The science is clear: Human caused global warming is happening and is serious. Building and expanding infrastructure to make it easier to burn fossil fuels is a very bad idea. The Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline were two such projects, and in recent years, the environmental community, politicians, and others managed to stop these projects.<\/p>\n
Today, President Trump signed an executive order that brings these projects back to life and moves them forward.<\/p>\n
From Rhea Suh, president of the National Resources Defense Council:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s appalling that Trump wants to throw open our borders to big polluters. Eliminating the national interest determination process, used by both Republican and Democratic administrations for decades, cedes control of our borders to multinational corporations to jam through cross-border infrastructure projects. And it completely shuts out public engagement in decisions that affect our communities, air, water and climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese unprecedented actions could also pave the way for approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline\u2014a project vehemently opposed by the U.S. tribes whose land its crosses and waters it could pollute. Equally troubling, they also revive the Keystone XL pipeline\u2014 a tar sands project that would lock our country into, for a generation or more, massive development of among the dirtiest fuels of our past. They pose a grave threat to our water, communities and climate. We will use every tool available to help ensure that they are not built.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From Climate Hawks Vote<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Climate hawks fought one White House over the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines and we won. We\u2019re going to fight the next one. And we\u2019re going to keep on fighting until we clear the American skies of the fossil-fueled stormfront of Trumpism – and we will, ultimately, prevail.<\/p>\n
In the wake of Trump\u2019s election, thousands of our members pledged resistance, including peaceful civil disobedience if necessary. We\u2019re now calling on all Americans \u2014 including political candidates and elected officials \u2014 to pledge to resist these climate-destroying pipelines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From Price Of Oil<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\nToday, President Trump will be signing executive orders reportedly to fast-track approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. In response, David Turnbull, Campaigns Director at Oil Change International released the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines will never be completed, no matter what President Trump and his oil-soaked cabinet try to do. Trump\u2019s first days in office saw massive opposition, marking the beginning of four years of resistance to his dangerous policies. We stopped Keystone XL and Dakota Access before and we\u2019ll do it again. These are fights Trump and his bullies won\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It appears that this isn’t just hippie punching by Trump, but rather, a shrewd business deal for someone. According to DeSmogBlog<\/a>:<\/p>\n
As DeSmog has reported, Donald Trump’s top presidential campaign energy aide Harold Hamm stands to profit if both pipelines go through. <\/p>\n
Hamm, the founder and CEO of Continental Resources who sat in the VIP box at Trump’s inauguration and was a major Trump campaign donor, would see his company’s oil obtained from hydraulic fracturing (\u201cfracking\u201d) in the Bakken Shale flow through both lines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Trump has suggested that these projects would produce tens of thousands of jobs. This is only true in Alt-Universe. In Real-Universe, they will only produce a few dozen jobs long term<\/a>. In fact, making the movement of a commodity more efficient, which pipeline builder argue pipelines do, reduces the number of jobs to move that commodity, by definition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The science is clear: Human caused global warming is happening and is serious. Building and expanding infrastructure to make it easier to burn fossil fuels is a very bad idea. The Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline were two such projects, and in recent years, the environmental community, politicians, and others managed to … Continue reading Trump’s orders = two steps back on climate change<\/span>