Thousands rally against Keystone in Washington

 

CTVNews.ca Staff, Published Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 9:44AM EST, Last Updated Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 11:03PM EST

Gary Doer is doing a fine job in Washington, DC.

As long as Obama in power that pipe-line not going anywhere except in Demerara Guy's backyard.

Prominent U.S. environmentalists arrested over Keystone XL protest at White House

The pipeline should be buried, send em packing. Now I hear there's talk of moving it Eastward.

.. and it will be pretty close to Cain's backyard. 

March 7 is the day the Alberta. Budget comes out. It is going to be a storm. Many people are going to lose their jobs. Alberta is the only province in Canada that has such dire financial problems. A 4.5 billion deficit this year along. This is what you get when you charge 1 dollar per barrel of oil to foreign oil companies when the price of oil is 100 dollars. A badly capitalist run management.

Demerara guy paints Alberta as heaven on earth a place of milk and honey. But do not be fooled. There is no difference between Alberta and a third world country. There is little manufacturing just resources exporting plus many rural rednecks. A recipe for disaster.

Not if Cain still has life in him to help stop it also.

It could be possible even if you still have life.

Rememba how yu fadda dispatch dem2 policemen! Yu need fu do de same. Maybe yu can preten fu be Amitabh bachan; yu can knockout 5 man at ah time.
Na mek me han fall now yu know. Me know me cyan depen pon yu.

Most likely Alberta will run a pipe line to Atlantic Canada threw northern Saskatchewen northern Manitoba northern Ontario into Quebec then to Atlantic Canada. Then Canada will ban Venezulan oil and Alberta will supply the Irvin Oil Company and their gas stations in Atlantic Canada.

Alberta Premier sees light at end of Keystone pipeline

William Marsden,Published: February 24, 2013, 4:35 pm,Updated: 3 hours ago, Source

 

WASHINGTON – Alberta Premier Alison Redford came to Washington Friday determined to sell the Keystone XL pipeline to a nation who’s climate change concerns are increasing with each new hurricane, drought and wildfire. On Sunday she flew back confident – but “not at all smug” – that the 1,800-kilometre pipeline is on its way to approval.

 

“I’m very optimistic,” she said. “There is strong bipartisan support for this project.”

 

She came to Washington to meet governors attending the annual governors conference hoping to “figure out how we were doing.”

 

The answer? Quite well.

 

“I have been really pleased, not at all smug, but really happy that people are engaged, that there is data, that they understand what we’re saying and that the discussion is a real discussion around the facts, around scientifically verifiable data.”

 

On her first visit to Washington after she became premier 18 months ago, she quickly discovered that selling points such as energy security, jobs and economic benefits were accepted as given by U.S. officials. The main issues of contention are still environmental with climate change heading the list.

 

They want to know what Canada and Alberta is doing to reduce its emissions, she said.

 

She said she has emphasized the $3.5 billion Alberta has spent on carbon capture and storage, sustainable development and independent monitoring of the oilsands and the fact that Albert is one of the only jurisdictions in North America that puts a price on carbon. Its $15 carbon fee has since 2007 raised $312 million for development of clean energy technology.

 

“They know what our environmental record is,” she said. “They are satisfied with that record. Quite frankly in many cases governors on both sides of the aisle say, ‘you know your record is stronger than ours is.’”

 

That doesn’t mean economic drivers are not key to the Keystone. “Let’s be realistic,” she said.  “You know we are trying to drive an economy in North America that does rely on conventional resources. We are not going to shift off of oil and gas in the next two years. And so the energy mix is important. Let’s be honest, it matters to actually have secure supply.”

 

Redford met with 19 governors to discuss the Keystone and other pipelines. Included in that list was Maine’s governor Paul LePage, who, she said, is supportive of reversing the existing Portland-Montreal-Sarnia pipeline that could carry bitumen to refineries in New Brunswick.

 

Redford called the Keystone XL, which will extend from Alberta to heavy oil refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, a “very important” priority for Alberta. She said, however, that if U.S. President Barack Obama does not approve it, Alberta would seek other export opportunities, including going through Alaska.

 

“We are an exporting economy,” she said. “We’re going to export to China and India, we’re going to go north perhaps through Alaska. … But for us the United Sates has always been our longest serving, we have always had a really close connection. … But we will go where the market is.”

 

For many environmentalists and Americans concern about climate change has transformed Keystone into a litmus test for Obama’s credibility on environmental issues. This alone has become a major challenge for Alberta because Obama will make the final decision.

 

Redford’s says it is “unfair” to corner Obama and Alberta by turning Keystone into a metaphor.

 

“I mean this is a man who is basically the leader of the free world. He is driving an economy that matters to everyone, Europe, Asia, North America. He’s got to balance the issues. That’s a pretty challenging position for a president to be in.  I don’t believe that Keystone should be that.”

 

wmarsden@postmedia.com

DG is right. America needs the jobs that the oil pipeline will bring. So far it has been a job less economic recovery in the United States.  Lots of people still unemployed and under employed. For example in Arizona and Nevada many people only can get part time minimum wage jobs. America needs well paying jobs.  Obama will agree to the pipe line because it brings these types of jobs with it.

Brad Wall to lobby for Keystone pipeline, promote Saskatchewan’s green initiatives on Washington trip

Canadian Press, Feb 27, 2013 11:42 PM ET, Last Updated: Feb 28, 2013 12:32 AM ET, Source - National Post

 

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Alberta Premier Alison Redford speak during a media availability to discuss ongoing efforts in support of a Canadian Energy Strategy, in Edmonton, Alberta on Wednesday.

 

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says he’s going to Washington next week to not only urge U.S. lawmakers approve the Keystone XL pipeline, but also to highlight green initiatives taking place in his province.

 

“We need to tell that story,” Wall said Wednesday after meeting in Edmonton with Alberta Premier Alison Redford.

 

He said Saskatchewan, like the U.S., is heavily reliant on coal-generated electricity, but said his province has invested $1.4 billion in a clean-coal project near Estevan.

 

“That’s about $1,400 per man, woman and child,” said Wall. “I’m not sure of another jurisdiction in North America that can make that claim.”

 

Both premiers discussed strategy in what has become a full court press to impress on lawmakers in the United States the importance of the Keystone and Canada’s pledge to do what it can to combat climate change.

 

“It’s important for us is to be co-ordinated,” said Redford.

The first thing we want to do is speak to what Canada’s record has been

“The first thing we want to do is speak to what Canada’s record has been.”

Wall’s trip to the U.S. capital comes on the heels of Redford’s trip to Washington last weekend.

 

Redford met with 19 state governors to sell the message that the TransCanada (TSX:TRP) Keystone line is good for both economies and will deliver a larger supply of reliable oil south of the border.

 

Redford has also emphasized that Alberta is doing its part to reduce the climate-changing greenhouse gases that result from carbon intensive projects like the oilsands.

 

She has stressed that Alberta is the only North American jurisdiction to tax heavy emitters. Alberta is also investing millions of dollars in clean-energy projects and beefing up environmental monitoring of the oilsands.

 

Critics, however, have said the pace of development is outstripping these measures.

 

Redford reiterated her pitch in a guest column Tuesday in the nationally circulated USA Today newspaper.

 

Wall has been busy as well.

 

Last month, he and 10 U.S. state governors wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging he “swiftly” approve the $7-billion pipeline in an environmentally sustainable way to lift North American economy and create jobs.

 

Wall said Saskatchewan has the potential for oilsands development and has already got investors waiting in the wings.

 

Alberta’s representative in Washington, David Manning, is also working the Keystone file.

 

Gary Doer, Canada’s U.S. ambassador, said Tuesday he believes most Americans want the line, but that the issue is being sidetracked by, among other factors, celebrity protesters.

 

It’s getting down to crunch time on a decision by Obama on whether to approve the 1,800-km pipeline.

 

It would ship oilsands crude from Alberta down through Saskatchewan and six U.S. states to Texas refineries on the Gulf Coast.

 

The route is considered vital to Alberta’s bottom line. The profit margin on the oilsands product has been dropping due to a pipeline bottleneck in the U.S. and a glut of oil coming from North Dakota.

 

Alberta is expecting to get half of the $13 billion it had hoped from oil and gas this year, ballooning this year’s deficit to a projected $4 billion.

 

Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have made it clear in speeches this month that they want action on climate change, referring to the boost in global temperatures being blamed for more droughts, superstorms, and rising seas.

 

On top of that, Keystone has become the line in the sand for protesters who say it’s time to reverse the trend of carbon-intensive operations.

 

Less than two weeks ago, 20,000 protesters rallied at the Washington Monument within sight of the White House urging Obama to reject Keystone. Days before that celebrity activists like actress Daryl Hannah and environment lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were arrested after they tied themselves to a White House gate,

 

Labour groups and the petroleum industry are pushing hard for Obama to OK the project.

 

Kerry’s department is currently reviewing the environmental impacts of a revised route for Keystone.

 

Obama shelved the project last year amid concerns the line could affect a major aquifer in Nebraska. Nebraska’s governor has since signed off on a revised route.

 

Once the report is done, Kerry and Obama are expected to make their final decisions, as early as this spring.

State Department opens door to Keystone XL Pipeline approval

Published: March 1, 2013, Updated 1 hour ago,

By Sean Cockerham and Erika Bolstad — McClatchy Newspapers, Source

 

WASHINGTON — The State Department announced Friday that construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline is unlikely to have a significant impact on climate change, a finding that could open the door for President Barack Obama to approve the controversial project.

 

The 1,700-mile pipeline would bring oil from the Alberta oil sands in Canada to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast. The Congressional Research Service has estimated that crude oil from the sands could produce 14 percent to 20 percent more planet-warming gases than the average oil in U.S. refineries.

 

But the State Department said Friday that denying the pipeline wouldn’t stop the Canadian oil from getting to market by rail or construction of other new pipelines.

 

“Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed project, remains unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands,” according to the State Department’s environmental analysis.

 

Environmental groups said they were outraged by the finding. They said the oil industry wouldn’t have spent millions lobbying for the $7 billion Keystone pipeline if it weren’t important for developing the oil sands.

 

Keystone is fundamental to the industry’s plan to triple production in the sands, said Danielle Droitsch, project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The pipeline will produce the equivalent of putting 6 million new cars on the road, Droitsch said.

 

“It is a total myth that tar sands expansion will continue to grow even if Keystone XL were rejected,” she said. “It is not in the public’s best interest to expand America’s dependence on tar sands. It undermines our effort to move to clean energy and fight climate change.”

 

Industry groups said the State Department’s analysis confirms it is time to stop delaying the pipeline.

 

“The Keystone XL project has become one of the most closely examined infrastructure projects in our nation’s history, and it continues to pass with flying colors,” said Chamber of Commerce energy spokeswoman Karen Harbert. “Once again, the State Department has confirmed that this project is environmentally sound.”

 

It’s not a done deal. There will be a 45-day comment period after the State Department’s analysis is formally published in about a week. Then the State Department will review the comments and create a final environmental impact statement for the pipeline project. At that point, the State Department will decide whether the project is in the national interest and will ask other agencies their views on whether it should go ahead.

 

Obama has made clear he’ll have final say on the pipeline.

 

The detailed, 2,000-page State Department analysis did not make a recommendation on whether Obama should approve the pipeline. But it did not raise any environmental deal breakers and said fundamental changes in the world crude oil market, not denial of the Keystone pipeline, would be needed to significantly impact the rate of production in the oil sands.

 

Obama denied a permit for the northern section of the pipeline last year, saying the route through Nebraska needed more environmental review.

 

Pipeline developer TransCanada has since changed the route so it bypasses the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region, and Nebraska Republican Gov. Dave Heineman is urging the president to go ahead and approve it.

 

Obama is also under pressure to approve the pipeline from Canadian officials, union leaders and members of Congress.

 

“Today’s report again makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a written statement. “After four years of needless delays, it is time for President Obama to stand up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone pipeline.”

 

Senate Energy Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, though, questioned how much of the oil would be used in the United States and how much would be exported.

 

“The State Department needs to explain how it is in America’s national and economic interests to facilitate Keystone XL’s completion, especially if the pipeline is simply a conduit for oil and refined products to go elsewhere that makes the United States less energy secure and drives domestic gas prices higher,” the Oregon Democrat said.

 

Environmental groups have made defeat of the pipeline their top priority, saying it would be incompatible with Obama’s promise to fight climate change.

 

Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said Obama needs to live up to his “soaring oratory” on climate change.

 

“We dealt with this for eight years in the Bush administration, and we didn’t think we’d have to do it with John Kerry’s State Department,” Brune said, speaking of the recently sworn-in secretary of state.

 

Email: scockerham@mcclatchydc.com;

Twitter: @seancockerham

In Demerara guy's Alberta his land of milk and honey/Heaven on earth.  The provincial government yesterday cut funding to non profit organizations and charities.  It is going to be something when all the homeless and mad people start to walk the streets. Demerara guy I would advise you to get yourself a large piece of wood when you go downtown. 

You see Demerara Guy if you walk around Edmonton with a big piece of wood in your hand (like walking tall himself Mr. Joe Don Baker).  Then them mad men (who got let out on to the streets because of Alberta Government Budget cutbacks) will think that you are mad also.  So they will leave you alone.

 

 

 

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is heading to Chicago and Houston this week in an attempt to build momentum in favour of the Keystone pipeline.

 

The minister’s trip comes on the heels of Friday’s report by the U.S. State Department, which was seen positively by supporters of the controversial $7.6-billion pipeline even though it did not weigh in with a clear recommendation on the project.

 

With a formal public debate on the pipeline still to come in the United States, the Canadian government has more lobbying ahead as it tries to win over a White House under pressure from the U.S. environmental movement to act more aggressively in response to climate change.

 

Mr. Oliver plans on reminding influential Americans that even with a rise in domestic production, the U.S. will continue to rely heavily on imported oil for decades.

 

“You can make a decision to take oil from some other countries like Venezuela and Mexico that have heavy crude coming in – or some other countries that may not be particularly reliable as sources of energy – or you can deal with your best friend and closest neighbour who has a robust environmental-protection regime and is friendly and has a long relationship of supplying oil to the United States,” Mr. Oliver said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period.

 

The proposed TransCanada Corp. pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels a day of bitumen from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast for refining.

 

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has criticized the proposal, saying it would be better to have the oil refined in Canada to boost employment.

Environmentalists in Canada and the United States have criticized some of the State Department’s assessments, arguing that the report underestimates the project’s potential impact on climate change.

 

Former Progressive Conservative prime minister Kim Campbell weighed in on the issue Sunday, warning that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s environmental policies need to catch up with the sharp change in American opinion of late when it comes to climate change.

 

“I think that Canada kind of dragged its heels on climate change for as long as the Bush administration wasn’t doing much. And the Obama administration is moving in a different direction,” she told Global’s West Block, pointing out that Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events have had an impact on public opinion.

 

“My sense is that Canada has to be aware of the extent to which things are moving in the United States on that file. And it would be a pity you know if there is a ‘no’ on the pipeline and that was a real chilling of our relationships,” she said.

 

On Tuesday, Mr. Oliver is scheduled to address the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. On Wednesday, he will deliver the afternoon keynote speech to the IHS CERAWeek conference on energy issues in Houston.

 

Mr. Oliver is expected to remind Americans that many of Canada’s environmental policies move in lockstep with the United States.

 

“We have the same rules in respect to fuel emissions from light trucks, from heavy trucks, from automobiles because we have an integrated auto market, and we’ve done a number of things that, frankly, are ahead of the Americans,” he said, citing reductions in coal emissions as an example.

Demerara guy your Alberta (land of milk/honey and heaven on Earth)  never prepared for low oil prices.  No plans for an economic crisis. Nothing.  Keep that big stick with you on Thursday. 

 

The Alberta government, continuing to press its case for the Keystone XL pipeline, took out an ad in Sunday’s New York Times newspaper, tying the controversial project to core American values and to U.S. pride in its military.

 

The half-page ad is headlined “Keystone XL: The Choice of Reason.”

 

It acknowledges the validity of environmental concerns, but stresses the $7-billion pipeline is about much more than that.

 

“America’s desire to effectively balance strong environmental policy, clean technology development, energy security and plentiful job opportunities for the middle class and returning war veterans mirrors that of the people of Alberta,” reads the $30,000 ad.

 

“This is why choosing to approve Keystone XL and oil from a neighbour, ally, friend, and responsible energy developer is the choice of reason.”

 

Stefan Baranski, a spokesman for Alberta Premier Alison Redford, said the ad was taken out to counter a New York Times editorial that ran a week ago urging U.S. President Barack Obama to reject the 1,800-kilometre TransCanada line.

 

“It’s important for Alberta to get the facts on the table as widely as possible,” said Baranski.

 

“Certainly the Sunday Times is a critically important audience to speak to, and I think Alberta has a good track record, a very good story to tell, and it’s important that we’re out there telling that story at this very critical time.”

 

Obama is expected to decide the fate of the pipeline in the next few months.

 

If approved, Keystone XL would take oil from Alberta’s oilsands through the heart of the U.S. Midwest to refineries on the Gulf Coast in Texas for transshipment to consumers around the world.

Protests held in Washington

Alberta and the federal government are urging Obama approve the deal to open up new markets for the oilsands.

 

A glut of oil due to new finds in North Dakota coupled with pipeline bottlenecks in Canada are squeezing the price of the oilsands product compared with the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate. That price gap will cost Alberta an estimated $6 billion in lost revenue this year alone.

'It’s important for Alberta to get the facts on the table as widely as possible.'—Stefan Baranski, spokesperson for Alberta Premier Alison Redford

Keystone proponents, including labour groups and the petroleum industry, got a boost two weeks ago when the U.S. State Department, in a preliminary report, said rejecting Keystone XL would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions or slow down development in the oilsands.

 

Protesters, meanwhile, have gathered by the thousands in Washington in recent weeks to demand the project be abandoned.

 

For them, the carbon-intensive oilsands operations are a symbol of greedy, shortsighted thinking. Approving Keystone, they say, encourages producers to pursue high-carbon operations that will boost the greenhouse gases already causing climate problems like higher temperatures, superstorms and severe flooding.

 

The New York Times, referred to by some as the paper of record in the United States, agreed with that position in its editorial last Sunday.

 

The Times said Obama must adopt a broader view and take a stand.

 

A yes to Keystone XL, said the Times, makes it economical to expand the oilsands, resulting in even higher greenhouse gas emissions to go along with more collateral environmental damage like denuded landscapes and polluted waterways.

 

“In itself, the Keystone pipeline will not push the world into a climate apocalypse. But it will continue to fuel our appetite for oil and add to the carbon load in the atmosphere. There is no need to accept it,” said the editorial.

Economic benefits touted

The Alberta government ad takes pains to make the case for the province’s environmental responsibility. It reiterates previous arguments that Alberta is financing more clean energy projects and is the first North American jurisdiction to charge large emitters $15 a tonne on carbon.

 

The ad focuses on the economic benefits of Keystone, including 42,100 jobs during the construction phase.

 

It also makes the case, suggested previously by Redford and others, that the oilsands have been unfairly scapegoated despite much larger emitters burning coal on both sides of the border and around the world.

 

“Greenhouse gas emissions from all the oilsands in Alberta, Canada, make up just over one-tenth of one per cent of the world’s emissions,” said the ad.

 

Provincial officials, however, have previously conceded Alberta isn’t even close to meeting its goals for reducing greenhouse gases. The province has pledged to reduce emissions by 50 megatonnes a year by 2020 but has averaged just over five tonnes a year since 2007.

 

This is the second time in recent weeks that Redford has stated her case in mass-circulation newspapers in the United States. She made a similar pitch in a guest column in USA Today three weeks ago.

 

Baranski said they requested a guest column in the Times but were turned down, leading to the decision to take out the ad.

 

The newspaper offensive is being matched by work on the ground. Redford, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, and federal politicians have been jetting down to Washington in recent weeks to make the case for Keystone.

 

Redford has been to the U.S. capital twice and is scheduled to return there on April 8th or 9th for three days of meetings with decision makers, said Baranski. A detailed itinerary has not been set, he said.

Demerara guy I would advice you to be carefull and don't go walking on the streets without a cellphone with you and that big stick.  As Alberta sinks deeper into serious economic troubles and people start to get laid off the people will get more hostile to immigrants and visible minorities.  It is being to happen and will get much worst.