Whoa! Whipsaw! Two weeks ago, Governor Dennis Daugaard made my day by changing his mind and declaring that TransCanada really hadn't given South Dakota enough assurances that it would protect us from harm from its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. But now, he changes his mind again:
"The federal government has delayed this project by at least 18 months, and the governor doesn't think it makes sense to pursue new legislation until that process concludes," Daugaard aide Tony Venhuizen said. "For that reason, he won't be bringing any legislation this year and would be very unlikely to support bills brought by others" [Kevin Woster, "Daugaard Opposed to Keystone Bills after Pipeline Delay," Rapid City Journal, 2011.11.13].
What just happened here? Did Daugaard realize he sounded too much like the Madville Times? (If only Team Daugaard paid that much attention!)
Here's what happened: President Barack Obama handed Gov. Daugaard a political present. Last month, it looked like the Obama Administration would o.k. this pipeline and leave it to states to get what scraps they could to protect their land and water from TransCanada's shoddy workmanship. Nebraska was making Daugaard look like a Big Oil chump. Then President Obama took the Canadian bull by the horns and imposed a crafty delay that may well kill the pipeline. Gov. Daugaard no longer has to invest political capital in legislation that could make him sound like an enemy of business or an advocate of increased taxes.
President Obama did all Americans a favor by delaying the unnecessary, overhyped, and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline. In the process, he did Governor Daugaard a favor. Merry Christmas, Dennis!
p.s.: Governor Daugaard's overt reasoning seems to be that there's no need to take legislative action before the normal regulatory process has run its full course and before the pipeline is actually on course to come into existence. Hmmm... would he care to discuss that philosophy with Rep. Kristi Noem with respect to her anti-EPA legislation on dust regulations that don't exist?
From Forbes: "Former shrimper Margaret Curole‘s healthy 31-year-old son worked two months on the cleanup and became so sick from dispersant exposure that he lost 52 pounds and is now unable to walk without a cane."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eco-nomics/2011/11/10/new-documentary-says-gulf-oil-spill-crisis-isnt-over/
From The Lowdown, the blog of Great Falls Tribune uber-reporter John S. Adams: "That’s because dispersants themselves contain unknown toxins. We don’t know what those toxins are because the companies that make them claim their make-up is a “trade secret.â€"
http://mtlowdown.blogspot.com/2011/07/use-of-dispersants-on-yellowstone-river.html
Manufacturers of dispersants? Koch Industries
http://huffingtonpostunionofbloggers.org/2011/05/12/thanks-to-al-jazeera-for-reporting-what-the-free-press-in-america-largely-ignores/
Join us in the boycott of Koch's earth-killing product list:
http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2011/02/koch-products-boycott.html
Interesting Editorial from The Detroit News with this headline: Editorial: Pipeline delay an insult to jobless
President caves to his political base in stalling the Keystone XL project
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111114/OPINION01/111140328/Editorial--Pipeline-delay-an-insult-to-jobless#ixzz1dgxo7Gzr
Fracking fluids and dispersants are waste Koch chemicals:
http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2011/05/fracking-fluid-waste-koch-formaldehyde.html
Interesting, Dick, and also spectacularly wrong, since TransCanada itself has admitted its job creation numbers are inflated, the pipeline will raise our prices, and the oil will go to China, not America. The greater insult is to American landowners subjected to eminent domain for a foreign corporation's profit.
Breaking: http://wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org/blog/2011/11/15/epas-presentation-to-the-pavillion-community-nov-2011/
More.
Wow: destroying drinking water and rivers. Awful, Larry!