Handcuffed_to_Money.jpg It is said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That statement has proven itself true time after time in both politics and business, but I would like to amend that statement slightly: Power corrupts, but money and power corrupt absolutely. This year has been no different. We’ve
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – No, there’s no doubt that the Harper Cons’ position on greenhouse gas emissions has been both amoral in its disregard for climate change, and ill-founded in its pretence that Alberta’s failing “intensity” targets will do anything positive. Which makes it all the more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Republicans Working On Huge Polluter Giveaways
House-Republicans-Boehner-Pence-Cantor.jpg The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is playing hardball with President Obama’s proposal to extend a payroll tax cut extension, and now they’ve found a way to use the extension as a means to grant their polluter friends everything on their holiday wish list. According to Reuters, Republicans in
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Congressmembers Implicated in Insider Stock Trading on TransCanada, Keystone XL Pipeline
shutterstock_89794186.jpg When it comes to TransCanada Corporation's Keystone XL pipeline approval process, corruption has been rampant, as well covered by DeSmogBlog as it unfolded. The Keystone XL pipeline, currently in limbo, would carry tar sands crude — a thick and dirty fossil fuel called bitumen — from the Alberta tar sands through
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Measuring the success of social movements: Occupy, Arab Awakening, the Tea Party, and Keystone XL
How do we measure the success or effectiveness of a social movement? Ultimately we probably wish to change our society in some way, or perhaps to resist the changes that are occurring. Sometimes these changes can be very targeted such as implementing a specific government or corporate policy. And sometimes
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Compare and contrast
One Western premier has some perspective on what a provincial leader can expect to accomplish on the global stage: She regretted, but didn’t condemn, the Obama administration’s decision to delay approval of the mega-project until after 2013. And she displayed refreshing humility about her own power to change minds in
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: With Keystone shelved, Northern Gateway must not go ahead
Monday, November 14, 2011
Throughout the debate about whether the Keystone XL Pipeline should be b…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Breaking: State Department Delays Keystone XL Decision Until 2013
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The State Department announced today that they would “seek additional information” about the Keystone XL pipeline, meaning that they will take another 12 months at…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Valero Positioning To Export Tar Sands Oil, Guarding Pot of Gold at End of Keystone XL Pipeline
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In the heated Keystone XL debate, the Canadian company TransCanada, which is attempting to build the line, and the Koch brothers, who are throwing their considerable weight behi…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Inspector General To Investigate Keystone XL Conflicts
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NRDC's Switchboard blog reports that the Inspector General will investigate the conflicts of interest and incompetence surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline permitting proce…
Continue reading350 or bust: Mark Ruffalo On Opposing Keystone XL Pipeline: I Look At My Kids and I Say I Can’t Betray Them
I’m looking out the window of my home office today, rejoicing at the sprinkling of snow on the ground. Yesterday rain fell outside, while a confused fly that should have been hibernating buzzed around inside. Both are examples, along with the tem…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Bogus Job Numbers Used To Sell Keystone XL Pipeline
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As thousands of protestors gather at The White House today to voice opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline plan, one of the major selling points from the pipeline proponents…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Industry Co-Opts Occupy Movement to Sell the Keystone XL Pipeline
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The AFL-CIO's America's Building Trades Unions and Oil and Natural Gas Industry Labor-Management Committee are attempting to co-opt the Occupy movement with a new initiative…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Opposition to Keystone XL Pipeline Heating Up
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The fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline is heating up, with many positive and important developments occuring this past week, excluding the disgra…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: TransCanada Spent $540,000 Lobbying in Third Quarter For Keystone XL Pipeline
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TransCanada Corp, the company hoping to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, spent $540,000 on lobbying in the third quarter of 2011, according to lobb…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Harry Reid to Hillary Clinton: Drop Keystone XL Pipeline Plan
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Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have gained a new ally in the fight to prevent this disastrous oil boondoggle from moving forward: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D&ndas…
Continue readingArt Threat: “Pipe Dreams” hits screens – U.S. documentary maker takes on the Keystone XL
American filmmaker, Leslie Iwerks, has turned her attention to Canada once again in her new film “Pipe Dreams.” In 2009, Iwerks produced two documentaries — “Downstream” and “Dirty Oil” — that were critical of the health and social impacts associated with the Alberta oil sands. This year, the Academy Award nominated director is shedding light on the environmental battle […]
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Keystone XL Lobbyists Web of Corruption Infographic
Now that the web of Keystone XL tar sands industry lobbyists connected to Hillary Clinton has grown far beyond Paul Elliott, DeSmogBlog, Oil Change International, The Other 98% and Friends of the Earth have produced a new white board infographic t…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: In Throes of Keystone XL Controversy, Obama Admin OKs Alaska Offshore Drilling
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With all eyes on the ongoing battle over whether or not the Obama Administration and the State Department will approve the disastrous Keystone XL pipeline, it was easy to l…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Hillary Clinton’s Keystone XL Crony Lobbyists Problem
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Hillary Clinton and the State Department have the final word on whether to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, unless President Obama intervenes. The infl…
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