Tar Sands Showdown Over Keystone XL
Nebraska's ranchers and small-town residents weren't about to let a Canadian energy giant build a $7 billion pipeline across their prairies -- and water supply -- without putting up a fight. From high school auditoriums and packed football stadiums to a protest at the White House, OnEarth follows the battle to stop the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline and analyzes the aftermath of the government's choice to delay a decision on the project until at least 2013. (For starters, read Editor-at-Large Ted Genoways' story of how a cowboy poet gave eloquent voice to Nebraska's outrage at a crucial moment.)
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July 31, 2012:
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July 26, 2012:
Power droughtage: The United States is currently in the throes of its worst drought in over 60 years, but unless you’re a farmer, you may not be too distressed by the big dry. Until now: without water to cool off power... read more >
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July 18, 2012:
Geoengineering, take 2: Last year public outcry in the United Kingdom shelved a controversial plan to try to slow global warming by releasing particles into the atmosphere. Now, a similar idea is coming to the United States... read more >
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July 5, 2012:
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May 8, 2012:
Shaky outlook: Most scientists consider connecting climate with seismic activity a "third rail" subject -- stay clear! But in a new book, one British geologist is making a lengthy and well-researched case that abrubt climate... read more >
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April 27, 2012:
Five greenreads to enjoy while constructing your maypole:Lee Van Der Voo in the New York Times on retirement plans for chickens: What do you do when your hen is too old to lay eggs but too much of a pet to eat for dinner?... read more >
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April 19, 2012:
Mmm, tasty: Eyeless shrimp. Oil-gilled lobsters. Lesion-riddled crabs. Deformities in Gulf of Mexico species are freaking out scientists and fishermen alike. While the government claims that the Gulf's seafood is testing... read more >
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April 13, 2012:
Thirsty nation: It’s dry out there. The U.S. is experiencing its worst drought in almost five years thanks to the mild, nearly snowless winter. It’s especially bad in Florida, which is bracing for a spate of wildfires. USA... read more >
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April 3, 2012:
Don't get cocky: Bill McKibben tells Elizabeth Kolbert how the fossil fuel industry’s pervasive influence in Congress has surprised even his cynical self lately. His takeaway? Activists shouldn't let up after a few... read more >
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March 23, 2012:
Five greenreads to enjoy while the high pollen count has you laid out on the couch this weekend:Bob Marshall in Field & Stream on Congress’s assault on wildlife habitat, from the standpoint of hunters and fishermen.... read more >
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March 2, 2012:
Price inflation: You know how certain politicians are screaming that we need to import tar sands oil from Canada via the Keystone XL pipeline in order to lower U.S. gasoline prices? Wrong. Building the pipeline would risk... read more >
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February 27, 2012:
The animal Oscars: The rest of the Animal Kingdom receives an award for best performance, best visual effects, and best sound mixing, too. (It’s called survival.) LiveScience Delay of blame: BP has postponed its... read more >
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February 21, 2012:
Not awful, just really bad: "Game over for climate change" is how NASA climate scientist James Hansen has described plans to unearth Alberta's vast tar sands reserves. Two respected Canadian scientists crunched the numbers... read more >
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February 13, 2012:
Every once in a while an opportunity comes along for all of us to be the solution. This is one of those times. We're collecting a half million messages to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the next 24 hours.... read more >
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February 10, 2012:
Safety slowdown: In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency sent the White House a list of widely used chemicals it wanted to flag as “chemicals of concern” because they may cause human health risks. (Industry, of course,... read more >
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February 8, 2012:
Joe Nocera's op-ed in the New York Times yesterday deserves a response and a reiteration of the facts surrounding the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. President Obama rejected the pipeline's permit last month when the GOP... read more >
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January 31, 2012:
Tariff battle: The U.S. Commerce Department is threatening tariffs on Chinese solar panels, sparking a potential solar trade war. American companies have split opinions -- some say Chinese practices are unfair, while others... read more >
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January 30, 2012:
Tar sands tactic: What do you do when President Obama rejects your pipeline proposal? Attach the Keystone XL project to an upcoming highway bill. Business GreenReaping and sewing: A new study finds that warmer temperatures... read more >
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January 27, 2012:
Clean tech kerfuffle: Wired’s in-depth look at the challenges facing clean-tech investment in both the public and private sectors (by the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin) gets the Joe Romm treatment as he savages both the... read more >
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January 23, 2012:
Who, who, who knows? Snowy owls are showing up in the strangest places, like tropical Hawaii. Could climate change, lemming shortages, or a boom in owlets be to blame? It’s a mystery, one that makes birdwatchers happy and... read more >
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January 20, 2012:
My thanks to President Obama for pushing back on Big Oil’s pet project: Keystone XL. read more >
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January 20, 2012:
Pipeline pittance: How much will ExxonMobil, the world’s most profitable company, be penalized for a 63,000-million gallon oil spill that polluted Montana’s Yellowstone River last summer? Try $1.6 million. Yes, with an “m.” ... read more >
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January 18, 2012:
Today’s decision by President Obama to reject, at least temporarily, the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline -- which would carry the most climate-wrecking crude oil on Earth from Canada’s tar sands to refineries on the... read more >
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January 13, 2012:
Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable say they speak for the country’s business interests.When it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline, they most definitely do not.In his “State of American... read more >
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January 4, 2012:
Mike Klink: Let’s be clear -- I am an engineer; I am not telling you we shouldn’t build pipelines. We just should not build this one. By forcing the White House to make a decision on the politically and environmentally-... read more >
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November 10, 2011:
The fate of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline was cast into limbo for at least 18 months on Thursday, as the State Department ordered a review of alternative routes to avoid putting at risk critical water sources in Nebraska... read more >
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November 8, 2011:
President Obama was reportedly golfing on Sunday afternoon, but if anyone else inside the White House looked out the window, it would have been impossible to miss the calls to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Somewhere in the... read more >
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November 8, 2011:
Sunday's anti-pipeline rally, the largest White House protest since the invasion of Iraq, added a populist dimension to the debate over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, solidifying the issue as a symbol of President Obama'... read more >
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November 7, 2011:
Yesterday more than 10,000 protestors gathered under a clear November sky in Lafayette Square, north of the White House, before fanning out to create what author and environmentalist Bill McKibben called “a big O-shaped hug... read more >
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November 2, 2011:
With thousands expected to protest TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline at a White House rally on Sunday, President Obama said it could be “several months” before he decides whether to OK the project and pledged that... read more >
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October 25, 2011:
Last Saturday, 200 Nebraskans carved a plea into a bunch of pumpkins and set them out in front of the governor's mansion in Lincoln. Lined up, the jack-o-lanterns read: "91 leaks and 0 regulations is scary. Call a special... read more >
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October 1, 2011:
Proponents of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project would like you to believe that, if approved, its construction will put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work. This is plainly untrue, according to a new... read more >
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September 21, 2011:
On Sunday, energyNOW! news tackled the Keystone XL debate in a wide-ranging half hour program that covered the controversial pipeline in typically comprehensive fashion.As part of its ongoing Reporter's Notebook series,... read more >
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September 16, 2011:
Nebraska is fast becoming the epicenter of the battle over the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The state’s Republican governor and both U.S. senators want it rerouted around the state, environmentalists are warning... read more >
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September 12, 2011:
I have never been arrested before, though I’ve been to many demonstrations and protests since the late 70s. My decision to defy police orders on August 29 by refusing to move from my spot on the sidewalk in front of the... read more >
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September 9, 2011:
It looks more and more likely that the Obama administration will approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite concerns over its safety and the devastating impact of tar sands oil on climate and the environment (... read more >
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September 7, 2011:
On Election Day in 2008, I proudly wore a Barack Obama T-shirt after months campaigning to elect the most inspiring, environmentally conscious figure to run for president in my 22 years. Two weeks ago, I wore the shirt again... read more >
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September 7, 2011:
Two weeks ago I traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to visit a place that definitely isn’t on the usual tourist maps: the city jail. I wasn’t alone. Author and climate activist Bill McKibben (an OnEarth... read more >
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September 6, 2011:
One reason I supported President Obama is because he said we must protect clean air, water and lands. But what good is it to say the right thing unless you act on it? Since early August, three administration decisions -- on... read more >
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August 26, 2011:
The U.S. State Department released its final environmental assessment (pdf) today of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands crude from Canada, across the Great Plains (and much of the Midwest’s... read more >
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June 2, 2011:
Time for Obama to Say No to the Fossil Fuel Wish List In our globalized world, old-fashioned geography is not supposed to count for much: mountain ranges, deep-water ports, railroad grades -- those seem so nineteenth century... read more >
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September 20, 2010:
The sense of déjà vu was as strong as the smell of oil fumes in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville. Parking lots were full of vacuum trucks and other large vehicles emblazoned with the names of environmental remediation... read more >
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August 12, 2010:
After up to a million gallons of oil spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River from an underground pipeline late last month, investigators and local residents focused on concerns about where and when the spill started and what... read more >
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