Rejecting the Keystone Pipeline by James Hall
All thinking and rational students of economics and political policy should take note of the triumphed message sent out by the CREDO Action progressive group. The strategy to organize a massive civil disobedience confrontation has been absent from the public square for far too long. However, when the cause is so ill founded and based upon foolish economic realities, the protesting activists need to rethink their falsely placed suppositions.
“Yesterday, we made history when President Obama rejected Keystone XL. Not only did he reject it, he did so acknowledging that “we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.”
This is a monumental shift from President Obama and his “all of the above” energy strategy. And it is a monumental victory over an oil industry whose power to imperil all of us in the pursuit of greed has been unchecked for far too long.
President Obama signed the decision, but it was grassroots activism and organizing that made it happen. Historic, sustained, relentless, nationwide, diverse, fearless, deeply committed activism, of the kind we haven’t seen in a generation.
CREDO is especially proud of the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance — launched at a key moment in March of 2013, when we were losing this fight. Nearly 100,000 of you committed to engage in civil disobedience if necessary to stop Keystone XL. With our friends at Rainforest Action Network and the Other 98%, we organized the biggest threat of mass civil disobedience in our generation. CREDO’s CEO met with President Obama and told him face-to-face about the Pledge of Resistance. Three months later, the President announced the climate test for Keystone XL at his Georgetown climate speech, and the tide began turning.
It is stunning to consider how far we have come. What we have accomplished together in the most urgent fight we face, against one of the most powerful forces in the world.”
Such a naïve assessment illustrates just how out of touch with reality the environmental cultist doctrine has progressed. Oil is an internationally priced commodity. The WSJ cites that “Since mid-2014, the price of a barrel of crude has fallen by nearly half. The U.S. is a big reason for the oil glut. North American producers have been heavy adopters of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technology that has allowed oil to be pumped out of shale formations.”
Bloomberg add that, “Environmental groups said that stopping Keystone XL would slow tar sands development, while pro-Keystone forces argued that the bitumen will still be produced and shipped either by other pipelines or rail, increasing the risk of spills and other accidents. Since the beginning of 2012, rail shipments of Canadian crude to the U.S. have risen at least 11-fold, even though they have declined recently with the oil price slump. Meanwhile, operators doubled the capacity of the Seaway pipeline, allowing more oil-sands crude to reach Gulf refineries.”
Now is a good time to clear the air and get real. The demand for oil is down even with the dramatic drop in price because the world economy is sinking into a massive contraction, if not a full-blown collapse. It is a well known fact that Buffett’s Burlington Northern Among Pipeline Winners was transporting crude and provided an alternative to complete the building of Keystone.
The notion that fossil fuel, especially petroleum based energy will suffer because of Obama’s decision to reject the XL Pipeline project is pure poppycock. Adolescent “green” aspirations of relegating the oil giants to transition into renewable technology businesses is a pipe dream. The simple reason is that global energy requirements and future needs can never be satisfied by all the failed experiments in wind, solar and geothermal.
The CREDO crowd wants to believe. How Obama’s Keystone XL rejection adds momentum to the Paris climate talks and that “the President had already made a groundbreaking climate deal with Chinese premier Xi Jinping. Coming roughly a year ago, it neutralized what might otherwise have been the biggest issue in global climate talks — that is, what China will do.”
Folks, the only reduction you will see in China’s energy usage come from the economic tumble that is a significant shock to the world’s commercial activity.
The Brits over at the Guardian writes, Keystone XL pipeline rejection signals US taking lead on climate change fight, “Climate change has become such an overwhelmingly mainstream political and diplomatic imperative that it overrides traditionally unbeatable domestic interests.” Such a disconnect viewpoint from the leftist news press seems to be exactly the kind of reporting the CREDO clan reads and accepts.
Sorry, the real reason why the globalists are allowing the imposition of a technocratic radical environmental model is to hasten the destruction of national economies. Get ready for another massive round of taxes and regulation decrees on the masses, while the supra elites are exempt from the suffering caused by mandated international dictates. The planet will be worse off with this approach.
Forlorn, Corporatocracy rules the world. Yet, even the Jacobins of the collective admits the global warming hysteria is a side show to the real power.
“As Obama was rejecting Keystone XL, his administration was releasing the text (on a corporate website) of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the next round of secretly constructed agreements designed to give multinational corporations immunity from the restrictiveness of societal goals such as a habitable planet.
It is critical that climate activists recognize that the Paris talks are necessary but not sufficient. We must demand that all international negotiations recognize the supremacy of the climate crisis and work to claw back power from the multinationals. Without any customers, even the most efficient global corporate entity will have trouble delivering shareholder return.”
The correct and proper alliance is to find common ground to “claw back power from the multinationals”, but to base such an effort on an intellectual falsehood such as “supremacy of the climate crisis” is literal insanity. Such a diversion from factual evidence, verifiable and objective empirical research plays directly into the hand of the predatory oligarchs. The pipeline that needs to be built is the one that carries the wisdom to understand the underlying economics and political agenda of the globalist elites.
James Hall – November 11, 2015
– See more at: http://www.batr.org/corporatocracy/111115.html#sthash.zaipr3mz.dpuf