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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWilliam Pitt made it onto Bill Moyers website
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/07/diary-of-a-dying-country/Pitt's scathing article about tar sands and the environment were featured on Bill Moyers website, which was passed on to Moyer's Facebook friends.
TBF
(32,118 posts)... thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening." ― Rosa Luxemburg
It's a good article and I love that Will Pitt has the audacity to keep writing even when it is hard for folks to read.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)(I have been "dying"to use the tip of the hat smilie ... Will Pitt deserves a tip of the hat)
Agony
(2,605 posts)Because Will Pitt speaks truth to power.
"Beyond the very basic, thousand-times proven fact that the Keystone XL pipeline will leak, because all pipelines leak when they are not exploding in huge fireballs that lay waste to the countryside and light up the sky for miles, is the fact that the extraction process for tar sands oil before it ever sees the inside of any pipeline is actually more pollutive by two to three orders of magnitude than previously understood.
The president of the United States did not deign to give a single damn about these or any other inconvenient facts about Keystone and tar sands oil when he stood up before the American people during his State of the Union address last week and talked about energy independence in terms so rosy that they would make an oil baron blush.
He didnt talk to you about any of this but maybe you might want to talk to him. The 30-day period for public comment on the Keystone XL pipeline project has officially begun, and if you have a mind to, you can speak your mind on the matter here. Click the blue Comment Now button in the upper right corner and speak your piece.
I would not in any way presume to tell you what to say or how to say it, and I offer no guarantees that commenting on that site will be anything other than a waste of time; the damned pipeline is half-built already, the State Department has blithely brushed off a mountain of extremely unsettling environmental concerns, so I am pretty much convinced that the president is going to approve this thing even if God appears before him in the Oval Office and denounces the project with brimstone and fire. The president doesnt work for God, and he sure as hell doesnt work for us. He works for the energy industry that is turning this indescribably beautiful country this indescribably beautiful world into a parched, poisoned wasteland."
lastlib
(23,356 posts)Don't hold it back--TPTB need to hear it.
I say FUCK the Keystone pipeline project, AND the G--D----- oil companies pushing for it. That oil is NOT intended for us anyway--The oil companies want to export it. That's why the pipeline is tracking to the Texas seaports. Exporting it prevents it from pushing domestic prices down, and helps boost the oil company profits. Quite clearly, and quite simply, it's a project of, by, and for the 1%ers--NOT for America as a whole.
.. very much.
Champion Jack
(5,378 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)adirondacker
(2,921 posts)Well done Will!
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)My god its spreading!!!!!!!
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)"DUmping ground for malcontents"
Some people have no shame.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Damn firebaggers everywhere these days!
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Another
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)2naSalit
(86,897 posts)nice job!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Comments must be submitted by no later than March 7, 2014, at 11:59 p.m. (EST).
Presidential Permit Applications: TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P, National Interest Determination
This Notice document was issued by the U.S. Department of State (DOS)
For related information, Open Docket Folder Docket folder icon
Action
Notice; Solicitation of Comments.
Summary
TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. applied on May 4, 2012, to the U.S. Department of State (State Department) for a Presidential Permit that would authorize construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of pipeline facilities on the U.S./Canadian border in Phillips County, Montana for the importation of crude oil. The border facilities would be part of a proposed 875-mile pipeline and related facilities (the Keystone XL project) that is designed to transport up to 830,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta, Canada and the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana. The pipeline would cross the U.S. border near Morgan, Montana and continue through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, where it would connect to existing pipeline facilities near Steele City, Nebraska for onward delivery to Cushing, Oklahoma and the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
Background information related to the application may be found at http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/. On January 31, 2014, the State Department released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Final SEIS) for the proposed Keystone XL project. The application and the Final SEIS, along with other documents, are available through the State Department's web address for the project shown above.
Executive Order 13337 (69 FR 25299) calls on the Secretary of State, or his designee, to determine if issuance of a Presidential Permit would serve the national interest. This decision will take into account a wide range of factors, including energy security; environmental, cultural, and economic impacts; foreign policy; and compliance with relevant federal regulations and issues.
The State Department invites members of the public to comment on any factor they deem relevant to the national interest determination that will be made for this permit application. Along with other factors such as those listed above, these comments will be considered in the final national interest determination. The public comment period will end 30 days from the publication of this notice.
Comments are not private. They will be posted on the site http://www.regulations.gov. The comments will not be edited to remove identifying or contact information, and the State Department cautions against including any information that one does not want publicly disclosed. The State Department requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the State Department inform those persons that the State Department will not edit their comments to remove identifying or contact information, and that they should not include any information in their comments that they do not want publicly disclosed.
___________________
Also has an interesting comments thread on the site, like this first comment:
The extraction and processing of bitumen via the Keystone pipeline is a horrific misallocation of government and private resources. The expected emission increases from the development of this resource in the EIS for the state department is not accurate. It should also be expected that a significant portion of the petcoke developed in the refinement process will also be utilized either domestically or as a resource to be sold, at the cost of containment, to developing countries. This process then significantly raises the climate impact of this resource on future generations. At the very minimum, a tariff must be developed for this resource that implements a societal cost of carbon penalty on a per unit basis. This societal cost of carbon MUST include a negative discount rate of -.05% as the full utilization of this fuel resource will lead to a climate collapse and run-away warming within the next 40 years.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Make him do it. I truly believe that enough outcry will be worth it. I distinctly remember PBO telling us the public that we must unite and speak loudly when we disagree.
This one will take a LOT of pressure, though.....the oil barons assuredly have pressures in force. Probably threatening pressures, beyond the teapuke menace.
AND don't forget, there are millions upon billions of people who, while not wanting the side effects, DO need FUEL--NOW. Immediately. This moment...... and the next and the next and the next.
And the providers are powerfully invested in preventing the development of markets other than their own.
Therefore, fossil fuel production is still critical to every human activity. It can't just stop. Obviously.
This is going to take massive massive pressure to turn around.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Autumn
(45,120 posts)tomg
(2,574 posts)Folks, as of yesterday the 30 day clock on the Keystone Pipeline is ticking.The people of the United States have 30 days to voice their opinions on whether this should be approved. We know the energy industry ( you know, BP, Freedom Industries who did such a knockout job in West Virginia, Duke Energy with their "oops our bad" last week" have all said that it is all "A-Okay" with them and they are "very serious people."
I am going to post a couple of sites, which means a couple of comments. The first is from the Government telling you how to do it. The second will be the site where you can speak your mind. The third will be an article posted on Bill Moyers by a writer named William Pitt. If that doesn't convince you to speak out, okay. So why should we bother, since it seems like a done deal. First, because it might not be. Second, silence is consent. So some basics follow: this from the government site:
"Comments must be submitted by no later than March 7, 2014, at 11:59 p.m. (EST).
Addresses
For reasons of efficiency, the State Department encourages the electronic submission of comments through the federal government's eRulemaking Portal. To submit comments electronically, go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal (http://www.regulations.gov), enter the Docket No. DOS-2014-0003, and follow the prompts to submit a comment.
The State Department also will accept comments submitted in hard copy by mail and postmarked no later than March 7, 2014. Please note that standard mail delivery to the State Department can be delayed due to security screening. To submit comments by mail, use the following address: Bureau of Energy Resources, Room 4843, Attn: Keystone XL Public Comments, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C St. NW.," Washington, DC 20520."
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=DOS-2014-0003-0001
http://www.regulations.gov/
regulations.gov
valerief
(53,235 posts)malaise
(269,254 posts)Historic NY
(37,457 posts)cd's , stocks, mutal fund and savings accounts new adviser suggested we invest in various water stocks. We had a few old none performing left over 2008 financial disaster stocks that were just making a few cents a year. We sold them off and bought a few water related stocks. They made more than the old stock in the last several years. We talked about these pipelines and exploding tank cars. He believed its going to be one of the critical things facing us water, world wide.
Invest in water is what our benevolent fund adviser said, "water will be the key stock in the future". You think he knows what the future is going to bring.
You can't live w/o clean source of water.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Vilis Veritas
(2,405 posts)Drive up sales of Nestle's (among others) "purified" water...
Where's the problem?
Tag not required...
And congratulations to Will...
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Kudos, Will Pitt,
charter member of the "DUmping ground for malcontents"!
xchrom
(108,903 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)I've had ten different people post that link on my FB wall.
Bill Moyers is a true hero of mine. Getting re-published on his site is a crazy honor.
Thanks for posting this, and thanks.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)countryjake
(8,554 posts)You most certainly deserve that honor; trying to be heard and understood above all of the negative clamor you get around here is a noble task, in itself.
I, for one, am very grateful for your voice. Our planet thanks you.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)Or 48 hours. Is that show even still on?
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)and now we see we aren't the only ones who liked what he had to say. I really do think a lot of people can't handle the truth.
handmade34
(22,759 posts)Will... I did some work a few years ago down south and enjoyed walking along the Dan River everyday while I was there.... sad days now...
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Rex
(65,616 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)Congrats to Will!
DFW
(54,476 posts)In the Napoli area if Italy, Mafia-connected companies dumped toxic waste near sources of drinking water and cancer rates soared. A wiretap of two mafiosi revealed one asking what they would do when their own drinking water was contaminated. "We'll drink bottled water, you idiot!" was the reply of the other.
Mr. President, we don't HAVE that much bottled water. What happened in West Virginia and North Carolina will end up sending several tens of thousands of Americans to early, gruesome deaths. If this had been done by religious extremists from the Middle East whose identities and location were known, you would have accorded them the same treatment as you did Osama bin Laden, and rightly so. But there is a reason for the phrase "enemies, foreign and domestic," and our country is in dire need of some protection from "enemies, domestic." Not even Bin Laden sat back in a corner office and let lawyers and paid-for governors/members of Congress serve as an effective get-out-of-jail-free card. The terrorists responsible for West Virginia and North Carolina have enough bottled water, too, after all.
XL WILL have a serious failure. It is not a question of "if," but "when." When it happens, we will have a classic case of mass "murder most foul," as the Bard put it. It can be prevented. Granted, people can't complain if they're dead, but is that really a solution under consideration?
You can decide if the Midwest continues to be our breadbasket or our wastebasket. Considering the pressures on you to decide in favor of the wastebasket, I know the decision is not as easy as it might seem. But in the end, we as a nation are not in a position to undo the damage, once it has occurred. We ARE in a position to prevent it from happening in the first place. As a nation, can we afford not to do so? As our President, can you?
mnhtnbb
(31,411 posts)to see how much of the country we can contaminate, pollute, poison
or otherwise destroy and the public be damned.
DFW
(54,476 posts)We went through "Chernobâle" here in the Rheinland almost ten years ago. Same thing, except that the Rhein has a very strong flow, so the fish in the North Sea got the worst of it. Still, I don't eat eels to this day.
Make no mistake, the race for water will make the race for oil seem like an amateur 100 yard dash in junior high.
No fresh water, no life for mammals, and that's us. When Chevron and Exxon move their world headquarters to
someplace like Mauritius or Nauru, you'll know it's time to stock your basement from wall to wall with Evian as long
as you can buy the real thing and be sure of the contents.
The next crime to be enacted as a felony will be selling contaminated water in Evian and Volvic bottles, and you
had better believe that is neither a fantasy nor decades away.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)I saw his post of Will's article on Facebook. Great exposure for him and that makes me smile.