All thinking and rational students of economics
and political policy should take note of the triumphed message sent out by the CREDO Action progressive group. The strategy to organize a massive civil disobedience confrontation has been absent from the public square
for far too long. However, when the cause is so ill founded and based upon foolish economic realities, the protesting activists
need to rethink their falsely placed suppositions.
“Yesterday, we made history when President Obama rejected Keystone XL. Not only did
he reject it, he did so acknowledging that “we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.”
This is a
monumental shift from President Obama and his “all of the above” energy strategy. And it is a monumental victory
over an oil industry whose power to imperil all of us in the pursuit of greed has been unchecked for far too long.
President Obama signed
the decision, but it was grassroots activism and organizing that made it happen. Historic, sustained, relentless, nationwide,
diverse, fearless, deeply committed activism, of the kind we haven’t seen in a generation.
CREDO is especially proud of the Keystone XL Pledge
of Resistance — launched at a key moment in March of 2013, when we were losing this fight. Nearly 100,000 of you
committed to engage in civil disobedience if necessary to stop Keystone XL. With our friends at Rainforest Action Network
and the Other 98%, we organized the biggest threat of mass civil disobedience in our generation. CREDO’s CEO met
with President Obama and told him face-to-face about the Pledge of Resistance. Three months later, the President announced
the climate test for Keystone XL at his Georgetown climate speech, and the tide began turning.
It is stunning to consider how far we have come.
What we have accomplished together in the most urgent fight we face, against one of the most powerful forces in the world.”
Such a naïve assessment illustrates just how
out of touch with reality the environmental cultist doctrine has progressed. Oil is an internationally priced commodity.
The WSJ cites that “Since mid-2014, the price of a barrel of crude has fallen by nearly half. The U.S. is a big reason for
the oil glut. North American producers have been heavy adopters of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technology that has
allowed oil to be pumped out of shale formations.”
Bloomberg add that, “Environmental groups said that stopping Keystone XL would slow tar sands development, while pro-Keystone forces argued that the bitumen will still be produced and shipped either by other pipelines
or rail, increasing the risk of spills and other accidents. Since the beginning of 2012, rail shipments of Canadian crude to the U.S. have risen at least 11-fold, even though they
have declined recently with the oil price slump. Meanwhile, operators doubled the capacity of the Seaway pipeline, allowing more oil-sands crude to reach Gulf refineries.”
Now is a good time to clear the air and get real. The demand for oil is down
even with the dramatic drop in price because the world economy is sinking into a massive contraction, if not a full-blown
collapse. It is a well known fact that Buffett’s Burlington Northern Among Pipeline Winners was transporting crude and provided an alternative to complete the building of Keystone.
The notion that fossil fuel, especially petroleum based energy will suffer because
of Obama’s decision to reject the XL Pipeline project is pure poppycock. Adolescent “green” aspirations
of relegating the oil giants to transition into renewable technology businesses is a pipe dream. The simple reason is that
global energy requirements and future needs can never be satisfied by all the failed experiments in wind, solar and geothermal.
The CREDO crowd wants to believe. How Obama’s Keystone XL rejection adds momentum to the Paris climate talks and that “the President had already made a groundbreaking climate deal with Chinese premier Xi Jinping. Coming roughly
a year ago, it neutralized what might otherwise have been the biggest issue in global climate talks — that is, what
China will do.”
Folks, the only
reduction you will see in China’s energy usage come from the economic tumble that is a significant shock to the world’s
commercial activity.
The Brits over at
the Guardian writes, Keystone XL pipeline rejection signals US taking lead on climate change fight, “Climate change has become such an overwhelmingly mainstream political and diplomatic imperative that it overrides
traditionally unbeatable domestic interests.” Such a disconnect viewpoint from the leftist news press seems to be exactly
the kind of reporting the CREDO clan reads and accepts.
Sorry, the real reason why the globalists are allowing the imposition of a technocratic radical environmental model
is to hasten the destruction of national economies. Get ready for another massive round of taxes and regulation decrees on
the masses, while the supra elites are exempt from the suffering caused by mandated international dictates. The planet will
be worse off with this approach.
Forlorn,
Corporatocracy rules the world. Yet, even the Jacobins of the collective admits the global warming hysteria is a side show to the real power.
“As Obama was rejecting Keystone XL, his
administration was releasing the text (on a corporate website) of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the next round of secretly constructed agreements designed to give multinational corporations immunity from the restrictiveness
of societal goals such as a habitable planet.
It is critical that climate activists recognize that the Paris talks are necessary but not
sufficient. We must demand that all international negotiations recognize the supremacy of the climate crisis and work to claw
back power from the multinationals. Without any customers, even the most efficient global corporate entity will have trouble
delivering shareholder return.”
The
correct and proper alliance is to find common ground to “claw back power from the multinationals”, but to base
such an effort on an intellectual falsehood such as “supremacy of the climate crisis” is literal insanity. Such
a diversion from factual evidence, verifiable and objective empirical research plays directly into the hand of the predatory
oligarchs. The pipeline that needs to be built is the one that carries the wisdom to understand the underlying economics and
political agenda of the globalist elites.
James
Hall – November 11, 2015
