News Release

XL Pipeline: Scrutinizing Politicos and PR

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The Senate is debating the XL Pipeline and is expected to vote late this afternoon.

MICHAEL KLARE, mklare at hampshire.edu
Klare just wrote the piece “Fossil-Fueled Republicanism, The Grand Oil Party Takes Washington by Storm.” His latest book is The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources.

STEVE HORN, steve at desmogblog.com, @SteveAHorn
Horn is research fellow with DeSmogBlog, which seeks to “clear the PR pollution that clouds climate science” and a freelance investigative journalist based in Madison, Wisc. He summarized three recent DeSmogBlog pieces:

Edelman’s TransCanada Astroturf Documents Expose Oil Industry’s Broad Attack on Public Interest” — “TransCanada has failed for years to win approval of the northern leg of the border-crossing Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, so the company has resorted to using a sophisticated PR plan to curry favor with a skeptical public. The documents obtained by Greenpeace Canada prove that is the case as it applies to another TransCanada tar sands pipeline, Energy East.”

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s Warburg Pincus May Profit from Tar Sands Exports” — “Geithner’s company Warburg Pincus is chomping at the bit for tar sands dilbit to flow through Enbridge’s Keystone XL Clone and to the global market. His private equity firm’s ownership of MEG Energy symbolizes the likely purpose of both the Enbridge Keystone XL Clone system and the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline System: in large part, an export pipeline through the U.S. and to the global market.”

State Department’s Keystone XL Contractor ERM Approved Project Now Melting Glaciers” — “Houston Chronicle energy reporter Jennifer Dlouly described the looming vote on the northern leg of Keystone XL as a ‘Hail Mary’ for both U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) ‘to claim the title of the oil industry’s biggest champion.’ But if Big Oil catches the Hail Mary pass and runs the ball into the end-zone, it will mean more melting glaciers in the Arctic at the hands of climate disruption, caused by the tar sands production Keystone XL North will incentivize.”