Keystone XL pipeline is essentially dead!!!

This.  Is.  Huge.  What we have just witnessed is true democracy at work.  As of several months ago, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was all but certain to be approved.  The company who's behind the project, TransCanada, was even in the process of moving pipeline pieces to the proposed route as of last week.

Then, today, Barack Obama announced that the proposal needed to go back to the State Department for a thorough re-assessment of the impacts of the pipeline.  This will delay any decision for more than a year, and if done to the standards requested by Obama, should result in tossing out the pipeline plan.  Obama specifically cited the need for the environmental assessment to include climate change effects if the tar sands are tapped (the effects would be catastrophic, fyi).

So what brought about this seismic shift, when the State Department was weeks away from recommending approval?  People power.  In September, 1253 people were arrested for protesting the pipeline in front of the White House.  Then, on Sunday, over 12,000 people surrounded the White House with signs reminding Obama about his campaign promises to take on climate change.  Dozens of congressmen and congresswomen wrote to Obama about their concerns.  Nine Nobel Peace Prize winners declared their opposition to the pipeline.  College campuses around the country held rallies against the pipeline.  And Obama listened to us.

Power for the People

I read a great article today - Power for the People: Energy For the 99 Percent by Kate Gordon on the blog ClimateProgress.  It's definitely worth taking a few minutes to read.  The article lays out the two versions of our future that we have to decide between.  One version is the 'business-as-usual' option, where we continue to rely on fossil fuels and the corporations who provide those fuels.  These corporations are the most profitable companies in the world's history -- in just the first nine months of 2011, they made $101 billion in PROFITS.  Too bad that's not enough for them:

"Today Washington politicians publicly bicker over renewable energy credit programs that will only cost taxpayers $2.5 billion while the oil-and-gas industry quietly pulls in$7 billion in annual subsidies. But even that is not enough for Big Oil. These companies are now lobbying hard for even more federal government support, for even more of the public’s waters and lands to be opened up for drilling rigs or pipelines, and for even fewer health and safety standards to govern those projects."

Climate change doesn't care about corporate profits.  We can't just pay off the laws of physics to delay the intensification of global warming.  Instead, we need to opt for a cleaner, more just, and more sustainable future now, before our world becomes unrecognizable and unable to support us.  It needs to look something like this:

"Picture an America where at least half of our electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind, solar, wave, and geothermal. Sound impossible? It’s not. Other countries, especially in Europe, are already on track to get there.  Germany has set a goal of 45 percent renewable energy by 2030 and Denmark is hoping to be completely fossil-fuel free by then.

In this America the air and water are clean. The oceans and lakes are healthy enough to support a range of uses, from a vibrant commercial fishing industry, to family trips to the beach in summer, to offshore wind production that powers our economic growth. Our most precious public lands are protected from mining and drilling but remain open for recreation and tourism, which alone create 388,000 jobs on Interior Department lands and 224,000 jobs on Forest Service lands."

The most important point about these two futures is that they are being decided right now.  The House of Representatives is trying to vilify the EPA and strip it of its power to regulate pretty much anything.  The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are vastly popular among the public, and yet the majority of the Republicans in the House are trying to undermine our safety to save a few bucks for their political campaign donors.  The approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is another huge game changer in the trajectory our future will take.  Over 12,000 people protested the pipeline at the White House on Sunday.  If you haven't looked into this issue much, please do so here.

Civic action will be necessary if we are to overcome the powerful, well-funded reach of the largest corporations to ever exist.  We need to counteract their selfish, profit-driven interests with the biggest people power movement to ever exist.  Get involved, stay informed, let your elected officials know where you stand, and help actively choose which future you want.