XL expansion project, which would ship crude oil from Canada’s oil sands region to American refiners." From Mother Jones

          The third player is Broderick Johnson, the newest advisor to president Obama’s reelection campaign. Johnson was also a top aide in Clintons Whitehouse. Broderick worked for the lobbying firm of Bryan Cave LLP whose client was TransCanada.“Johnson’s federal lobbyist filings indicate that TransCanada paid Bryan Cave at least $240,000 late last year and early this year for Johnson to work on supporting the “submission for a presidential permit for Keystone XL Pipeline.” He lobbied members of Congress, the filings show, as well as the administration and the State Department.” (Greenspace Environmental news from California and beyond)

TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha denied that Johnson lobbied on behalf of the Keystone project.

         The fourth and final black disc is the oil industry that seems to be able to infiltrate every agency and every politician. Dirty oil makes for dirty politics. But there is some hope led by Bernie Sanders and 13 other members from the House and Senate, a letter to the office of Inspector General was sent calling for an investigation into the State Department’s handling of the EIS and national interest determination(NID)  for TransCanada corporation’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Link to the letter below.  http://sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/IG%20Letter%20FINAL.pdf

          So now it’s time for the American people to “stop having smart people put us on” and get back into the game to stop the Connect Four, by dirty oil. We can connect four, actually more than four,  join us on November 6 when we surround the Whitehouse to protest the Keystone pipeline. (http://www.tarsandsaction.org/)

Read the non-so fine print of the contact information who is ENTRIX?

Why are the Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands so bad?

              The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, if approved by the United States, Department of State and President Obama, it will be a 1661 mile pipeline running from Canada to the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Tar sand extraction and production have been called by proponents as the salvation to America’s oil crisis, and a way to end dependency on Middle East fuel. Yet many don’t realize that tar sands have far reaching global impacts. These impacts will have disastrous implications on the environment, economy and political ethics.

  Let’s start with the environment; tar sand removal requires three processes, extraction, separation, and upgrading. There are two methods of extraction used to get to the tar sands. For surface tar sands, open pit mining or strip mining is used to gather the material. Open pit and strip mining destroy the Boreal Forest, and its ecosystem. You don’t think it is a big deal; think again, the area for tar sands removal in Canada covers 55,000 square miles. Imagine the size of Florida losing its migratory birds, forests, and then filling large areas with toxic water ponds. 

The other method of extraction is referred to as an in situ method. In situ methods are used for deep level extraction. There are many different in situ methods, all of which require injecting steam and or solvents deep below the surface to loosen the bitumen. Unfortunately, current research is limited into the solvents being utilized. In situ methods are destructive and produce many hazards. Air emission results from in situ oil extractions in Canada include the following pollutants, benzene, cadmium, mercury, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/52419887/Deep-Trouble-the-Reality-of-in-Situ-Tar-Sands-Operations) During the separation process large amounts of heated water are used. It takes approximately 3 barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil. Initial claims by companies extracting tar sands stated in initial applications that most water would be recycled. But that is not the case one extraction location requires 17,000 cubic meters of water per day. Friends of the Earth website estimates that 400 million gallons of water a day end up in toxic waste dumps. As a result, rivers, and ponds will be depleted of fresh water as more oil is produced, and more toxic waste dumps will be created.

There are even more environmental impacts. Tar sand oil production emits 3 times more carbon dioxide then the average barrel of conventional oil. This will only accelerate the ppm of C0₂ in the atmosphere which is currently at 392 ppm. The designated safe level of C0₂ in the atmosphere is 350 ppm. The current level of C0₂ being so high is causing global temperatures to rise and hence why we have climate change. (350.org) Passing the Keystone Pipeline XL, will destroy the Boreal Forest and surrounding ecosystems, increase water usage and create water shortages for local communities, create toxic waste dumps and increase the level of CO₂ in the environment.

If you are not an environmentalist and don’t believe in climate change or don’t care about the environment being degraded for profit look at the economic side. The numbers of jobs this project will create are over inflated and minimal at best. The permit application for Keystone XL to the State Department indicated that the workforce at its peak would be about 3,500-4,200. (Tarsandsaction.org).  The US government will not get any revenue from this project because it is in a free trade zone so therefore tax free to the corporation. Not only will the United States not make a profit through taxes, etc gas prices will increase approximately 20 cents per gallon. So for all of the promises of job creation and lower gas prices, we now know that neither will happen.

 If you still are not persuaded by the environmental severity this will cause or the heavy economic impact it will have than what about the impact to you and me?

A rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could cause a BP style oil spill in America’s heartland, the source of fresh drinking water for 2 million people. Water is a necessity for everyone, not only for human consumption but for farming, sanitation, and business. Keystone XL pipeline is destroying vital resources we need to live and survive. One of  NASA’s top scientists stated that fully developing the tar sands in Canada would mean “essentially game over” for the climate. (Tar Sands Action.org), but it I believe it even goes further than the climate.

Future writings will update the reader on the implications of political ethics and expand on the economics of the project.