People power has an impact.
From Oil Change International:
In a new report that we released today along with our friends at Bold Nebraska, Environmental Defence Canada, Equiterre, IEEFA, NRDC, Sierra Club U.S., and 350.org, we take a data-driven look at the role this incredible and diverse movement is having keeping some of the world’s dirtiest oil—the Alberta tar sands—in the ground.
The report, Lockdown: The end of growth in the tar sands, is all about the numbers. We built a model (the first of its kind in the public sphere) that looks at the entire North American tar sands pipeline system. Using this model (INAP—the Integrated North American Pipeline model), we were able to determine bottlenecks, hurdles, and pressure points for the industry.
One story the model tells is a simple one: without major new pipelines, the tar sands have run out of room to grow. And at the moment every single major pipeline (as well as incremental expansions to existing pipelines) is facing mounting public, legal, and political opposition—all of which has been driven by people power that refuses to accept the devastating impacts of the Alberta tar sands on the climate, the environment, human rights, and communities.
INAP finds that:
• The current tar sands pipeline system is 89% full; and
• The industry will run out of transportation capacity as soon as 2017 without major new pipelines, or significant expansion to existing systems.
We then assessed the impacts of these pipelines constraints on the tar sands sector and found:
• Further growth in the sector is unlikely to be viable without major pipeline expansion;
• Transporting tar sands by rail is too expensive to justify major new growth; and
• The emissions savings of this no new growth reality would be 34.6 gigatons of CO2. [...]
This report is validation that people power is working—it is stepping in where governments are falling short. And in the case of the Alberta tar sands—it has created circumstances where no new growth will be profitable in the sector unless they can overcome growing a movement that starts on the front lines with First Nations and impacted communities, and extends across the country, the continent, and the world. [...]
If you're in need of something especially interesting to read and look at, I recommend this New York Times piece and the accompanying images/videos.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Lieberman's bluff:
When my daughter was born, my then-3-year-old son clearly felt neglected, as first children always do in such situations. And as always happens, my son started acting up in a play for attention. In his case, he regressed on his potty training, crapping his pants. In a bid for attention, that certainly worked.
Enter Joe Lieberman, and his successful bid for attention yesterday, promising to screw Democrats for the umpteenth time by joining Republicans in a filibuster of the Democratic health care plan. Whatever.
As much as our favorite boogeyman loves the limelight, there's one thing he loves even more—being Senator.
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show:
David Waldman opens with the depressing, disturbing and
all too usual news of
a toddler being shot-
71st this year. Leaving guns out for kids is not home protection, therefore
is not natural law.
Greg Dworkin brings us polling and news of the world: The White House and the Gop seemed to have
reached a budget agreement, so Boehner's
work here is done. Ben Carson
leads Republicans nationally now. How
is this possible? How does
apocalyptic pessimism rally their base? Why so
grumpy? Did Sarah
start it? Although maybe Jeb!
should be a little bummed. Meanwhile, the
Jefferson-Jackson dinner begins to clarify the Democratic race. Sanders supporters
hope to stay away from
Howard Dean comparisons. Greenland
is melting away, and
you can watch it. The
FBI is investigating The Hobby Lobby's violation of laws based on
at least a couple commandments. The
House science committee is worse than the Benghazi committee, and the
Planned Parenthood committee has not even started yet. Political action committees do have a
few scams in place for soaking the rubes, but David wonders if candidates might be actively laundering money with
bulk book buying schemes? The bipartisan budget agreement does not include a Liberty Lobby or a Galt Garret, but it does include provisions for a
Freedom Foyer.
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