House Republicans Pass Unconstitutional Bill Hijacking Obama’s Power Over Keystone XL

[Tx4obama]

House Republicans Pass Unconstitutional Bill Hijacking Obama’s Power Over Keystone XL

As America continues making the transition from a representative democracy to a corporate-controlled fascist state, it is becoming more difficult to have any faith that the minority party in power has any regard whatsoever for this nation or its people, but that is to be expected from Republicans whose raison d’être is empowering corporations. There are few areas of government and policy Republicans have not ceded to their corporate handlers, but none is as blatant and damaging as allowing the corporate oil industry to dictate energy and environmental policy that is having acutely deleterious effects on the people and health of the environment. Part of the problem is a corporate-controlled press that advances the oil industry agenda without opposition, and part is allowing oil industry sycophants to serve in Congress that emboldened them to stage a coup d’état to seize power from the President and warn him to toe the oil industry line or else. A major share of the blame lies solely with the Founding Fathers and their pathetic Constitution that has failed miserably to protect the people from corporate oligarchs even when they are from a foreign nation.

Two events over the past two days inform that Republicans are employed by a foreign nation’s prime minister and one of its corporations that promises to enrich the GOP’s primary campaign donors’ bottom line regardless the existential threat to the environment and the health and welfare of the American people. On Wednesday, House Republicans took the unprecedented, but not wholly unexpected, step to wrest power from the President of the United States by passing a bill that circumvents the President’s executive power and approved the environment-killing Keystone XL pipeline at the direct order of a foreign corporation and Canada’s prime minister. The Harper government has exerted its formidable power over Republicans to subvert the Constitution to advance a Canadian corporation’s intent to pump 830,000 barrels per day of tar sand bitumen to American refineries en route to South America, China, and Europe.

Following the Republican practice of blatant lying to enrich and empower corporate control of energy policy, TransCanada spokesman, Shawn Howard, said, “We appreciate the continued support from many members of Congress, who understand the importance of Keystone XL to the American economy,” and that “Keystone XL will be the safest oil pipeline, and it will help make America less reliant on more expensive oil from countries that do not share its interests and values.” TransCanada has reported that the KeystoneXL pipeline will regularly spill tar sand bitumen on American soil, as well as touted contracts already in place to sell every drop of refined tar sand on the foreign export market. Americans will never see or use any of the refined tar, but they will pay more for gas as TransCanada predicted the pipeline will increase the price of fuel at the pump by at least 20-cents per gallon. In fact, the pipeline is so hazardous to the environment that the Canadian government will not allow TransCanada to build the pipeline over Canadian soil to West coast refineries, so they charged Republicans to ignore the Constitution and pass a bill to approve the pipeline’s construction regardless it is the purview of the President of the United States.

Yesterday, a group of Senate Republicans sent a stern warning to President Obama to approve the pipeline forthwith, and forbade him from including any measures to address climate change the pipeline is certain to exacerbate on a massive scale. Two dozen Senate Republicans cautioned the President that he had better not link one single climate change policy to approval of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, and that he dare not “tether its fate to wholly unrelated and economically disastrous new regulatory policies.” Every climate scientist on the planet has warned that developing Canada’s tar sands will increase CO2 emissions to a point it will be “game over for the climate” in spite of the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil report to the State Department that building the pipeline is an environmentally sound endeavor with “manageable” consequences to the environment. Two weeks ago, carbon dioxide (CO2) reached the 400ppm milestone for the first time in at least 800,000 years according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and climate scientists agree the evidence is conclusive the strong growth of CO2 emissions is from burning coal, oil, and natural gas. 400 ppm is 50 ppm over the threshold scientists claim demands immediate steps to curb fossil fuel emissions or it is game over for the climate; Republicans and their corporate masters could not care less.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.politicususa.com/house-republicans-unconstitutional-action-hijack-obamas-power-keystone-xl.html

A Good Read.

[defacto7]

1. K&R

Thanks Tx4obama!

[AverageJoe90]

2. Good article, but there's just one thing that needs to be corrected:

Not every scientist has said that Keystone XL is "game over for the climate", necessarily(while the .4-.5*C that it could theoretically contribute certainly wouldn't be good, it's not a "end-all, be-all" type of thing either). In fact, this is a minority view held by Jim Hansen and maybe a few others.....hyperbole really isn't a good thing for waking up the masses, TBH; it may fire up some people who are already aware, but that isn't the effect that it's gonna have on most everyday Joes & Janes.

Other than that slight nitpick, good article. Really do hope we can keep this noxious bill from advancing in the Senate, though.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

3. What a miserable bunch.

I don't know what to call them. Their addiction to money and power has negative side effects never before experienced on a global scale.

[graham4anything]

4. The protest of 2009 10 worked so well, didn't it? Only answer is GOTV in 2014 and vote straight dem.

It is quite easy to rid the nation of these republican representatives in the voting booth

but staying at home and protesting or saying both parties are the same, is 100% NOT the answer to achieve anything.
It takes a village to defeat these republicans and then to make sure they are forever rendered obsolete in office.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Didn't think that BHO had much against the Keystone pipeline.

So the GOP can be used as cover to do what the "DEMS" wanted to do anyway.

Convenient.

[forestpath]

6. Why does Obama remain silent when they usurp his power?

Answer: because he agrees with them.

[PDittie]

7. We should aknowledge as well

the 19 House Democrats -- five from Texas and two from Houston, where KXL will terminate at the refineries that will process the tar sands oil -- who voted in favor of this bill.

John Barrow (GA-12) Blue Dog
Sanford Bishop (GA-02) Blue Dog
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Jim Cooper (TN-05) Blue Dog
Jim Costa (CA-16) Blue Dog
Henry Cuellar (TX-28) Blue Dog
William Enyart (IL-12)
Al Green (TX-09)
Gene Green (TX-29)
Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15)
Sean Maloney (NY-12)
Sean Matheson (UT-04) Blue Dog
Mike McIntyre (NC-07) Blue Dog
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
William Owens (NY-21)
Colin Peterson (MN-07) Blue Dog
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Filemon Vela (TX-34)
John Yarmuth (KY-03)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/23/1211165/-Nineteen-House-Democrats-vote-to-take-authority-over-Keystone-XL-decision-away-from-the-president

[midnight]

8. The government’s own EPA has weighed in against the environmental draft report

The government’s own Environmental Protection Agency has weighed in against the environmental draft report,

The chiefs join the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), which two weeks ago released its public comments on the pipeline’s draft environmental assessment report, recommending that the Obama administration reject the pipeline proposal from TransCanada if certain concerns could not be adequately addressed. (Related: Fill Gaps in Keystone XL Draft Environment Report or Reject Pipeline, NCAI Tells Obama Administration)

The state department received more than a million public comments by the April 22 deadline, which was coincidentally Earth Day, most of them against the project. (Related: Anti-Keystone XL Tribal Members Urge Fellow Natives to Comment on Environmental Impact Statement)

The government’s own Environmental Protection Agency has weighed in against the environmental draft report, which was released on March 1. On April 22 the EPA objected to the review, saying more study was needed of greenhouse gas emissions, the potential effect of spills, and the route through ecologically sensitive territory, the Washington Post reported. (Related: State Department Draft Environmental Report Says Keystone XL Effects on Both Climate Change and Oil Supply Would Be Minimal)

They contended that tribes had not been consulted as the report stated they had, and took issue with the report’s assessment that the pipeline would have little to no impact on climate change. (Related: Exaggerated Consultation Claims, Factual Errors in State Department's Keystone XL Environment Report Rankle Natives)


Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/17/chiefs-declare-keystone-xl-consultation-meeting-invalid-walk-out-state-department

[Igel]

9. A bit self-serving.

The entire "Constitutional question" in this case seems to rely on estoppal. The President has exerted the power to issue permits for years now and Congress has let him have the power. Congress hasn't much exerted this power.

But the court cases say he can issue the permit. So the argument is that since the President usurped the power in the face of Congressional indifference, the power is now Constitutionally assigned to the President? That's really a weak agument.

The Constitution doesn't give him the power. The Commerce Clause clearly assigns the power to Congress. So the question has to be, Can estoppal overrule the Constitution? Is this something we seriously want to argue. It's rather like our side's winning a small skirmish as we surround the enemy's capital just in order to clear the field for issuing a unilateral declaration of unconditional surrender by our side.

I think we'd have to say pretty clearly "no" if we want to have any kind of integrity, as well.

Look at the history of civil rights. SCOTUS finds new ways to apply rights and even new rights more than 200 years after the Constitution was ratified, many, many decades after amendments were ratified, even though those rights had not been protected, applied, enforced until then. It's pretty clear that if the power had been de facto delegated for generations then estoppal would certainly apply there. SCOTUS continues to say "no" to that idea: If a right to an adequate and appropriate education can be found and implemented 170 years after the text, after 170 years of being ignored, then a few decades of ignoring the Commerce Clause can't matter. Same for all sorts of other rights and privileges. The Constitution's text and even interpretation trumps estoppal.

I don't thank there's a Constitutional crisis. I think there's just a bit of panic.

[limpyhobbler]

10. The word "VETO" doesn't appear once in this article. Ridiculous.

Obama's power over Keystone has not been hijacked. It is still in His power to decide. Obama is the decider. Of Keystone XL.

politicususa.com is full of inaccuracies. I've caught them in lies numerous times. And the lies and misleading headlines always serve to make Obama look good and try to blame everything on Republicans.

Sorry I think that site is horrible.