President J. Biden (VS) zet Keystone XL pijpleiding project stop

[Olive Yao]

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Goed nieuws voor het klimaat!

JOE BIDEN HEEFT IN DE VS HET KEYSTONE XL PIJPLEIDING PROJECT STOPGEZET

Door deze pijpleiding wilde Canada zijn vuile fossiele brandstoffen – bitumenolie en olie na fracking – exporteren.

Het is de tweede keer dat het project wordt stopgezet. In 2015 heeft Obama – na lang treuzelen en politieke opportuniteit voorop stellende – het project gestopt, maar klimaatcrimineel D. Trump liet het weer opstarten.

In Canada en in de VS wordt geprotesteerd tegen Bidens besluit. Het zijn de bekende standaard-drogredenen, van mensen die de noodtoestand van het klimaat nog steeds weigeren onder ogen te zien.

De exploitatie van Canada’s vuile fossiele brandstoffen is een nekslag voor het klimaat (nb ik schrijf niet ‘de’ nekslag). Canada heeft weliswaar politiek correct het Klimaatverdrag van Parijs ondertekend, maar pleegt toch deze ecocide. Tegenstrijdig en hypocriet.

CETA, het verdrag tussen Canada en de EU, dwingt EU-landen ertoe import van Canada’s vuile fossiele brandstoffen toe te laten. Ook ceta is een nekslag voor het klimaat. Nederlandse politieke partijen die ceta steunen zijn medeplichtig.

Zie Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline is a landmark in the climate fight
Bill McKibben, The New Yorker 21 jan. 2021

[Olive Yao]

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Dizzying pace of Biden's climate action sounds death knell for era of denialism

Oliver Milman Guardian zaterdag 30 januari 2021

For a landmark moment in the global effort to stave off catastrophic climate change, Joe Biden’s “climate day” at the White House was rather low-key. The US president bumped elbows with his newly appointed climate tsar, John Kerry, who he called his “best buddy”, then gave a short speech before perfunctorily signing a small stack of executive orders, donning his mask and striding out without taking any questions.

The vision laid out in the actions signed by Biden on Wednesday, however, was transformative. A pathway for oil and gas drilling to be banned from public lands. A third of America’s land and ocean protected. The government ditching the combustion engine from its entire vehicle fleet, offering up a future where battery-powered trucks deliver America’s mail and electric tanks are operated by the US military.

Biden may eschew the politically contentious framing of the Green New Deal but there was even an echo of the original New Deal with his plan for a civilian climate corps to restore public lands and waterways. “The whole approach is classic Biden; working-class values, putting people to work,” said Tim Profeta, an environmental policy expert at Duke University.

The dizzying list of actions demonstrated the breadth and depth of the climate crisis. Biden’s administration will spur new climate-friendly policies for farmers while also devoting resources to the urban communities, typically low-income people of color, disproportionally blighted by pollution from nearby highways and power plants. In all, 21 federal agencies will be part of a new, overarching climate body. “This isn’t time for small measures”, Biden said. “We need to be bold.”

The first 10 days of Biden’s presidency have represented a startling handbrake turn from Donald Trump’s term, where climate science was routinely disparaged or sidelined and policies to cut planet-heating emissions were jettisoned. A complete rewiring of the economy is now needed to avert what the president calls an “existential threat” to civilization. US emissions dropped by about 10% last year but only because of pandemic shutdowns, and similar cuts will be required each year. “We can’t wait any longer – we see it with our own eyes, we feel it in our bones,” Biden implored.

“It truly is a new day for climate action,” said Carol Browner, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton. “President Joe Biden is taking unprecedented actions and sending an unmistakable message to the world that the United States is back and serious about tackling the climate crisis.”

Biden is yanking every possible governmental lever, it seems, to lower emissions but is also cognizant of attacks from Republicans, and unease among some unions, that ditching projects such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline will kill jobs. Battle lines have already formed – Republicans are trying to prevent any halt to drilling, with Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, vowing to “protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington DC”.

The counter to this backlash will be framed around jobs. Those who know Biden say the president views the climate crisis as a destabilizing threat to American might and national security but also an opportunity to create employment in a Covid-ravaged economy. “When I think of climate change I think of jobs,” has become a Biden slogan.

The president argues a $2tn clean energy plan will bring millions of new jobs by refashioning the power grid to run on carbon-free sources such as solar and wind within 15 years, building a new generation of energy-efficient homes and electric cars and mopping up pollution from oil and gas wells. “People have been in pain long enough,” said Gina McCarthy, Biden’s new domestic climate adviser, in reference to the pandemic. “We are not going to ask for sacrifice. If we fail to win the heart of middle America, we will lose.”

But emissions won’t get to zero via presidential action alone and Democrats’ hopes of sweeping climate legislation appear remote in a finely balanced Senate where climate denialism is still rife, as demonstrated on Tuesday by the Republican senator Rand Paul promoting a baseless theory that global heating is caused by the Earth’s tilt rather than human activity. Joe Manchin, a key Democratic vote who represents the coal heartland of West Virginia, once shot a climate bill with a rifle in a TV campaign advertisement.

“Congress seems to be the last bastion of climate denialism left in America,” said Todd Stern, the lead US negotiator of the Paris climate agreement.

There will probably be bipartisan agreement in certain areas, such as tax breaks for wind and solar and upgrades to ageing infrastructure that is being increasingly battered by floods, storms and wildfires. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, is confident some climate spending can sneak into overall budget bills. Biden could do more unilaterally if he declared a state of emergency over climate, Schumer has suggested. “Trump used this emergency for a stupid wall, which wasn’t an emergency. But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one”, the New York senator said last week.

While obstacles remain in Congress, the overall landscape has shifted since Biden’s time as vice-president. Solar and wind have plummeted in cost, countries are charging ahead, however imperfectly, on cutting emissions, and even supposed climate villains are changing their tune – in just the past week BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund manager, threatened to sell shares in the worst corporate polluters, the US Chamber of Commerce said it would support a price on carbon, and General Motors announced it will make only zero-emissions cars from 2035 onwards.

The Trump years may well have been the death rattle of influential denialism. The American public’s concern over the climate crisis is at record levels, with even a majority of Republican voters supporting government intervention in the wake of a year of unprecedented wildfires and hurricanes that cost hundreds of lives and tens of billions of dollars. The question is now whether the US is able to change quickly enough to avert further disaster, rather than if it will change at all.

“We are already spending the money, folks”, Kerry, the former secretary of state who is now Biden’s climate envoy, said of the recent climate-fueled disasters. “It’s cheaper to deal with the crisis of climate than to ignore it. This is life or death, a challenge to the fibre of our society. The stakes on climate change couldn’t be any higher than they are now. Failure is literally not an option.”

[Olive Yao]

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Manchin calls on Biden to restore Keystone XL pipeline

The Hill, Cameron Jenkins woensdag 24 november 2021


Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is calling on President Biden to restore the Keystone XL pipeline as gas prices across the country rise.

"I continue to call on President Biden to responsibly increase energy production here at home and to reverse course to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built which would have provided our country with up to 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, one of our closest allies," Manchin said in a Tuesday statement.

"To be clear, this is about American energy independence and the fact that hard-working Americans should not depend on foreign actors, like OPEC+, for our energy security and instead focus on the real challenges facing our country's future," he added, referring to the group of major oil-producing countries.

Manchin's call for action came shortly after the Biden administration announced a plan on Tuesday to release 50 million barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to curb rising gas prices, the news outlet noted.

In February, Manchin reportedly sided with Republicans who urged Biden to rethink canceling a permit for the pipeline, arguing that pipelines across the country "continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil and natural gas resources, and they support thousands of high-paying, American union jobs.″

Manchin also addressed the issue of inflation in the country last week, mentioning his belief that the Democrats' Build Back Better Act, which was recently passed by the House and will be taken up in the Senate, would not help lower prices.

“The cost they see every day. And every day they go to fill up is a dollar and a quarter more a gallon,” he said of rising gas prices at the time. “Three twenty-nine, $3.39.”

“A gallon of milk is now $4 in many places. It’s taking a toll. And I hear it when I go to the grocery store or if I go to the gas station. They say, ‘Are you as mad as I am?’ and I say, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Manchin continued.

Biden has expressed his views on ending American dependence on fossil fuel.

"This is the decade that will determine the answer. This decade," he said during an international climate summit earlier this month, The Gazette noted. "The science is clear: We only have a brief window left before us to raise our ambitions and ... to meet the task that's rapidly narrowing."

[Olive Yao]

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In het interview met Chomski staat het volgende over deze Manchin:

Joe Manchin is een uiterst rechtse Democratische senator voor de staat West Virginia.

Hij ontvangt voor zijn zesjaarlijkse verkiezingscampagne meer geld van de fossiele industrie dan eender welke andere politicus.

De Democraten hebben 50 zetels in de federale Senaat, evenveel als de Republikeinen. Met vice-president Kamala Harris als senaatsvoorzitter hebben de Democraten één stem op overschot, maar Manchin weigert als enige Democratische senator de infrastructuurwet en de klimaatwet van president Biden goed te keuren.

Deze patstelling is meer dan een toevallig wiskundig probleem. De federale senaat kent 2 senaatszetels toe voor elke deelstaat, waardoor de kleine en landelijke staten er proportioneel zeer onevenredig oververtegenwoordigd zijn. Met de helft van alle senaatszetels vertegenwoordigen de Republikeinen sinds de jaren 1980 geen meerderheid van de bevolking meer. Om dit systeem te wijzigen is een tweederde meerderheid nodig, die de Republikeinen nooit zullen geven. Bovendien zijn ook heel wat Democratische senatoren tegenstander van een meer proportionele Senaat, omdat zij zelf ook baat hebben bij het huidige systeem.

“Het Congres is een wetsvoorstel aan het bespreken dat misschien de koers naar vernieling heel lichtjes zal vertragen. De klimaatnegationistische partij (Republikeinen) is 100 procent tegen, zodat het lot van de wetgeving in handen van de ‘gematigde’ Democraten ligt, in het bijzonder in die van Joe Manchin. Hij heeft zijn mening over het klimaat expliciet geformuleerd: ‘Investeren in innovatie, geen afschaffing’.

“Die uitspraak komt rechtstreeks uit het draaiboek van de pr-diensten van de sector van de fossiele brandstoffen, geen verrassing voor de man in de Senaat die het meest campagnegeld krijgt van de deze sector. Het gebruik van fossiele aardolie moet volgens deze redenering ongehinderd kunnen doorgaan en ons zo naar een catastrofe leiden in het belang van de kortetermijnwinsten van de allerrijksten. Punt.

“Over de rest van het pakket maatregelen van president Biden heeft Manchin – met zijn doorslaggevende stem in de Senaat – duidelijk gemaakt dat hij daar alleen wat kruimels van zal aanvaarden, terwijl hij aandringt op omslachtige en vernederende tests van de toegestane sociale voorzieningen, die gewone standaardpraktijk zijn in de beschaafde wereld buiten de VS. Zijn stellingname is zeker niet in het voordeel van zijn kiezers. En de stellingnames van andere ‘gematigden’ zijn zeer gelijkaardig. Zonder enorm veel meer druk van de bevolking, is er geen hoop dat dit federale parlement het land zal toestaan de wrede aanval door de dominante overmacht van de bedrijven terug te dringen.”

(zie body van de text en noot 22)

[Soldim]

Joe Manchin is een uiterst rechtse Democratische senator voor de staat West Virginia.

Hij is in veel opzichten verre van rechts. Hij is senator voor een kolen producerende staat, en behartigt de belangen van die staat.

Hij is een van de vakbond vriendelijkste senatoren, een uitzondering in the senaat.

[Olive Yao]

West Virginians lead blockade of coal plant that's made Manchin rich

"This is what the fight for a habitable planet looks like in real time"

Julia Conley, Common Dreams zaterdag 9 april 2022

Organizers of the "Coal Baron Blockade" protest which targeted right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's coal empire Saturday afternoon reported that state police almost immediately began arresting campaigners who assembled in Grant Town, West Virginia.

"Sen. Joe Manchin's policies hurt poor people and hurt our environment so deeply that activists are ready to put themselves on the line," tweeted the Poor People's Campaign, which joined grassroots group West Virginia Rising and other organizations in the blockade.

Hundreds of campaigners participated in the blockade of Grant Town Power Plant, which receives coal waste from Enersystems, the company owned by the West Virginia senator's son. Manchin earns $500,000 per year from Enersystems—"making a very lucrative living off the backs of West Virginians," said Maria Gunnoe, an organizer of the action, this week.

At least 10 demonstrators had been arrested as of this writing.

"This is what the fight for a habitable planet looks like in real time," said Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come, of the dozens of campaigners who risked arrest.

Speakers and other participants highlighted the need for a just transition away from fossil fuels including coal, carrying signs that read "Solidarity with all coal workers."

"My dad worked in a chemical plant until he died of the exposure", said Holly Bradley, a ninth generation West Virginian. "We can all find common ground, but Joe Manchin is making it impossible".

While profiting from the Grant Town Power Plant, Manchin has obstructed President Joe Biden's domestic agenda while progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have worked to pass the Build Back Better Act.

The senator refused to back the bill if it included the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), a key climate provision which would have given federal grants to utilities which increase the electricity they get from renewable sources, as well as objecting to the extended Child Tax Credit, paid family leave, and other anti-poverty measures.

About 70% of Manchin's own constituents benefited from the Child Tax Credit last year, and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy found that an extension of the monthly payments "would drive an historic reduction in child poverty, lifting 22,000 West Virginia children above the poverty line."

Manchin's ties to Grant Town Power Plant have only worsened the financial burdens faced by West Virginians, which the senator showed little interest in lessening last year as he refused to back the Build Back Better Act. As Politico reported in February:

By 2006, when Manchin was governor, the plant's owners went before the West Virginia Public Service Commission and claimed it was on the verge of shutting down.

The commission, then chaired by Jon McKinney, a Manchin appointee, raised the rate that Grant Town could charge for its electricity from $27.25 per megawatt to $34.25. They also gave the plant a way to stay in business longer, by extending its power purchase agreement with FirstEnergy by eight years to 2036.

Those changes still reverberate today. West Virginia has seen some of the highest electricity rate increases in the nation. Its loyalty to coal is one reason for that.

In addition to costing West Virginians tens of millions of dollars for higher electricity, said Appalacians Against Pipelines on Saturday, "the air pollution released by Manchin's coal company is causing nine deaths per year."

"Yet it’s the people willing to put their bodies on the line for the world’s future being rounded up and handcuffed right now," the group tweeted.