At The Nation, Madeline Ostrander writes— This Keystone Activist Is Bringing the Tactics That Defeated the Pipeline Into the Democratic Party:
Since 2010, Jane Kleeb, a gutsy, high-energy activist living in the rural college town of Hastings, Nebraska, has helped Nebraska landowners channel their fury against the Keystone XL pipeline, and the Canadian company TransCanada, which planned to route the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline from Canada’s tar sands through the fragile Nebraska Sandhills. What began as a small political fight on the prairie grew into an environmental rallying cry uniting unlikely allies across the country, including a coalition of tribes, ranchers, and farmers calling themselves the “Cowboy Indian Alliance,” seasoned environmentalists and neophyte activists, major progressive organizations, Hollywood celebrities, and, ultimately, influential Democratic Party donors.
Since President Obama announced that his administration had officially nixed the Keystone XL project last fall, Kleeb decided she wanted to bring the lessons learned from pipeline fighting into electoral politics. Less than two weeks ago, she was elected chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party in what the Lincoln Journal-Star called a “tumultuous state Democratic convention.” Her ascendancy in the party is one indication that the fight over Keystone created more than a single-issue victory—it spurred the development of a political movement that has momentum beyond the pipeline. “We joke that the cowboy-and-indian Alliance that beat KXL is now leading the [Democratic] party on a very different path,” Kleeb says. But that movement doesn’t conform easily to traditional party politics, and it’s not yet clear how these activists might influence outcomes this election season.
For years, the economic and political might of coal, oil, and gas seemed like an intractable force. The industry has fought hard against many environmental regulations, especially restrictions on carbon emissions, stymied incentives to promote renewable energy, and given generously to the campaigns of elected officials. And at first, the Keystone campaign seemed futile—in winter 2011, most “energy and environment insiders” polled by National Journal insisted the project would move forward, even though the president had delayed its approval process.
Bold Nebraska, the progressive political organization Kleeb founded, stoked the rural Keystone XL fight, which was focused on concerns about water contamination and TransCanada’s property-rights violations, into a statewide battle. Bold also joined with 350.org, the international organization co-founded by author Bill McKibben to fight global warming, and an alliance of other major environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, student activists, faith leaders, indigenous groups, and other progressive organizations such as the NAACP. [...]
TOP COMMENTS
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2012—More revelations about Upper Big Branch mine explosion:
More details are emerging about the two sets of safety records kept at Upper Big Branch mine leading up to the explosion that killed 29 workers there. The more you read, the worse Massey Energy's behavior looks.
The New York Times reports that:
In a presentation in Beaver, W. Va., Mr. Stricklin offered a stinging indictment of Massey practices, saying the federal investigation by more than 100 people had been able to rule out the company’s assertion that the explosion on April 5, 2010, happened because of an event beyond its control: a huge inundation of gas.His findings matched those of the earlier report, conducted by a former federal mine safety chief, Davitt McAteer, which said that coal dust had been allowed to accumulate, spreading what had been a small ignition of methane through the mine and creating the deadliest mine blast in 40 years. “We are further along than this just being our theory,” Mr. Stricklin said. “This is our conclusion.”
Stricklin, the Mine Safety and Health Administration's administrator for coal, showed examples of how safety hazards noted on the mine's internal books were absent on the official reports seen by the government. The NYT notes that two people have been indicted for lying; those, however, are relatively low-level management. Senior management up to former CEO Don Blankenship haven't been indicted, though they were certainly responsible for the overall corporate culture of disregard for safety.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: We’re not saying Donald Trump is the worst person in the world. We’re saying it ought to be looked into. We started out learning he used other people’s charity to buy himself trinkets. But it ended with accusations that he’s a child rapist. That escalated quickly!
On iTunes | On Stitcher | Support the show: Patreon; PayPal; PayPal Subscription