The D.C. Earthquake Makes For an Alarming Case against the Keystone Pipeline

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/25-4

The August 23rd earthquake that rocked D.C. all the way up to Martha’s Vineyard where the President is vacationing should be an alarming wake up call to President Obama on how easily a crude oil pipeline can rupture from a crushing earthquake.

It’s bad enough that this President gave the thumbs up to Arctic offshore oil drilling. "The Arctic’s Beaufort Sea is plagued with high seas, shrieking winds, darkness, sea ice, and minimal visibility. Yet, the Obama administration just approved aggressive offshore drilling in these harsh waters—before doing a full environmental review, and without requiring reliable safety equipment or an approved oil spill response plan." (EarthJustice.com)

The President still has a chance to be on the right side of history by saying NO to Arctic drilling and NO to the Keystone pipeline projectwhich threatens to poison our fragile ecology, agricultural land and fresh water aqueducts. The pipeline is from the oil sands of Alberta and would run from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In addition, the consumption of this oil would be the same as setting off a “carbon bomb into the atmosphere,” as environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben put it, by intensifying global warming beyond the tipping point.

As for creating jobs—that certainly is an appealing selling point, but as the Gulf residents who lost their livelihoods in the fishing, real estate and tourism industries worth billions of dollars a year before they were swept away or lost to BP’s black tides of oil will tell you, it’s not worth the risk of employing 5 to 10,000 workers temporarily for Canadian oil that in the end will not make our gas prices cheaper because it will be sold on the international market. Just ask the Gulf residents who were in the fishing industry what they think about more oil coming their way. Sen. Bernie Sanders is right: we can produce a lot more jobs with the creation of green energy technology. In fact, solar and wind companies are beginning to boom and they’re doing it without the Federal government. You can’t stop progress.

More at the link --

[dtexdem]

1. As well as against nuclear power plants.

And what will the one-two punch of the quake and Irene do?

[Desertrose]

2. K&R

Maybe Mother Earth is trying to tell us something.....

[Mojeoux]

3. K and R!!

[robcon]

4. Ridiculous. A once-a-century mild earthquake.

That's not logical, IMO.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Are you claiming the tar sands and pipeline clusterf*ck are somehow logical?

Hello?

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Or that game over for the climate as a result of building this pipeline is logical?

That statement alone should put everyone off of building this pipeline, especially those who believe in Global Climate Change. :shrug:

[TheWraith]

7. If your only response is a strawman argument, you're the one who needs to check your logic.

And perhaps have a discussion without the "Either you agree with us blindly, or you're with the terrorists!" rhetoric.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Are you claiming that strawmen are blind the the clusterf*ck character of this whole boonfogle?