It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
You’ve got to hand it to billionaire Tom Steyer. He tells Barack Obama and Harry Reid to jump, and they obediently reply: How high?
Mr. Steyer pulled off the policy coup of the year last week when the White House announced it would place the Keystone XL pipeline in regulatory purgatory for another six months at least. Mr. Steyer has promised $100 million to Democrats to beat back Republicans in the midterm elections this fall, and the campaign funds have already paid off in the scuttling of this $3 billion pipeline project. (Remember when Democrats were pro-infrastructure?) President Obama says we have to determine whether it is “in the national interest.”
Mr. Steyer protested this week that he is not the Democratic party’s version of the Koch brothers, who fund efforts to promote liberty and free enterprise. Mr. Steyer says that “there are real distinctions between the Koch brothers and us,” because the Kochs personally benefit from their political advocacy, while he is donating to save the planet. Never mind that he’s a major investor in solar-energy projects that compete with fossil fuels. Let’s just say that Steyer got more than just a lousy T-shirt for his political pay-to-play investment.
originally posted by: buster2010
One minute people want to cry about Reid and the Chinese solar plant but they seem to no problem with a pipeline that will be shipping oil from a Chinese owned oil company. China now holds 100 percent of Nexen, a tar sands and shale gas company, and also has major stakes in McKay River, Dover, Long Lake and other Canadian tar sands projects. So it's ok to sell out America's independence to the Chinese when the Republicans back it but it's not ok when the Democrats back it.
originally posted by: Kukri
Keystone benefits nobody in North America in the long term other than the Kochs. If you believe otherwise you should put on your thinking caps and do some research. This is purely a Chinese game and the Kochs get to skim off the top while everyone else gets the shaft.
As a Canadian and someone who should profit from this deal I can honestly say that Harper as the leader of this country is royally screwing not only Candians but US citizens on this pipeline. Not that it matters the "oil" is still getting shippedt Kochs refineries for Chinese markets but nobody other than big oil insiders are benefitting from it.
Native American communities and ranchers have joined in the nation's capital in a historic "Cowboy Indian Alliance" to stop the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline that directly threatens their environment. Included among them are First Nations representatives, hailing from Alberta, Canada, where indigenous communities are invoking treaty rights in a bid to halt dangerous tar sands production on their land.
"As First Nations people, we abide by natural law, and there is nothing natural about a people dying from cancer and suffering from respiratory illnesses caused by tar sands production,” said Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.
originally posted by: nwtrucker
a reply to: buster2010
What point are you trying to make?? Somebody somewhere owns every corporation. In country out of country, the point for the pipeline is jobs, even if most are temporary being construction. It also provides a bit of competition for Buffet and the rest of the railroad boys who benefit from rail windfalls.
By the way, there's plenty of union and Democrat support for this pipeline as well....
Koch brothers? I thought in your post you said it was Chinese owned? Positioning? Koch brothers, Soros or now this guy.
Saying that a pipeline would somehow increase prices anywhere in the U.S. is stretching it beyond credibility. ( Not mentioning the cost of gas has soared under Obama.) You might address that issue as it's already occurring instead of some potential in the future as an anti-pipeline or anti-right argument.
October 6, 1986: First oil derivative is introduced to Wall Street by traders at Koch. Koch Industries executive Lawrence Kitchen devised the “first ever oil-indexed price swap between Koch Industries and Chase Manhattan Bank.” At the time, such derivatives had been limited to currency markets, and the shift of creating a synthetic financial instrument based on the value of crude oil was revolutionary. For an agreed-upon period, an oil swap is a contract where one party makes payments based on a fixed oil price, and the other party makes payments back based on the changing spot price of oil. In July of 2009, EnergyRisk magazine, a publication for commodity traders, posted a piece exploring the very first oil derivatives and Koch’s role in developing them.
originally posted by: Snarl
When I hear about guys like this ... I say ... tax the rich!!
The bickering artificially inflates the price of gas (which the little guy pays most of the taxes on). This in turn causes an increase in everything (like iwinder's groceries). You name it.
I think the price of a gallon of gas in Venezuela is still under half a buck. Was $0.17 when I was down there a few years back.
ETA: Whoops ... my bad ... price came down to $0.06 per gallon. Source