Re: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline
I always felt that the reason the Keystone Pipeline wanted to seize entire farms instead of just getting a right of way through the farm is to cover their tail when the pipeline leaks and has spills. If you have a right of way, the farmer has the basis for a law suit. However, if you had seize the farm and you own it, you don't have to worry about getting sued and Keystone isn't going to sue themselves. Jeff From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 3:24 PM Subject: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Much at Stake as Possibility of Tar Sands Pipeline Looms Pumping diluted bitumen to Portland presents the risk of a major spill tainting Sebago Lake or Casco Bay Published on Monday, October 15, 2012 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/15-8 Fresh Recruits, More Arrests Begin Week Four in Texas Tar Sands Blockade Monday, 15 October 2012 12:23 http://truth-out.org/news/item/12121-fresh-recruits-more-arrests-begin-week-four-in-texas-tar-sands-blockade --0-- http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12112-join-the-blockade-of-the-keystone-pipeline Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Monday, 15 October 2012 10:11 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not take place in city parks and plazas, where the security and surveillance state is blocking protesters from setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in the nation's heartland, where some ranchers, farmers and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land seized by eminent domain and their water supplies placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on tribal lands along the proposed route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have begun against the corporate state. Join them. The XL pipeline, which would cost $7 billion and whose southern portion is under construction and slated for completion next year, is the most potent symbol of the dying order. If completed, it will pump 1.1 million barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow. Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000 U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in 2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of operation. Because the extraction process emits such a large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that successful completion of the pipeline, along with the exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate, would mean game over for the climate. Keystone XL is part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state. The corporations intend to squeeze the last vestiges of profit from an ecosystem careening toward collapse. Most of the oil that can be reached through drilling from traditional rigs is depleted. The fossil fuel industry has, in response, developed new technologies to go after dirtier, less efficient forms of energy. These technologies bring with them a dramatically heightened cost to ecosystems. They accelerate the warming of the planet. And they contaminate vital water sources. Deep-water Arctic drilling, tar sand extraction, hydraulic fracturing (or hydro-fracking) and drilling horizontally, given the cost of extraction and effects on the environment, are a form of ecological suicide. Appealing to the corporate state, or trusting the leaders of either party to halt the assault after the election, is futile. We must immediately obstruct this pipeline or accept our surrender to forces that, in the name of profit, intend to cash in on the death throes of the planet. Nine protesters, surviving on canned food and bottled water, have been carrying out a tree-sit for more than two weeks to block the path of the pipeline near Winnsboro, Texas. Other Occupiers have chained themselves to logging equipment, locked themselves in trucks carrying pipe to construction sites and hung banners at equipment
Re: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline
It is in fact a historical pattern that goes back to the very beginnings of these sorts of commercial undertakings, whose nature is to be extenuated over land. The systemic integration of these into what subsequently became the predominant industrial-economic mode relied absolutely on the dishing out of land by the State, land the surplus to requirements of which was often thereafter sold off at a considerable profit. Compare for instance the role of railroad development in American westward expansion. Regards Dawie Coetzee From: Jeff [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 14:08 Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline I always felt that the reason the Keystone Pipeline wanted to seize entire farms instead of just getting a right of way through the farm is to cover their tail when the pipeline leaks and has spills. If you have a right of way, the farmer has the basis for a law suit. However, if you had seize the farm and you own it, you don't have to worry about getting sued and Keystone isn't going to sue themselves. Jeff From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 3:24 PM Subject: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Much at Stake as Possibility of Tar Sands Pipeline Looms Pumping diluted bitumen to Portland presents the risk of a major spill tainting Sebago Lake or Casco Bay Published on Monday, October 15, 2012 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/15-8 Fresh Recruits, More Arrests Begin Week Four in Texas Tar Sands Blockade Monday, 15 October 2012 12:23 http://truth-out.org/news/item/12121-fresh-recruits-more-arrests-begin-week-four-in-texas-tar-sands-blockade --0-- http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12112-join-the-blockade-of-the-keystone-pipeline Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Monday, 15 October 2012 10:11 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not take place in city parks and plazas, where the security and surveillance state is blocking protesters from setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in the nation's heartland, where some ranchers, farmers and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land seized by eminent domain and their water supplies placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on tribal lands along the proposed route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have begun against the corporate state. Join them. The XL pipeline, which would cost $7 billion and whose southern portion is under construction and slated for completion next year, is the most potent symbol of the dying order. If completed, it will pump 1.1 million barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow. Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000 U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in 2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of operation. Because the extraction process emits such a large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that successful completion of the pipeline, along with the exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate, would mean game over for the climate. Keystone XL is part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state. The corporations intend to squeeze the last vestiges of profit from an ecosystem careening toward collapse. Most of the oil that can be reached through drilling from traditional rigs is depleted. The fossil fuel industry has, in response, developed new technologies to go after dirtier, less efficient forms of energy. These technologies bring with them a dramatically heightened cost to ecosystems. They accelerate the warming of the planet. And they contaminate vital water sources. Deep-water Arctic drilling, tar sand extraction, hydraulic
Re: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline
Keystone XL Contractor and SUNY Buffalo Shale Institute Conduct LA County's Fracking Study Tuesday, 16 October 2012 15:39 http://truth-out.org/news/item/12146-keystone-xl-contractor-and-suny-buffalo-shale-institute-conduct-la-countys-fracking-study --0-- http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/16-0 Published on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 by Common Dreams 'Time is Now to Make a Stand': Tar Sands Pipeline Blockade Grows as Company Lashes Out 50 campaigners break police lines to re-supply tree-sitters as month-long action continues - Common Dreams staff Campaigners with the Tar Sands Blockade-who have been maintaining tree sits and engaging in civil disobedience against the southern portion of TransCanada's tar sands pipeline in east Texas since last month-celebrated what they called their biggest day of action yet on Monday. As the Winnsboro, Texas tree blockade entered its fourth week, over 50 new supporters broke through police lines in order to bring fresh supplies, including food and water, to the tree-sitters. Despite a newly-expanded Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) injunction served to the protesters by local law enforcement agencies, the anti-pipeline activists risked arrest in large numbers. They're saying we might get sued or worse, but stopping this pipeline is too important. said Glenn Hobbit, 28. Many of the activists continue to use aliases as a security precaution. See photos of the day's action here. The News-Journal in Longview, Texas reports that the SLAPP injunctions are temporary restraining orders issued by two state district court judges against the Keystone XL Pipeline protesters in both Wood and Franklin counties. The court orders prohibit protesters from interfering with, preventing or obstructing construction of the pipeline being built across private property in the two counties en route to the Gulf Coast, the local paper said. And adds: The Wood County restraining order was issued last week in 402nd District Court, about the same time a New York Times reporter and photographer were detained near Winnsboro by off-duty police officers hired by a TransCanada contractor. The pair, reporter Dan Frosch and photographer Brandon Thibodeaux, were released after identifying themselves as members of the press. The orders and and escalating arrests of protestors highlight increasing efforts by TransCanada to move forward construction that has been stalled for several weeks in some areas. Security measures have been increased, said TransCanada spokesman Dan Dodson, with patrols of pipeline easements day and night. Construction has been hampered by protesters who chained themselves to equipment in Franklin County and others in Wood County who have created a maze of tree houses. That protest has been spearheaded by the pipeline opposition group TarSands Blockade. Peaceful and nonviolent civil disobedience is one tool in the activist toolkit, Bill McKibben, a Middlebury College professor who has been one of the leading foes of the Keystone XL, said in an e-mail to the Washington Post regarding the ongoing protest in Texas. You don't want to use it all the time because it gets dull. But this is the kind of case for which it's designed, when you're up against the wall and truly powerful forces are refusing to listen to reason and just pushing ahead regardless. Former New York Times reporter and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges wrote on Monday that the Keystone pipeline is part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state. If completed, he continued: It will pump 1.1 million barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow. Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000 U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in 2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of operation. Because the extraction process emits such a large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that successful completion of the pipeline, along with the exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate, would mean game over for the climate. Hedges urged others to join the blockade, and quoted climate activist Tom Weis, who said: There comes a time when we must make a stand for the future of our
Re: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline
Eminent domain cannot take more land than is required for the corridor. I don't know the geographical distribution of the farm purchases along the proposed line, but it could be TranCanada is buying farms for pipe yards or some other future use. It could also be that the corridor just eats up too much of the property and effectively makes it useless, but that is usually on smaller lots. This pipeline will be built. Activists approach these projects from an environmental perspective of post-construction which in this case and IMHO is not the most productive. The activists should be out there recording the construction at creek crossings and river crossings and through wetlands. The environmental inspectors are third party hired and paid for by the operating company to monitor the construction company. These inspectors don't rock the boat so much that construction schedule is affected. They are also very understaffed. Violation of federal standards slow/shut these jobs down. And if they actually had footage of how the contractor slings those pipe strings around the public would be horrified. I could tell you some stories... Michele On Oct 17, 2012, at 7:09 AM, Jeff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I always felt that the reason the Keystone Pipeline wanted to seize entire farms instead of just getting a right of way through the farm is to cover their tail when the pipeline leaks and has spills. If you have a right of way, the farmer has the basis for a law suit. However, if you had seize the farm and you own it, you don't have to worry about getting sued and Keystone isn't going to sue themselves. Jeff From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 3:24 PM Subject: [Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Much at Stake as Possibility of Tar Sands Pipeline Looms Pumping diluted bitumen to Portland presents the risk of a major spill tainting Sebago Lake or Casco Bay Published on Monday, October 15, 2012 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/15-8 Fresh Recruits, More Arrests Begin Week Four in Texas Tar Sands Blockade Monday, 15 October 2012 12:23 http://truth-out.org/news/item/12121-fresh-recruits-more-arrests-begin-week-four-in-texas-tar-sands-blockade --0-- http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12112-join-the-blockade-of-the-keystone-pipeline Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Monday, 15 October 2012 10:11 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not take place in city parks and plazas, where the security and surveillance state is blocking protesters from setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in the nation's heartland, where some ranchers, farmers and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land seized by eminent domain and their water supplies placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on tribal lands along the proposed route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have begun against the corporate state. Join them. The XL pipeline, which would cost $7 billion and whose southern portion is under construction and slated for completion next year, is the most potent symbol of the dying order. If completed, it will pump 1.1 million barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow. Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000 U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in 2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of operation. Because the extraction process emits such a large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that successful completion of the pipeline, along with the exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate, would mean game over for the climate. Keystone XL is part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state. The corporations intend
[Biofuel] Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline
Much at Stake as Possibility of Tar Sands Pipeline Looms Pumping diluted bitumen to Portland presents the risk of a major spill tainting Sebago Lake or Casco Bay Published on Monday, October 15, 2012 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine) http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/15-8 Fresh Recruits, More Arrests Begin Week Four in Texas Tar Sands Blockade Monday, 15 October 2012 12:23 http://truth-out.org/news/item/12121-fresh-recruits-more-arrests-begin-week-four-in-texas-tar-sands-blockade --0-- http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12112-join-the-blockade-of-the-keystone-pipeline Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline Monday, 15 October 2012 10:11 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not take place in city parks and plazas, where the security and surveillance state is blocking protesters from setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in the nation's heartland, where some ranchers, farmers and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land seized by eminent domain and their water supplies placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on tribal lands along the proposed route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have begun against the corporate state. Join them. The XL pipeline, which would cost $7 billion and whose southern portion is under construction and slated for completion next year, is the most potent symbol of the dying order. If completed, it will pump 1.1 million barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow. Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure. Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000 U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in 2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of operation. Because the extraction process emits such a large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that successful completion of the pipeline, along with the exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate, would mean game over for the climate. Keystone XL is part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state. The corporations intend to squeeze the last vestiges of profit from an ecosystem careening toward collapse. Most of the oil that can be reached through drilling from traditional rigs is depleted. The fossil fuel industry has, in response, developed new technologies to go after dirtier, less efficient forms of energy. These technologies bring with them a dramatically heightened cost to ecosystems. They accelerate the warming of the planet. And they contaminate vital water sources. Deep-water Arctic drilling, tar sand extraction, hydraulic fracturing (or hydro-fracking) and drilling horizontally, given the cost of extraction and effects on the environment, are a form of ecological suicide. Appealing to the corporate state, or trusting the leaders of either party to halt the assault after the election, is futile. We must immediately obstruct this pipeline or accept our surrender to forces that, in the name of profit, intend to cash in on the death throes of the planet. Nine protesters, surviving on canned food and bottled water, have been carrying out a tree-sit for more than two weeks to block the path of the pipeline near Winnsboro, Texas. Other Occupiers have chained themselves to logging equipment, locked themselves in trucks carrying pipe to construction sites and hung banners at equipment staging areas. Doug Grant, a former Exxon employee, was arrested outside Winnsboro when he bound himself to clear-cutting machinery. Shannon Bebe and Benjamin Franklin, after handcuffing themselves to equipment being used to cut down trees, were tasered, pepper-sprayed and physically assaulted by local police, reportedly at the request of TransCanada officials. The actress Daryl Hannah, along with a 78-year-old East Texas great-grandmother and farmer, Eleanor Fairchild, was arrested Oct. 4 while blocking TransCanada bulldozers on Fairchild's property. The Fairchild farm, like other properties seized by
