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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Unlike Clinton, I Think Fracking Must Stop | Bernie Sanders [View all]polly7
(20,582 posts)49. Fracking .........
Bernie and Hillary and Fracking:
https://vimeo.com/157982054
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(and how she didn't appear to consider much at all those 'conditions' peddling it to other nations)
How Hillary Clinton's State Department Sold Fracking to the World
A trove of secret documents details the US government's global push for shale gas.
By Mariah Blake | September/October 2014 Issue
ONE ICY MORNING in February 2012, Hillary Clinton's plane touched down in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, which was just digging out from a fierce blizzard. Wrapped in a thick coat, the secretary of state descended the stairs to the snow-covered tarmac, where she and her aides piled into a motorcade bound for the presidential palace. That afternoon, they huddled with Bulgarian leaders, including Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, discussing everything from Syria's bloody civil war to their joint search for loose nukes. But the focus of the talks was fracking. The previous year, Bulgaria had signed a five-year, $68 million deal, granting US oil giant Chevron millions of acres in shale gas concessions. Bulgarians were outraged. Shortly before Clinton arrived, tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets carrying placards that read "Stop fracking with our water" and "Chevron go home." Bulgaria's parliament responded by voting overwhelmingly for a fracking moratorium.
Clinton urged Bulgarian officials to give fracking another chance. According to Borissov, she agreed to help fly in the "best specialists on these new technologies to present the benefits to the Bulgarian people." But resistance only grew. The following month in neighboring Romania, thousands of people gathered to protest another Chevron fracking project, and Romania's parliament began weighing its own shale gas moratorium. Again Clinton intervened, dispatching her special envoy for energy in Eurasia, Richard Morningstar, to push back against the fracking bans. The State Department's lobbying effort culminated in late May 2012, when Morningstar held a series of meetings on fracking with top Bulgarian and Romanian officials. He also touted the technology in an interview on Bulgarian national radio, saying it could lead to a fivefold drop in the price of natural gas. A few weeks later, Romania's parliament voted down its proposed fracking ban and Bulgaria's eased its moratorium.
Hillary Clinton is welcomed to Sofia by Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Minister Nikolay Mladenov, left. US Department of State/flickr
Goldwyn had a long history of promoting drilling overseasboth as a Department of Energy official under Bill Clinton and as a representative of the oil industry. From 2005 to 2009 he directed the US-Libya Business Association, an organization funded primarily by US oil companiesincluding Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Marathonclamoring to tap Libya's abundant supply. Goldwyn lobbied Congress for pro-Libyan policies and even battled legislation that would have allowed families of the Lockerbie bombing victims to sue the Libyan government for its alleged role in the attack.
But environmental groups were barely consulted, while industry played a crucial role. When Goldwyn unveiled the initiative in April 2010, it was at a meeting of the United States Energy Association, a trade organization representing Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and ConocoPhillips, all of which were pursuing fracking overseas. Among their top targets was Poland, which preliminary studies suggested had abundant shale gas. The day after Goldwyn's announcement, the US Embassy in Warsaw helped organize a shale gas conference, underwritten by these same companies (plus the oil field services company Halliburton) and attended by officials from the departments of State and Energy.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-shale-state-department-chevron
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/10/how-hillary-clintons-state-department-sold-fracking-to-the-world
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Why not we spent Trillions on a war that we never should have gotten into...
GeorgiaPeanuts
Mar 2016
#5
Because you don't have anything close to the votes in Congress for something so radical.
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#7
They need a Supreme Court that will uphold those EPA rules. That's very much in doubt right now.
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#24
There are Republican billionaires that bought that Congress. They're stronger than the bully pulpit
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#25
So we should elect Hillary Clinton so she can go along with the Wall St./Koch playbook?
Arugula Latte
Mar 2016
#32
The sad truth is that, until we organize and fund a comparable political machine, the next
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#33
That's Hillary's game. Get funding from corporations, and then do their bidding.
Arugula Latte
Mar 2016
#34
That's what we're currently up against. The Legislative Branch has been shut down by some of
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#60
Don't blame it all on Republicans... There are many DINOs in Congress...
GeorgiaPeanuts
Mar 2016
#62
To my surprise, I also heard Al Franken defending fracking a while back. nt
NorthCarolina
Mar 2016
#3
Fracking needs to be regulated better but still beats the heck out of coal.
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#6
You must have missed my "better regulated" part. Everything doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Trust Buster
Mar 2016
#26
Problem with that is, right now, if it's not natural gas, it's coal, which is much worse.
DanTex
Mar 2016
#13
I'm citing government emissions figures. Half as much CO2. If you're really amazed
DanTex
Mar 2016
#43
I'd say you're in the wrong party. And you're also woefully uninformed when it comes to
DanTex
Mar 2016
#48
You're the one doing that. You don't even understand the very reason that Obama is
DanTex
Mar 2016
#53
The all-caps don't cover up your ignorance of the fundamental environmental issues here.
DanTex
Mar 2016
#55
I'm trying to make it easy for you, but you're seem impervious to scientific facts.
DanTex
Mar 2016
#57
And Hillary's position is conditional. She has a "grown up" view about fracking.
Jitter65
Mar 2016
#14