Some Hope Obama Offers Tradeoff if He Approves Pipeline

[XemaSab]

President Obama’s first major environmental decision of his second term could be to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, profoundly disappointing environmental advocates who have made the project a symbolic test of the president’s seriousness on climate change.

But could some kind of deal be in the offing, a major climate policy announcement on, for example, power plant regulation or renewable energy incentives, to ease the sting of the pipeline approval?

White House and State Department officials insist a pipeline ruling will be made strictly on whether the 1,700-mile project is in the economic, environmental and security interests of the United States. They say the pipeline is not a fundamental piece of the nation’s climate policy nor is it a political bargaining chip to trade for other measures.

Administration officials have described the pipeline as a relatively simple permit application on an infrastructure project to transport oil from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/business/energy-environment/a-call-for-quid-pro-quo-on-keystone-pipeline-approval.html

[ProSense]

1. First,

But could some kind of deal be in the offing, a major climate policy announcement on, for example, power plant regulation or renewable energy incentives, to ease the sting of the pipeline approval?

...I really hate stupid. Trading "renewable energy incentives" for an evironmentally castastrophic pipeline?

Second, the piece is titled: "Foes Suggest a Tradeoff if Pipeline Is Approved"

Problem: It doesn't mention who the hell these complicit "foes" are. Is it the author? The NYT?

The evironmentalist quoted is against the project:

“Approving the pipeline would be a deep self-inflicted wound on the Obama administration, greater than anything else he has done,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club and a leader of the antipipeline movement. “This was not inherited from the Bush administration and it can’t be passed off to his successor. It really is Obama’s alone. Whatever damage the decision would do to the environmental movement pales in comparison to the damage it would do to his own legacy.”

Progressives Boycott Facebook Ads In Opposition To Zuckerberg Group (support for Keystone XL)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022809758

[DearHeart]

2. We shouldn't have to OK that damn pipeline

in order to have power plant regulation, renewable energy incentives, etc.