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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
Trump’s a Canadian! It all fits!
Call QAnon!
Not really. You just won’t be able to drive as much.
I’m pretty sure the rich use the electrical grid too.
“That’s some nice ice cream you’ve got there, Nancy. It would be a shame if anything… HAPPENED to it…”
Money gives you options. They use the grid because its a cheap energy source. If it were to become unreliable they have the resources to buy alternatives – like UPS/ATS – Generator setups that could keep the power flowing for them.
Most of those generator setups run from natural gas or propane, both of which they would do away with.
They can afford the backup generators and extra fuel. It can even be a status symbol in that if you have electric when the plebs don’t.
Not do away with. Restrict so only the certain people have access.
Great way to have their battlements REALLY stormed.
You’d be transferring the power consumed in automobiles through combustion to electric vehicles, and the grid isn’t built for that new level of demand – not the generation, transmission, or distribution components of it.
So: Eventually you’ll be forced to use public transpo, buy an electric vehicle, and pay much higher rates for electricity, to both public entities and private companies that provide power, but are publicly traded.
In other words, it’ll transfer control of everything in your life you need to live into the hands of government agencies, public utilities commissions, and corporations that act as “sort of” monopolies in the regions they provide power to.
Sounds charming. What’s not to like?
And accidents do happen, like this one about 10 miles from where I live:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graniteville_train_crash
Pipelines.
I thought the point of my quip was clear. Was I too subtle?
:-)
As long as they have good WiFi, I wouldn’t necessarily hate that.
:-)
I thought the only fish left in the Ohio and Mississippi were invasive Asian Carp.
;-)
I love how often American enviros try to paint KeystoneXL as the leading edge of an evil conspiracy by corporate Canada to take over America’s economy.
What’s next, another Rambo sequel in which an elderly Stallone takes on Quebec’s maple syrup cartel? Another remake of Red Dawn featuring Lt. Col. James “Buster” Brown? A Jurassic Park sequel set in the Okanagan?
His grandpappa did make his fortune in the Yukon.
Yes he did, running hotels more … accommodating than most.
Just more evidence that liberty runs in the Trump family’s veins.
;-)
Im outraged.
Actually General Isaac Brock would be a better choice…Setting could be changed to Michigan.
Nobody knows how. They’re supposedly a major threat to the United States, but they don’t even have a phone number.
Oh. QAnon. For a minute, I thought you meant Canada.
I would like to have Canada’s phone number, to put in my “address book.”
QAnon is CIA psyops.
They are a bunch of flakes.
James, James, James. The green part is the portion that was cancelled by Old Man Biden. The red, orange, blue, and purple parts were bad enough. But the green part? Oh, that would ensure the demise of every man, woman, and child on planet Earth. Hmm? By what mechanism, you ask? Well, the green part would make it hot and stuff. QED.
So there is already a complete route in place? I thought that was the case. Or were the red and orange parts just proposed too?
So there is already a complete route in place? I thought that was the case. Or were the red and orange parts just proposed too?
The only parts that require State Department approval are the parts that cross the US/Canadian border. That’s how Obama got to quash it, Trump got to reinstate it, and apparently Biden is now requashing it again.
But from what I’ve read, the part – or parts, both parts, red and green? – that cross the US border, are already completed.
So was Biden just making (another) empty gesture?
Or maybe US and Canada are now building pipelines to nowhere instead of bridges to nowhere.
Phases I, II, III-A and III-B are completed and in operation. Phase IV (“Keystone XL”), per Wikipedia: “would connect the Phase I-pipeline terminals in Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska, by a shorter route and a larger-diameter pipe.”
Back in the 1970s there was a slogan popularized by the oil industry: “A country that runs on oil can’t afford to run short.” We still are a country that runs on oil, especially for motor fuels, but we are increasingly a country that runs on natural gas, as well – especially for power generation and home heating. We have done quite well in mitigating carbon emissions by using more natural gas, and we should continue that trend. But we also need oil, and it is nonsensical to quash projects like Keystone XL for climate reasons. It is akin to putting an immediate stop to farming in order to hasten the development of an as-yet-nonexistent nutritional daily pill that would take the place of food. In the meantime, people would starve. Keystone XL’s cancellation means that more oil will be transported by trucks and trains from Canada and/or will be imported from less-friendly countries via tanker.