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Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill
An anonymous reader writes: As expected, President Obama has vetoed a bill that would have given the green light for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. "By saying no to the legislation, Mr. Obama retains the authority to make a final judgment on the pipeline on his own timeline. The White House has said the president would decide whether to allow the pipeline when all of the environmental and regulatory reviews are complete. ... Since 2011, the proposed Keystone pipeline, which would deliver up to 800,000 barrels daily of heavy petroleum from the oil sands of Alberta to ports and refineries on the Gulf Coast, has emerged as a broader symbol of the partisan political clash over energy, climate change and the economy."
This bill would move forward with the XL portion of the pipeline. The Keystone pipeline currently terminates at the refineries near Chicago, Il. The XL portion of the pipeline would extends the line to the Gulf Coast, allowing for the oil to be more easily re-sold on the world market as opposed to being land locked into the US market.
The XL portion was never meant to reduce oil prices in the US, it was meant to increase profit margins by reducing costs to transport the oil and oil products to higher priced markets.
Can we take down the environmentalism straw man yet?
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
It's simple, the oil will be shipped by train as it is now. Which obviously emits way more greenhouse gasses then a pipeline. Rich people aren't gonna "stop" trying to make money of energy because of no pipeline lol.
This, especially this. Pushing petroleum through pipelines instead of on his railroads would make him very sad, and nobody wants to make one of the biggest DNC contributors sad, now do they?
Meanwhile the partisans will clog up Facebook and similar with variations of 'yay our Lord and Savior saved teh environmentz!' versus 'teh imperialz president OMG!'... ...while the fat cats laugh at the little people a little before they plan their next chess move (and lobbyists) in Washington DC.
Meanwhile the world begins to do its best impression of Titanic-Meets-Iceberg ever.
Fucking politics, gotta love it (eyeroll).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Actually BNSF hates shipping oil. It's too high risk in terms of brand value loss when a spill occurs. Source: I work for a different Berkshire subsidiary.
Now in my own opinion. I prefer the pipeline, however the maintenance of pipes is generally crap and leaks are common. If there was a guarantee of proper maintenance then I'd be all about it vs the other available options. Perhaps this could be done by requiring an environment clean up, but we've seen how well that works in the past
Libertarianism is a big tent, you might not want to paint with such a broad brush. The main stream position is that they support strong property rights and issues of that nature should be solved in court. Personally I think that's fantasy land since it would just mean rulings in favor of those who can afford the best lawyers (something I haven't heard a Libertarian answer to) Personally, and I'm registered Libertarian currently, my view is that one of the proper roles of government (yes, there are such a things unless you're an anarchist) is to ensure that externalities are re-internalized, though preferably in the least distorting way possible. (pigovian taxes generally being the most straightforward solution).
Yes, it is absolutely legal. He already had the authority to make the decision so he would in no way be "vetoing his veto".
If Congress is unsatisfied with this outcome, they may attempt to override that veto, but they probably can't get enough votes for that.
You *do* realize that the oil that would be flowing though the XL Pipe literally goes solid at room temperature? Environmental risk exists, but it's not like this stuff is going to get too far away from a leak before cooling.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
but when Dan Quayle only accepted a different spelling of potato at a spelling bee, he was vilified
That's not what happened. The kid actually spelled potato correctly and Dan Quayle 'corrected' him into spelling it wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
And Quayle wasn't vilified. He was the butt of many jokes, but he deserved to be the butt of all those jokes for being so damned stupid. Recognizing someone's stupidity isn't the same as vilifying them.
I've not seen or heard any evidence of racism at any of the Tea Party rallies I've attended either from the speakers or attendees, but I'm a middle aged white guy and I obviously don't go to every Tea Party meeting.
I have, and I'm a middle aged white guy. But then the ones I went to were back when it was "new" (prior to all the mainstreaming of it).
The TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party at it's core is about government spending and taxes and limiting both to the minimum possible by scaling back government's involvement in our everyday lives, not expanding it.
Yet everything I saw in the meetings I went to were about expanding the government. More prisons, more drug laws, more laws against gays. It was the Bigot party for those who didn't like the Republican Party because it was too inclusive. I've seen news reports that conservative Republicans have said to stop fighting gay marriage because the people have spoken. The anti-democracy teabaggers (yes, they still used that name, not realizing the connotations, back when I went to a few meetings) want to push their beliefs on everyone, regardless of popular support. Teabaggers want a dictatorship, so they can tell everyone how to live.
At least based on the meetings I went to.
Learn to love Alaska
Disclaimer: I work Emergency Management in West Virginia. Further disclaimer, I work with people who were personally affected by that derailment and were evacuated...
The cause of the derailment is still under investigation but the Keystone pipeline's existence would not have stopped what happened. The train was transporting oil to Pennsylvania which is not where Keystone goes. So that explosion has exactly zero to do with Keystone.
I just didn't want people thinking the derailment in WV would have been avoided if Keystone was done. It is my personal belief that a combination of factors including the huge snow storm happening at the time had a big influence on the derailment, but I am willing to wait for the final determination.
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