After years of consideration, President Obama formally rejected TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline application, which would have permitted oil from Canada’s tar sands to flow to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. Though the company and many Republican lawmakers argued it would benefit the economy, Mr. Obama said the project wasn’t in line with efforts to combat climate change. Judy Woodruff reports.
President Obama announced earlier today that the Keystone XL pipeline has been rejected. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show Podcast), and Mark Thompson, hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
“President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, killing the long-stalled project to bring oil from the Canadian tar sands to Texas.
“The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interests of the United States,” Obama said. “I agree.”
The announcement, during which the president was flanked by John Kerry, his secretary of state, and Vice President Joe Biden, is the culmination of years of debate—much of it rancorous—over the Canadian company TransCanada’s proposed 1,661-mile pipeline. On Thursday, the State Department rejected TransCanada’s request to put a review of the project on hold until a dispute in Nebraska over the project’s proposed route was resolved.
The State Department, which had final say because the project crossed an international border, had been reviewing the pipeline for more than six years, working to determine whether it was in the national interest. Congressional Republicans had tried—unsuccessfully—this year to circumvent that process and grant the project a permit immediately. Friday’s decision effectively kills all those efforts.”*
What do lawmakers think of President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline? Judy Woodruff gets thoughts on the economic, environmental and political fallout from Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to pass a multi-year transportation bill that would authorize federal spending of up to $325 billion on road, bridge and rail transit projects for six years, though final provisions are subject to negotiations with the Senate. USA Today’s Bart Jansen joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday accused Russia of endangering world order, citing its incursions in Ukraine and loose talk about nuclear weapons, and said the U.S. is searching for creative ways to deter Russian aggression. (Nov. 7)
Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain have released a report showing how the U.S. military has spent millions of dollars paying the NFL and other sports leagues for “paid-for patriotism” events and ceremonies. The report documents $6.8 million worth of agreements between branches of the armed forces and sports leagues over the last four years. But it says this amount is only a sliver of the $53 million the military spent on advertising with sports teams during that time.
Police arrested more than 50 professors and their supporters during a rally for faculty on Wednesday in New York City. Protesters blocked the doors of the administrative offices of the City University of New York in Manhattan in protest of their lack of a contract and low wages. CUNY professors say they have not had a contract since 2010 and have not received raises in six years.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
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