THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 115, June 5, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CANADA LEADS THE WAY ON THE PIPELINE NO-BRAINER
By Alan Caruba
THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT & ITS THREAT TO THE CANADIAN & AMERICAN ECONOMIES: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEKING TO CAPTURE
CONTROL OF NORTH AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL REGULATORY SYSTEMS IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE RADICAL IDEOLOGICAL AGENDA OF POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS -- CANADA NOW LEADING THE WAY AGAINST THE OBSTACLES THAT THE ENVIRONMENTALIST ORGANIZATIONS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE
CANADA-U.S.A. BORDER HAVE IMPOSED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY & OTHER ECONOMIC SECTORS -- IN THE U.S.A., THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
SUPPORTING THE DRIVE OF THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THE POLITICAL LEFT TO THWART ENERGY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FULL STORY:
“Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and lack of economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No
gas. No more hydro-electric dams.”
That was Canada’s Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, speaking on January 9, 2012, and he might have been saying the same thing about special interests and
the Obama administration in America. With refreshingly plain speech, Oliver criticized environmentalist organizations, both in Canada and in the U.S.A., saying
they “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda.”
Canada is bringing common sense back into style. A June 3, 2012 Washington Post article reported that “The government of Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper is rewriting the nation’s environmental laws to speed the extraction and export of oil, minerals, and other materials to a global market clamoring for
Canada’s natural resources.” Moreover, it has “added provisions to an omnibus budget bill that would revamp the way the government reviews the environmental
impact of major projects, regulates threats to fisheries, and scrutinizes the political activities of nonprofit groups.”
What is instructive is the way Canada is now leading the way against the obstacles that the environmentalist organizations on both sides of the border have
imposed on the development of energy and other sectors of the nation’s economy. The centerpiece of this development for the moment is the Keystone XL oil
pipeline.
The Harper government has also proposed the repeal of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, part of the global warming hoax that would require huge reductions
in socalled greenhouse gas emissions. It is seeking changes to other federal laws such as the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and Species
at Risk Act.
Also under scrutiny is the proper role of non-profit organizations and “charities” that engage in blatant political activities. In typical fashion, the Sierra Club website
on Monday claimed that Harper is trying to “steal tax-exempt status from charities that stand up to Big Oil.” Another environmentalist organization, Friends of the
Earth, devotes its website to efforts to block the construction of “the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline from Oklahoma through Texas to the Gulf Coast.”
Every effort in the United States to ensure the provision of energy, whether from coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power, continues to be assaulted by the huge
environmentalist propaganda machine that currently sees the defeat of the pipeline as crucial to its anti-energy agenda.
On January 18, 2012, Americans were astonished to learn that U.S. President Barack Obama had formally rejected a bid by Canadian energy company, TransCanada,
to build a $7 billion oil pipeline that would link the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. In a time when the U.S. economy is suffering loss of jobs,
the project would normally be a no-brainer.
However, opponents of the pipeline are a virtual who’s who of environmentalist organizations and a torrent of lies has poured forth from them regarding the project.
The American Petroleum Institute estimates it will create 10,000 U.S. jobs next year, with an anticipated 45,000 jobs by 2015 and close to 85,000 by 2020.
Among the lies put forth by militant environmentalists is that the environmental impact studies and securing the permits necessary for the pipeline were “rushed.” In
truth, it took three years, four months, and five days up to the day TransCanada first filed the permit request to begin construction.
Obama repeated this lie, blaming Republicans for preventing “a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as
well as our environment.” The Obama administration had, in fact, reviewed more than 10,000 pages of environmental studies and the State Department had twice
concluded that all requirements had been met!
By contrast, in 1974, the TransAlaskan Pipeline was approved by Congress in just about a year and it was built in less than three years, despite being more
environmentally and technically challenging.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans have been so angered by the President’s decision against the pipeline that, in mid-April, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed a short-term transportation bill that would facilitate the next stage of the oil pipeline. The bill passed 293 to 127, with 69 Democrats supporting it. It was the
fourth time the House of Representatives had passed a measure to expedite the stalled project, one of which failed in the U.S. Senate by a narrow vote when the
President personally lobbied some Democrats to vote against it.
Let’s tip our hat to the Canadians who have concluded that environmentalist lobbies, think tanks, and charities are doing more to harm Canada’s interests by means of
the environmental treaties and laws they have worked so hard to impose on that nation and ours. We Americans could learn a valuable lesson from our neighbors to
the north.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Canada: America's Northern Neighbor & Ally
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity