Forum Post: At the Other End of the XL
Posted 10 years ago on May 12, 2013, 12:04 p.m. EST by shoozTroll
(17632)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
A poor, already embattled neighborhood is fighting for justice..
"Manchester, one of Houston’s oldest neighborhoods, is surrounded by industry on all sides: a Rhodia chemical plant; a car crushing facility; a water treatment plant; a train yard for hazardous cargo; a Goodyear synthetic rubber plant; oil refineries belonging to Lyondell Basell, Valero, and Texas Petro-Chemicals; as well as one of the busiest highways in the city. Industrial development continues uninterrupted down the Houston Ship Channel for another 50 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico. The refineries around Houston have been called the “keystone to Keystone” because they’re expected to process 90 percent of tar sands crude from Alberta if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is completed."
Maybe they should build it at South Padre?
TAKE ACTION! Our Moment On Climate
Take action today!
The president has laid out his agenda to combat climate change, opening a window to make significant changes to our nation's energy policy.
Take Action Today!
President Obama just made a major announcement on climate change, instructing his cabinet and federal agencies to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, increase energy savings through greater efficiency and more rapidly transition to renewable energy.
This is the moment we have been waiting for—we cannot waste it. Some in Congress will certainly seek to undermine these necessary steps—tell your senators to embrace the president’s climate plan.
Climate change is impacting communities today through more extreme weather. If we do not act quickly to significantly reduce the pollution causing climate change our children will face even more intense hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires.
It is particularly important that the president and his administration know they have support for these efforts in the U.S. Senate. Please contact your senators today and urge them to support the efforts the president laid out in his plan.
Sincerely,
Trip Van Noppen
President, Earthjustice
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Severe droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes are more likely thanks to climate change. (Meryll / Shutterstock)
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What I added to the letter:
PS - Get the President and all members of government ( state and federal ) to work on ending the export of Oil Gasoline LNG - as this is being done for Fossil Fuel Profits "ALONE" and seriously undermines the efforts to reduce Atmospheric Pollution - we need to reduce drilling and fracking ( as we move to end it completely ) NOT EXPAND.
Beginning Shortly 1:55pm eastern : Obama is making a big announcement on climate change today. And it really is pretty big. By regulating global warming pollution from power plants, cracking down on inefficient appliances, and expanding RENEWABLE energy production on public lands, the President is making real strides towards cutting back missions from the sector that contributes almost half of all the carbon we emit.
But the President is also still pursuing a lot of extreme energy alternatives that will screw up the planet, from drilling in the Arctic, to fracking for gas, to exporting the coal we don't burn to China.
Most frustratingly, the president is NOT taking this opportunity to say No to the Keystone XL pipeline. That's doesn't mean he's planning to say yes, necessarily. But it does mean that he doesn't see Keystone as linked to climate change, or his legacy. He thinks that what he IS announcing is what he'll be remembered for, and that stopping Keystone XL is not his priority.
There's stuff in the president's plan which is undeniably good. And there's a lot more we need him to do—on climate and on other issues—to really be the environmental leader the planet deserves.
So we're inviting you to tune in and watch his speech with us at 1:30 p.m., EST, today and tell us what YOU think. Is Obama's plan good enough that we should support it unequivocally (though of course we'll keep pressing him on Keystone and other issues)? Or does Obama need to say no to carbon bombs like KXL, Arctic Drilling and Fracked gas for this plan to be anything more than window dressing. Click on the link of your choice to vote and be taken to a page where you can watch the speech live with us and discuss it as it happens.
VOTE
No Deal: The climate is too important for half-measures and Obama needs to say no to carbon bombs like KXL, Arctic Drilling and Fracked gas for this plan to be anything more than window dressing.
OR
Let's celebrate: Obama's plan is a good start that will end coal-fired electricity our biggest single source of global warming pollution.
WE really want to know what you believe, because with Congress still dominated by tinfoil-hat-wearers who don't even admit climate change is real. How we respond to this climate announcement will shape all our work to save the planet from catastrophic global warming for the next 3 years.
Thanks for being in the climate fight, Drew Hudson Environmental Action
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BTW - TWEET
DKAtoday @DKAtoday Protected account 43s
President Obama's climate speech live | Environmental Action http://www.environmental-action.org/blog/watch-president-obamas-climate-speech-live#.UcnKx2xJyxg.twitter …
Vote Boo or Yea
No Half Measures PLEASE.
I vote BOO
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The Kochs dirty secret is out in Chicago by FishOutofWater
" Toxic black dust covers a working class community in south Chicago when strong winds pick up Koch Industries owned petcoke piled high along the Calumet River. "
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The stuff that was in Detroit was supposedly shipped off to somewhere in Ohio, so this crap is over and above that.
There must be an awful lot more of it out there, that we haven't heard about yet. I wonder if it's all stored on the shores of some water course or another?
I can recall from those stories about Detroit, a spokesperson mentioning that it's production cost virtually nothing and the only thing taken away from the PURE PROFIT of it's sales, is the cost of storage and shipping.
I wonder if ALEC has made it impossible for a class action suit against it's pollution yet?
1) Yep - everywhere you have a refinery you have coke to store and ship.
2) Everywhere possible for barge transport and near rail road tracks where they have to ( that might be reversed - trains going everywhere but barges carrying higher volume per barge? ) - destined to ship over seas to the markets.
3) Yep the only cost is storage and shipping - only shipping if they own the land it is stored on. As the crap is made in processing for the oil anyhow.
4) You know that that is the aim = Corp(se)oRATions doing whatever they want - however they want to do it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/videogallery/77470749/Mounds-of-pet-coke-seen-along-Calumet-River
What do you know........It's BP.....again.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-1018-bp-petcoke-cmyk-eps-20131017,0,1012879.graphic
It is a small cast of characters that makes up the fossil fuel industry.
Indeed........the 0.01%.
Fortunately the pressure builds against them:
High court rebuffs industry over #climate change, lands: http://ow.ly/pY5xt @Earthjustice Forward The Fight To Save Our World.
At least some possible disasters of been stopped in Washington State.
http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/grays-harbor-crude-by-rail-terminals-blocked
Yeah - I saw that - let the pressure build to get out of the fossil fuel business. No Piping no Hauling by Rail - next no trucking it?
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In compliment - Breaking: Two Silicon Valley leaders quit FWD.us over support for Keystone XL
The petition to FWD.us co-founders reads: "Repudiate FWD.us propaganda supporting Keystone XL and drilling in the Arctic Refuge by resigning from the organization immediately."
Automatically add your name: Sign the petition ►
This is big news. Two of Mark Zuckerberg's co-founders have resigned from the Facebook founder's controversial new political lobby FWD.us.1
This is a direct result of a campaign by CREDO and our allies to stop Zuckerberg's group from praising conservative politicians for backing the Keystone XL pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a dangerously misguided attempt to win support for immigration reform.
It's time for other tech industry luminaries to make it clear where they stand. In addition to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr are co-founders of the group.
Tell FWD.us co-founders: Repudiate FWD.us propaganda supporting Keystone XL and drilling in the Arctic Refuge by resigning from the organization. Click here to sign.
Elon Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla, explained his departure saying “I agreed to support Fwd.us because there is a genuine need to reform immigration. However, this should not be done at the expense of other important causes."2 The other Silicon Valley star that joined Musk in protesting the group's attack on key environmental priorities was David Sacks, the founder of Yammer.
These technology leaders can't have it both ways. They can't be for clean energy and action on climate change and fund conservative propaganda that promotes the Keystone XL pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Silicon Valley stars like LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr and even Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are sensitive to public backlash from the people who power their social networks or use their products or services. If enough of us push back and keep this issue in the public eye, they will be under immense pressure, not just from us but from their staff and shareholders, to stop supporting FWD.us.
Tell Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr: Follow Elon Musk's example and resign from FWD.us. Click here to sign.
The campaign against FWD.us, which includes efforts not just by CREDO but also our allies at Progressives United, 350.org, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and other groups, has been covered extensively in the technology and political press with stories in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, Huffington Post and dozens of other outlets. Elon Musk's high profile departure from the group gives us new momentum to escalate our campaign and send a message to Silicon Valley political donors that if they throw Keystone XL under the bus, that we will hold them accountable.
Please sign our petition and then share it with friends and family. We will deliver these signatures directly to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr. These tech leaders are not used to hearing directly from the public and in such large numbers. Your signature can make a real difference in this campaign.
Tell FWD.us co-founders: Repudiate FWD.us propaganda supporting Keystone XL and drilling in the Arctic Refuge by resigning from the organization. Click here to sign.
Thank you for joining CREDO in holding these Silicon Valley leaders accountable.
Becky Bond, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets
Automatically add your name: Sign the petition ►
Learn more about this campaign
Mark Zuckerberg's Group Loses High-Profile Backers Elon Musk, David Sacks, Huffington Post, 5/10/2013
Elon Musk and David Sacks Depart Fwd.us, Mark Zuckerberg’s Political Action Group, All things D, 5/10/2013
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© 2013 CREDO. All rights reserved.
Boring convoluted comment trying to overload this page. Keep it short and to the point.
No Prob. Ur a loser.
OK. Take away the industry. Of course, the jobs go as well.
I'm thinking they don't work there.
So if they go (which those corporations, have no intention of doing), the people that live there would have a cleaner, less polluted neighborhood.
This is a problem for YOU, in what way?
No problem for me. I do not live there. Nice beautiful country. Perhaps they could grow turnips or nurture their tourism industry to keep going.
The eco-disaster tourism industry just isn't coming on that strong.
Tours of Gary Indiana are just not selling.
The people in charge arent concerned with justice. Here is what they are concerned with: http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000091
When the people vote for these people, why would we expect anything different?
Another attempt at subject change?
Do you really so lack in empathy that you feel nothing for those people in Manchester?
Is it possible for you to comment without your political agenda bleeding through?
Houston is the armpit of the nation. Followed closely by New Orleans, I used to live in both cities. I hope the people accomplish their goals. Better yet, just leave if they can.
I don't think they can afford that.