UPDATES - Keystone XL Pipeline / Tar Sands
Most recent update at http://www.gregpalast.com/the-pig-in-the-xl-pipelineinsider-reveals-conc.... Greg Palast explains: “Pig Man #2,” a pipeline industry insider, had a good reason to be afraid. He was about to blow the whistle on a fraud, information that could blow away the XL Keystone Pipeline project.
His information: The software for the crucial piece of pipeline safety equipment, the “Smart PIG,” has a flaw known to the industry but concealed from regulators.
The flaw allows cracks, leaks and corrosion to go undetected – and that saves the industry billions of dollars in pipe replacements. But there’s a catch. Pipes with cracks and leaks can explode – and kill.
Federal law requires the oil and gas industry to run a PIG, a Pipeline Inspection Gauge, through big oil and gas pipelines. The robot porker, tethered to a GPS, beeps and boops as it rolls through, electronically squealing when it finds dangers.
But whistleblowers told us at Channel 4 Dispatches (the “60 Minutes” of Britain) that the software is deliberately calibrated to ignore or minimize deadly problems. They know because they themselves worked on the software design team.
RECENT UPDATE: http://thecanadian.org/item/1251-gitxsan-battle-enbridge-video-cameras-s...
And, by Damien Gillis, a look at the Harper Government:
The various spokespeople for supposed "grassroots" pro-Tar Sands and pipeline organization http://EthicalOil.org have steadfastly maintained their campaign has no connection to the oil and gas industry or the Harper Government. But as the links between these groups continue to pile up, that contention becomes harder and harder to swallow. From identical talking points - "ethical oil", alleged foreign meddling in Canadian pipeline politics, the dismissal Enbridge's opponents as a handful of environmental "radicals" - to the revolving door between http://EthicalOil.org and the Harper Government, it's hard not to see the two groups are working together on behalf of predominantly foreign oil interests. More at http://thecanadian.org/item/1271-ethicaloilorg-and-the-harper-government...
UPDATE: While environmentalists, celebrities and religious leaders may come from different backgrounds, a number of them share something in common: their opposition to the planned Keystone XL pipeline that may soon be built across the Midwest or mere;y across vast expanses of Canada..
The prominent individuals below have all lent their names to the opposition of the Keystone pipeline, which has pitted many environmentalists against business and oil industry proponents in an increasingly heated debate.
More details at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/keystone-xl-pipeline-opponents_n_1000862.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
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PREVIOUS UPDATE: On October 6, the U.S. State Department held its final public hearing on the planned pipeline that will run from Canada to the Gulf coast. The Obama administration has the final say on the pipeline, but experts believe it will be built.
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Last week, eleven veterans of the environmental movement issued an open letter to Canadians and Americans inviting them to participate in a massive public protest of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion.
The letter’s signatories, which include David Suzuki, Bill McKibben, and Wendell Berry and climate scientist James Hansen, say that the time has come to move from letter writing and petition signing to something that’s more likely to get the government’s attention: civil disobedience at the nation’s capital.
The invitation can be read in its entirety at tarsandsaction.org, but here are a few choice excerpts (emphasis and links added):
"As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we’ve seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.
"And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.
"These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a certificate of ‘national interest’ to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called ‘Keystone XL Pipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to Texas refineries.
"The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Oglalla Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous—and though the pipeline companies insist they are using ‘state of the art’ technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.
"And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she’s ‘inclined’ to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it’s because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it’s also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerce—a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined—has demanded that the administration “move quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,” which is not so surprising—they’ve also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can ‘adapt their physiology’ to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.
"So we’re pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington.
"This won’t be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we won’t go away. Not all of us can actually get arrested—half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada—the decision-makers need to know they’re being watched.
"Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasn’t worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now.
If you are ready to stand up and be counted with those who believe America can and should make a drastic choice to abandon its fossil fuel addiction, sign up for the Tar Sands Action here.
You can also show the Obama administration that you oppose the Keystone XL by signing this petition.
Read more:
Beth Buczynski is a freelance writer and editor living in the Rocky Mountain West. So far, Beth has lived in or near three major U.S. mountain ranges, and is passionate about protecting the important ecosystems they represent. Follow Beth on Twitter as @ecosphericblog.
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