[lbo-talk] Obama to reject Keystone

Nathan n.crazeddoberman at gmail.com
Sat Jan 21 20:54:13 PST 2012


On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 09:23:29PM +0200, lbo83235 wrote:
> On Jan 19, 2012, at 12:31 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > That's an answer to why Obama is playing this game. Not to why enviros care. If they develop that shit, kiss the climate goodbye.
>
> I think Doug is right. From what I know, there are NIMBY / aquifer concerns in play at some local levels, but the real issue is that releasing the carbon contained in the tar sands basically means game over - unless maybe you're "in on the ground floor" with the Koch Bros' investments in geo-engineering.
>
> What I don't get is, why even make the public rejection right now? Is there really serious pressure around this in the U.S. at the moment?

Have to second what Doug says--there's a ridiculous amount of tar sand out there, IIRC enough to make Canada look like Saudi Arabia a couple times over. For it to be profitable IIRC oil only has to be about $50/barrel. Ask a Peak Oiler about it sometime if you want to watch an astounding display of mental acrobatics that end with falling off the trapeze.

I hadn't realized that the Koch brothers were into geo-engineering... I know they fund all those paleo-anthropology PBS programs but I didn't figure them for sci-fi fans.

-- Nathan



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