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Letter: Keep your word, Mr. President

For the Monitor

Monday, February 11, 2013

In his inaugural address the president promised, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” Then why hasn’t President Obama stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline, proposed to carry bitumen from tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas, by denying the necessary permit to cross the Canada-U.S. border?

He knows that scientists have identified the excavation, transport and processing of bitumen as significantly more hazardous to the environment than would be the same for conventional oil.

He knows that the pipeline’s completion will allow the exploitation of the largest petroleum reserve on the continent, cancelling out all efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and control global warming.

We heard the president say, “You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.”

Because there is no more ancient value or enduring ideal than the preservation of the natural world, hundreds of thousands of us will remind the president of his promise by demonstrating against the Keystone XL Pipeline in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 17.

Join us!

Information is at 350.org.

WILTRUD R. MOTT-SMITH

Loudon

sail wrote:
17/02/2013

"ABC all upset at poll showing huge drop in global warming believers Not to be the master of the obvious here, but it is going to be hard to convince people that the earth is warming . . . when it is not. The earth’s temperature peaked in 1998. It’s been falling ever since; it dropped dramatically in 2007 and got worse in 2008, when temperatures touched 1980 levels. "
earthling wrote:
15/02/2013

I totally agree. But President Obama would have been replaced by a President Romney had Obama not compromised to some degree on Keystone. Koch Industries owns lots of oil sands leases in Canada. And Koch industries invented oil derivative market speculation for running up oil prices whenever they come up with any excuse to do so. I think the $44B Koch brothers pretty much own the GOP puppets, and that they bought them with a fraction of their Reagan and Bush tax cuts. What should be done is to recover all energy related government costs, like the $100B/yr that we spend in places like Bahrain (excluding war costs) providing security for the oil companies, at the pumps and meters with a national sales tax. Then clean energy and energy efficiency would take off, just like it has in other countries with high taxes on dirty energy. Republicans seemed to be enthusiastic about Cain, with his national sales tax proposal (that didn't target anything sensible). But can you imagine if Obama had suggested a national sales tax on energy? The $44B Kochs would probably have had a hemorrhoid and started funneling a lot more of Reagan/Bush tax cut $Bs to rile up all the single issue blinder right wing groups, like the NRA, anti gay marriage, and the religious right (that apparently thinks they'll be saved somehow from global warming anyway). Plus the GOP Koch puppets would make up all kinds of ads pretending that the Republicans had nothing to do with creating the whole US debt with their tax cuts for the wealthy and finance charges over the last 3 decades. I wish I could join you down in DC on the 17th.
FearlessLdr wrote:
15/02/2013

Global Warmng?? I'll believe in when the county extension service tells me I can plant pineapple trees in Hillsboro. That said, didn't Mr Obama also promise to cut the deficit in half by 2013??
Hunter_Dan wrote:
16/02/2013

You CAN plant pineapple trees in Hillsboro FL! They'll die . . . but you can still plant them if you want.
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