Good News and Bad News

The good news?

By voice vote, lawmakers approved a bipartisan amendment from Gulf Coast representatives directing 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines tied to the BP oil spill to go toward Gulf restoration efforts.

The bad news?

House lawmakers approved a plan to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline and expand drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Unsuccessful amendments would have carved out a drilling exemption offshore of California’s northern coast, in the Everglades and in the Great Lakes. A bipartisan amendment to affirm that the bill would not affect funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund was withdrawn.

LINK (Via: Politico)

Keystone XL pipeline not safe

Mike Klink, a former inspector for one of the major contractors working on TransCanada’s original Keystone pipeline, has published an op-ed criticizing Keystone XL, the new pipeline that would bring crude from Alberta's Tar Sands down to refineries in the Gulf Coast.

LINK (Via: The Journal Star)

News of the project’s delay was not well received in Canada

In a limted victory for environmental groups opposed to the project, the Obama administration announced that it will delay its decision on the contested Keystone XL pipeline.

The delay will effectively push any decision well past the 2012 election and into 2013, according to a State Department announcement yesterday.

LINK (Via: NY Times)

Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Yesterday, exactly one year before the next presidential election, protesters descended on the White House, to remind the president, our government and the nation that the Keystone XL Pipeline has no place in a national vision of clean energy.

The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline would originate in Alberta, Canada and pass through the West and Midwest of the United States ending up in Houston where most of the oil will be shipped overseas. Six companies have contracted for three-quarters of the oil. Five are foreign.

By signing a petition you too can send a message to the President demanding he reject the pipeline.

Sign the petition at 350.org.

LINK (Via: The Cleanest Line)