After the Obama administration announced a couple Fridays ago that we are postponing the decision on the construction of the proposed 1,100-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would stretch across the country– from exploited Canadian tar sands to outdated refineries in Texas– delivering yesterday’s dreams of a combustible planet to the global market of finite tomorrow, Republicans called the decision, “shameful,” while a spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “We are disappointed that politics continue to delay a decision on Keystone XL.”
The CEO of Calgary-based TransCanada Corp., Russ Girling, said Transcanada Corp. is “extremely disappointed and frustrated” over the Obama administration.
Everyone is so disappointed!
But this is also interesting because there are, of course, eminent domain issues to deal with, even as the GOP insists that the federal government should stay away from rural nuts like Cliven Bundy and get off “his” land, it should immediately seize Nebraska’s land and divvy it up among oil corporations, all in the name of cognitive dissonance!
On Wednesday, the Washington Post editorial board channeled the Twitter feed of Reince Priebus to promote the idea that a few Blue dog Democrats in oil crony states siding with the entire Republican party constitutes a bipartisan no-brainer.
In short, the board wrote:
The president should end this national psychodrama now, bow to reason, approve the pipeline and go do something more productive for the climate.
End the psychodrama now. Bow to republicans and Big oil, or what they’re calling, “reason.” Now, go play with a windmill, or something.
Instead of promoting a massive pipeline, how about we improve our rail lines and transportation infrastructure, and invest in alternative energy research & development– rural and urban planning– instead of subsidizing our own expedited death spiral?
These are the forces that “nice things” are up against.