Community Members Protest Tar Sands Pipeline at Obama’s Columbus Speech tomorrow

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Community Members Protest Tar Sands Pipeline at Obama’s Columbus Speech tomorrow

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Started 8 months ago by TomOver
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TomOver
herenowbeyond.org
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WHEN: Tuesday, September 13, 12:45pm—3pm.

WHERE: Entrance to the Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School, 546 Jack Gibbs Boulevard
Columbus, OH 43215.

WHAT: When President Obama arrives at the Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School tomorrow, he will be greeted by several dozen student and community activists with signs and a giant banner that reads: “Pres. Obama: Yes You Can, Stop the XL Pipeline.”

The rally comes on the heels of a two-week sit-in at the White House over the proposed pipeline that led to the arrest of 1,252 Americans from nearly all 50 states.

The controversial 1,700-mile pipeline project would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. and has become the most important environmental decision facing President Obama before the 2012 election.

WHY: President Obama will decide later this year on TransCanada’s permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which will send 900,000 barrels a day of the world’s dirtiest oil to U.S. refineries, allowing further development of the Alberta tar sands. Mining oil from tar sands creates three times more carbon emissions than conventional oil extraction.

“It will be increasingly difficult to mobilize the environmental base and to mobilize in particular young people to volunteer, to knock on thousands of doors, to put in 16-hour days, to donate money if they don’t think the president is showing the courage to stand up to big polluters,” Mike Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, told the New York Times.

For more information about the pipeline and protests, visit: Tar Sands Action

LOCAL CONTACTS

For Columbus Action in front of Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School:

Alec Johnson, 419-512-4718, hedgerowteacher@gmail.com

Danny Berchenko, 513-417-2562, danny.berchenko@gmail.com

Posted 8 months ago #
bman
New Albany
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Let the barrels flow!!!!

Posted 8 months ago #
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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what could possibly go wrong?

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2006/12/20085251361795444.html

Posted 8 months ago #
mrsgeedeck
Castle of Lions
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This is what annoys me about liberals for the most part, lack of focus. The President is coming to town to discuss his jobs act and people arrange to protest...a pipeline? It just doesn't seem like the most efficient way to have your message heard.

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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bman said:
Let the barrels flow!!!!

Indeed.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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mrsgeedeck said:
This is what annoys me about liberals for the most part, lack of focus. The President is coming to town to discuss his jobs act and people arrange to protest...a pipeline? It just doesn't seem like the most efficient way to have your message heard.

+1

The tar sands issues are indeed worth addressing (mostly by the Canadians), but this protest is Bush level strategery.

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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mrsgeedeck said:
This is what annoys me about liberals for the most part, lack of focus. The President is coming to town to discuss his jobs act and people arrange to protest...a pipeline? It just doesn't seem like the most efficient way to have your message heard.

Apparently, jobs are only important if they're in correct fields, such as community gardens, poetry readings or bicycle repair.

Actually producing energy? Pshaw.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576560933917369412.html

Alberta's oil and gas industry supports more than 271,000 direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs in sectors such as construction, manufacturing and financial services. The province has an unemployment rate of 5.6%. There are also some 960 American companies involved in Alberta energy, supplying equipment and technology, among other things. As an example, Mr. Liepert says, "dozens of Caterpillar tractors, made in Illinois and Michigan and costing $5 million a piece" work the oil sands. He says the region is on track to create more than 400,000 direct American jobs by 2035. The Bakken region of North Dakota, where private land ownership gives drillers relief from federal obstructionism, shares a similar, if smaller, story. Oil production there is booming, and North Dakota unemployment is 3.3%.

TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, if the U.S. ever issues the permit, will mean $20 billion in investment. The company says the construction phase will require 13,000 direct hires and indirect new jobs could total 118,000 in the U.S.

Posted 8 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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berdawn said:
what could possibly go wrong?

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2006/12/20085251361795444.html

Isn't there an incident like this every year or two? I know I've heard earlier stories about people tapping into gasoline pipelines for theft, and blowing themselves up. Not to be confused with the usual sabotage on a pipeline somewhere.

That doesn't seem very likely if this were to be built, but it's within the realm of possibility. More likely is BP's example in Alaska, where required pipeline maintenance was neglected to the point of failure.

That's what you get without all those burdensome regulations.

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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alexs said:
Isn't there an incident like this every year or two? I know I've heard earlier stories about people tapping into gasoline pipelines for theft, and blowing themselves up. Not to be confused with the usual sabotage on a pipeline somewhere.

That doesn't seem very likely if this were to be built, but it's within the realm of possibility. More likely is BP's example in Alaska, where required pipeline maintenance was neglected to the point of failure.

That's what you get without all those burdensome regulations.

Because pipelines in Alaska are completely unregulated.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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rus said:
TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, if the U.S. ever issues the permit, will mean $20 billion in investment. The company says the construction phase will require 13,000 direct hires and indirect new jobs could total 118,000 in the U.S. [/quote]

yes, we get lots of oil from Canada. If the Canadians would do a better job managing the tar sands operations it wouldn't raise so many hackles. We're a long way from being able to simply not use oil and if we don't get it from Canada we're going to get it from somewhere worse.

protesting this now is just putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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alexs said:
Isn't there an incident like this every year or two? I know I've heard earlier stories about people tapping into gasoline pipelines for theft, and blowing themselves up.

Has there even been an instance of this on a crude oil pipeline in North America? If not, bringing it up now is just a smokescreen. Really, now, the only people who would want to tap a crude line already own a refinery.

I'm more interested in the fact that the crappy heavy oil coming through this pipe has become somehow the best option. really?

Posted 8 months ago #
groundrules

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rus said:
Because pipelines in Alaska are completely unregulated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?_r=1

Since 1990, more than 5,600 incidents were reported involving land-based hazardous liquid pipelines, releasing a total of more than 110 million gallons of mostly crude and petroleum products, according to analysis of federal data. The pipeline safety agency considered more than half — at least 100 spills each year — to be “significant,” meaning they caused a fire, serious injury or fatality or released at least 2,100 gallons, among other factors.

Pipeline operators reported recovering less than half of all hazardous liquids spilled over the last two decades, according to federal records. And the ratio is not improving: after recovering more than 60 percent of liquids spilled in 2005 and 2006, operators recovered less than a third between 2007 and 2010.

This one would be suitable for the Data Porn thread:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/09/business/energy-environment/pipeline-spills.html?ref=energy-environment

Posted 8 months ago #
groundrules

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Rockmastermike said:
yes, we get lots of oil from Canada. If the Canadians would do a better job managing the tar sands operations it wouldn't raise so many hackles. We're a long way from being able to simply not use oil and if we don't get it from Canada we're going to get it from somewhere worse.

protesting this now is just putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.

from the NY Times article I linked above:

The Keystone XL project is different from most other pipelines in that it will carry a gritty mixture that includes bitumen, a crude drawn from Canadian oil sands that environmentalists argue is more corrosive and difficult to clean when spilled.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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groundrules said:

Since 1990, more than 5,600 incidents were reported involving land-based hazardous liquid pipelines, releasing a total of more than 110 million gallons of mostly crude and petroleum products,

right. far greater problem than most people realize. (and far greater than anyone 'tapping' them to steal crude (in N.A., it happens elsewhere).

We had a nasty little spill over in Licking county back in the late 80s. There's still oil in the stream that gets washed into a nearby town's drinking water if someone mucks up the streambed.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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groundrules said:

The Keystone XL project is different from most other pipelines in that it will carry a gritty mixture that includes bitumen, a crude drawn from Canadian oil sands that environmentalists argue is more corrosive and difficult to clean when spilled.

right, see my post earlier about how this crappy oil (it's barely oil by most definitions!) has somehow become our best option. This is the Canadians trying to shift the burden of the energy and mess spent refining it farther down the chain in part because of the protests of the people effected at the source of it.

And yet... we actually need the oil. It's at least more honest to accept some of the risk and cost than to shift that risk to, say, Nairobi.

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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groundrules said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?_r=1

Since 1990, more than 5,600 incidents were reported involving land-based hazardous liquid pipelines, releasing a total of more than 110 million gallons of mostly crude and petroleum products, according to analysis of federal data. The pipeline safety agency considered more than half — at least 100 spills each year — to be “significant,” meaning they caused a fire, serious injury or fatality or released at least 2,100 gallons, among other factors.

Pipeline operators reported recovering less than half of all hazardous liquids spilled over the last two decades, according to federal records. And the ratio is not improving: after recovering more than 60 percent of liquids spilled in 2005 and 2006, operators recovered less than a third between 2007 and 2010.

This one would be suitable for the Data Porn thread:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/09/business/energy-environment/pipeline-spills.html?ref=energy-environment

So it is regulated, and yet bad things occasionally happen.

Gee. It's almost like nothing is perfect.

Posted 8 months ago #
groundrules

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I've spent a decent part of my summer dealing with the aftermath of one of these breaks, so it's a little bit on the forefront of my mind. It is UGLY.

That being said, I'm not someone who claims we need to shut off our use of oil. I think we need to continue to utilize hydrocarbon products responsibly and increasingly more safely. Also, and this is my main point- we need to continue to ask ourselves not only 'how do we get more?' but also at the same time ask ourselves 'how do we deal with less?' Because frankly, there is a finite answer to #1, but so far the sky is the limit for #2.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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groundrules said:
I've spent a decent part of my summer dealing with the aftermath of one of these breaks, so it's a little bit on the forefront of my mind. It is UGLY.

That being said, I'm not someone who claims we need to shut off our use of oil. I think we need to continue to utilize hydrocarbon products responsibly and increasingly more safely. Also, and this is my main point- we need to continue to ask ourselves not only 'how do we get more?' but also at the same time ask ourselves 'how do we deal with less?' Because frankly, there is a finite answer to #1, but so far the sky is the limit for #2.

+1

(I worked briefly on the area impacted by the one I mentioned in Licking county)

Posted 8 months ago #
groundrules

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rus said:
So it is regulated, and yet bad things occasionally happen.

Gee. It's almost like nothing is perfect.

Gee. it's like you have a hard time reading. Imma help ya with just the headline:

Agency Struggles to Safeguard Pipeline System

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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groundrules said:
Also, and this is my main point- we need to continue to ask ourselves not only 'how do we get more?' but also at the same time ask ourselves 'how do we deal with less?' Because frankly, there is a finite answer to #1, but so far the sky is the limit for #2.

Huh. Depending on the time frame you're talking about for implementing "not-oil energy" we might even agree.

Posted 8 months ago #