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A News Story From An Alternate Dimension
Biden set to snub a key ally by an authoritarian act:
U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday.
A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president’s team with U.S. stakeholders.
The transition document suggests that Canada has not been able to persuade the incoming Biden administration of the benefits of the pipeline expansion project.
The move stoked concerns that Biden was capitulating to radical members of his party who traffic in apocalyptic scenarios:
Sources have expressed alarm about Biden’s proposal, calling it anti-union and anti-science, and point out how the Executive Action continues the systemic racism that has characterized the government’s treatment of Indigenous people:
TC Energy said in a release late Sunday that the company plans to spend $1.7 billion US on a solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline, hire a union-only workforce, sign Indigenous equity partners and establish zero-emissions operations by 2030, all with an eye toward securing Biden’s approval.
Canadian leaders have warned that the move may embolden not only Putin, but Saudi Arabia, whose repressive policies towards women and LBGTQ+ persons remain problematic:
“Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship and undermine U.S. national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future,” Kenney said.
A former official in the State Department expressed concern, noting that Biden’s first act would not only make America less safe and dependent on foreign governments, but alienate a key ally at a time when combatting rising white supremacism was a mutual concern. The move comes as Congressional committees expressed interest in investigating two groups, Climate Leaders for Biden and Clean Energy for Biden, which raised millions for Biden in 2020.
Published in General
The January 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian interference with the 2016 elections, which did not say what most of the media reported it saying about the Russians and the Trump campaign, did make two unequivocal assertions about Russian interference in America.
One of them was that the Kremlin was supporting American environmental groups in encouraging opposition to the U.S. expanding its fossil fuel energy sources. So I guess we now have more confirmation of Biden policy actions consistent with Russian policy aim than we ever had with Donald Trump. And he hasn’t even been inaugurated!
And that grid will need to be supplied with electricity from SOMETHING…
Y’all are commenting on the impact of Biden supposed decision on energy supply, but you’re missing the much more important impact that @jameslileks is putting before us – the effect on racism, white supremacy, and LGBTQMNOP status, Who cares about productivity, jobs, or availability of goods and services when there are “social justice” effects to manage.
Weird how issues that I don’t remember coming up in the campaign are actually Day 1 priorities. How does this keep happening with Democrat presidents?
I am so old that I remember when energy independence was a bipartisan objective. Turns out Democrats didn’t enjoy waiting in gas lines, able to buy gas only on alternate days while prices soared.
We spent 50 years to gain energy independence and Biden is prepared to just give it away.
Loads going south?
Or empties going north?
Not very efficient, but then efficiency was never the issue.
You know, the left can have their climate conspiracy, and all the other conspiracies, like white privilege, patriarchy, UFO/AUP and no election fraud, just to name a few.
If we are going over the cliff to the deep end, I just don’t understand why Q can’t have a seat at the table.
😉
But from what we learned during the Trump years, a president can’t just do an executive order without proper procedure, analysis, etc.
So sayeth SCOTUS.
Right?
Lesbian Union Member Employees Jobs, unite!
Somebody needs to tell President-Elect Biden that if America stopped transporting petroleum products by rail it would free up network capacity for more passenger trains.
;-)
Passenger trains that get their fuel how, exactly?
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Let’s also keep in mind that, by forcing oil/gas from much-safer pipelines (back) to much-less-safe trains, whenever there is an accident, the left can yell “See! We told you so! It’s not safe! We must be all solar/wind/etc!”
I nominate Jules for the Committee of Truth.
All electric trains by year X!
And the electricity to run them comes from rainbows and unicorns!
Funny, Trudeau thought he was getting a political ally in Washington. Trudeau was planning to have a spring election – before tax day, when all those Covid relief payments are expected to be paid back. He thinks he’s risking a conservative minority government against the possibility of wining a majority government. I think he wants to get a conservative minority government 2021 – so they look like the meanies pulling the financial rug out from the people. Then engineer non confidence vote in the early new year, and start a fresh term in 2022 – to clean up his mess – which he will now blame on the conservatives…
But now with Keystone XL gets cancelled Trudeau may end up with a Conservative majority government. and he wont be able to get rid of them until 2025.
Jason Kenny (Alberta Premier) is already threatening legal action:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenney-urges-us-canada-talks-on-keystone-xl-1.5877784
Passenger trains, you wish! We’ll be back on the Ohio and Mississippi with paddle wheeled steamers via solar heat.
Nope, sorry. Environmental regulation. The fish don’t like those paddle-wheels. Not even the foot-powered ones.
CBC report on trains derailing and exploding:
Its like environmentalist dont really care about the environment – pipelines are far safer for the movement of oil than trains. Yet because they oppose pipelines, that forces oil onto trains.
That actually looks like a remarkably small spill, for the number of cars that appear to be involved.
But yes, as I commented earlier, the left – at least some of them – appear determined to have oil on trains rather than in pipelines, because then when there is an accident, they can yell that oil should be banned entirely.
It’s similar to how they obstruct and obfuscate and delay capital punishment, and then argue that capital punishment should be banned because it takes too long.
I think the rest of the oil had been burned off.
IF I where conspiracy minded guy. I would look at the groups who oppose oil pipelines and see if they’re financed by Warren Buffet or Berkshire-Hathaway. Would be just coincidence of coarse.
I was speaking generally, not specifically about the pipeline.
If only the Georgia GOP leadership had not capitulated, colluded with Stacey Abrams, gutting election security in the state, then publicly doubled down on this terrible decision after the November fiasco, so signaling that the fix was in for January, thus driving down Republican participation. As everybody knows.
Another Democrat administration “reset” with Russia.
Just wanted to add this tweet… I was unaware of how much of the pipeline had already been built.
Can a government revoke a building permit once the building is under construction? That doesnt seem proper.
It would seem unconstitutionally ex-post-facto.
But that could mean Biden could do some “fan service” without doing any real damage, and then blame someone else.
Blame Trump!
Blame Canada!
Or….
Why? As long as the rich have what they need all is well.