Schneiderman Wants to Know Climate Change Impacts of Pipeline

AG to feds: Assess climate impacts of Keystone XL 

Posted by Casey Seiler, Capitol bureau chief

(AP)

CapCon intern Shivani Gonzalez reports:

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wants the U.S. State Department to hold off on a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline project until there is a full analysis on potential pollution and climate change consequences.

The proposed 875-mile pipeline would run between Alberta and Nebraska, and transport crude oil extracted from the Canadian sand tars. From there, the oil would be sent to the Gulf of Mexico for sale and refining.

The project is awaiting permits and other federal approvals — including a determination of whether it would serve national interest. The federal government has yet to make a decision because of the absence of a complete assessment of the climate change impacts — the same sort of study Schneiderman is seeking.

According to a release, the Attorney General’s office estimates that the pipeline would emit 605 to 3,740 million metric tons of additional climate change pollution over the pipelines anticipated 50-year lifespan. That would be two to 14 times New York’s total climate and emission pollution, and almost equal to the nation’s total pollution emissions for 2011.

Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said “it is smart to make it hard” to build the pipeline because of the climate change concerns.

Schneiderman believes the State Department’s final environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL — issued Jan. 31 — failed to acknowledge the amount of climate change pollution that would be emitted. The AG’s office called that EIS “arbitrary and capricious” in comments it submitted for the review.

The AG’s office, like those in many states downwind of midwestern air pollution, has taken an active and frequently litigious role in emission issues.

The original report is at Capitol Confidential.

Talks on Adventures of Ken Ilgunas - Author and UB Grad

  "Trespassing across America: One UB Grad's Epic, 1,700-mile (and sort of Illegal) Hike along the Keystone XL Pipeline." 

A TALK by 

 KEN ILGUNAS

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18
3:00-5:00 p.m.
120 Clemens Hall -- UB North Campus [Map]

Read Ken Ilgunas' article published at Salon.

Ilgunas will present a different talk on TUESDAY, November 19:

"I lived in a van down by Duke University: One UB Grad's Adventurous Account of Living Debt-Free." 

1:30-3:20 p.m.

Undergraduate Academies, 17 Norton Hall -- UB North Campus [Map]

Ilgunas published a book about his adventures entitled "Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom." 

Local Keystone XL activists 'Draw the Line' on pipeline proposal

By Jennifer Lysiak, Lancaster Editor | News
Wednesday September 25, 2013

LANCASTER- To bring awareness to local communities and send a message to U.S. President Barrack Obama, more than 200 groups in 49 states rallied together last Saturday against the Keystone XL pipeline, the expansion of the Canadian tar sands, and other dirty energy projects that are worsening the climate crisis.

“The National Day of Action” called “Draw the Line” rallies were led by 350.org, a grass roots movement that is helping lead the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, pushing for fossil fuel divestment, and organizing global power shift.

Right here in Lancaster, a handful of concerned citizens, part of the organization 350.org, held signs protesting and demanding that President Obama deny the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

“ 350.org is a global organization dedicated to combating the climate crisis,” said Lancaster resident, Alison Schweichler, LCSW. “So, it takes different forms in different areas. One center issue we have been working on is the Keystone XL pipeline and the decision for this pipeline is in President Obama’s hands. They took the initiative to plan this day of action against the pipeline.”

The number 350 stands for the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What many believe is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Activist Dave Kowalski explained back in pre-industrial times the level was 280 parts per million and today it is 400.

“So, it keeps climbing and it just hasn’t stopped, because more and more fossil fuels are burning around the world,” said Kowalski. “The scientist that choose 350, James Hansen, picked that number from looking back in time and determining that it was the safest upper level of carbon dioxide during which civilization has evolved. Anything above that number we need to worry about it and start cutting back on fossil fuels burning.”

Unless there is a decrease, the risk of reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt could happen.

Schweichler commented they made not live where the pipeline is happening, but there are dangers it brings to other areas.

“It might not be in our backyard, but this pipeline would bring very dirty tar sands oil from Canada which contributes to global warming and harms people all around the world,” remarked Schweichler.

More than 1,500 people have been arrested to stop Keystone XL and on Feb. 17 more than 40,000 people went to Washington to express to the president that Keystone XL is not in the national interest. Credo Mobile, Other 98 and Rainforest Action Network have collected pledges from more than 75,000 people who are willing to risk arrest to stop the pipeline. A diverse coalition of environmentalists, inner-city residents living near refineries, and rural landowners have come together to oppose the pipeline’s southern leg in Texas as well.

In June, pipeline opponents were heartened by Obama’s Georgetown climate comments about Keystone XL when he stated he would oppose the pipeline if it would “significantly” increase greenhouse gas emission.

According to Schweichler, independent analysts, environmentalists, and the tar sands industry all agree that Keystone XL will increase emissions and is the lynch pin to the industry’s stated goal of increasing production from today’s 2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 6 bpd million by 2030.

Over the project’s 50-year timeline, Keystone XL would add between 935 million and 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon pollution to our atmosphere at a time when the World Bank and International Energy Administration are warning that some 66 percent of known fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground if we are to have even a small chance at stopping the climate crisis.

“We want to hold Obama to his word that he cares about climate change and he is going to do something about it,” said Kowalski. “So, this is a test.”

Schweichler said while the proposed pipeline has brought everyone together, it connects all of them to a whole host of other issues, including saying no to dangerous, dirty fossil fuels and yes to renewable energy.

The day also focused on reminding the community about the risks of fracking, a natural gas drilling technique that goes miles underground to break up shale rock using water, sand, and toxic chemicals.

RALLY: Protect our Water, Air, Land and People

President Obama will visit Buffalo on Thursday, August 22 to speak at UB Alumni Arena. People opposed to unsafe fracking want the topic of shale gas drilling to be on the President's agenda and will hold a rally there.

Check the WNY Drilling Defense FB for updates, contacts & map HERE.
See also an informative PDF from the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter HERE.

Sponsors include WNY Drilling Defense and Sierra Club Niagara Group 
and Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter

WNY Drilling Defense wants to send the President a clear message that fracking is unsafe and that we don't want fracking in New York – or anywhere else. 

Rita Yelda will have protest signs available if you need them.

Sierra Club Niagara Group wants to tell the President that they want Renewable Energy - Not Fracking - and No Keystone Pipeline!

Bob Ciesielski will also have protest signs available. Also, printable signs can be found HERE

Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter says that the rally is a critical opportunity to tell the President that he needs to end his misguided support of dangerous, polluting fracking. Urge the President to Embrace Renewable Energy and say NO to Fracking!

Obama Inaugural Addresses Climate Change -- Bill McKibben Reacts

Text of President Obama's Inaugural address on Climate Change:

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”

— President Barack Obama
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Bill McKibben reacts to Obama Inaugural Address on Climate Change:
Bill McKibben, author, educator and climate activist, reacted to President Obama statements about climate change in an email message. McKibben's message is below (the emphasis is his):

"With words like that, it's easy to let ourselves dream that something major might be about to happen to fix the biggest problem the world has ever faced.

But we know that even if the President is sincere in every syllable, he's going to need lots of backup to help him get his point across in a city dominated by fossil fuel interests. And, given the record of the last four years, we know that too often rhetoric has yielded little in the way of results.

That's why we need you -- very badly -- to take a trip to our nation's capital on Feb. 17. We'll gather on the National Mall, in what is shaping up to be be the largest environmental rally in many years.

Click here to join us in DC: act.350.org/signup/presidentsday

Together we'll send the message loud and clear: 'If you're serious about protecting future generations from climate change, stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. If you can do that, Mr. President, we can all work together to help build a climate legacy that will be a credit to your critical eight years in office.'

Look -- numbers count. If 20,000 of us show up on February 17th, it will be noticed. We need you in that number. The President may have given us an opening, but it's up to us to go through it, and we need to do it together.

Thanks for all you've done to bring us this far, friends. Let's keep it up -- this is our chance."

Bill
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Hop on the Bus to the Climate Rally & March in Washington DC! 

Sierra Club Niagara Group has chartered a Bus leaving Buffalo the evening of February 16 and returning directly after the rally. 

For information on bus tickets, Click Here.

Sign up to attend the Rally and get more information through the Sierra Club website.

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