“Thousands to Encircle the White House”

Land is protected by the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other court decisions. The litigious EPA protects nature at all costs through heavy regulations against the “evil” expansionist capitalist trespassers.

It is illegal for border patrols to drive their vehicles through federally protected land in the exercise of their duty to guard the border. It is legal for aliens to roam through the same area and leave it a wasteland, trashed with garbage, plastic containers, diapers, and human refuse. Their destructive illegal crossings through protected lands do not harm the environment. Environmental groups such as Sierra Club have objected to developments in areas across the country. They deemed millions of acres in many states in need of protection and the EPA gladly complied with more and more intrusive regulations, punishable by steep fines or jail.

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If it were up to environmentalists, the whole country would be one big wilderness with corridors for human passage, on our way to some uninhabitable desert. Driving through protected land can give drivers pause as they may unknowingly violate some obscure rule from the thousands the EPA releases every year. The Public Citizen’s Climate and Energy Program is preparing a protest of “Thousands to Encircle the White House” on November 6, 2011. Liberal Public Citizen “advocates for a healthier and more equitable world by making government work for the people and by defending democracy from corporate greed.” Among their platforms is support for the “Occupy the Wall Street” malcontents and shutting down the oil sands Keystone XL pipeline. “The November 6 demonstration will echo the need to release the oil industry’s grip on our political system by reminding the president that the White House belongs to the people, not Big Oil,” says the rallying letter to its activists. “And we will also remind President Obama of his campaign promises by carrying signs with quotes from President Obama himself, words like “We must be the generation that ends the tyranny of oil.” Tyranny of oil? Sounds rhetorically passionate, but how exactly are they going to replace the fuel? I personally like pulling up to a gas station and fueling my car to have mobility freedom. One of the site’s blogs features silhouettes of windmills as a logo. I wonder if these young activists realize or care that windmills and solar panels do not come anywhere close to replacing fossil fuels as a source of energy. I think President Obama did enough damage to the oil industry by imposing a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. After securing billions of dollars from BP oil as punitive payment for the environmental damage from its deep oil well spill, he reminded us that he would like to see oil prices and energy prices skyrocket after he is finished destroying the coal industry. Public Citizen is unhappy with the proposed 1,661-mile pipeline because of conflict of interest throughout the review process. They outline the three main issues against the TransCanada, which seeks to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

1. “The cozy relationship between TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott, who was deputy campaign manager for the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and State Department officials.
2. “The Environmental Impact Statement review for the proposal was conducted by a company chosen and paid by TransCanada itself. Consequently, the company determined the pipeline would produce “limited adverse” effects.”
3. “The recent hiring of former TransCanada lobbyist Broderick Johnson to be a senior advisor to Obama’s re-election campaign.”

The $13 billion Keystone pipeline system will link Canadian crude oil with the largest refining markets in the United States, decreasing our dependence on Middle East oil. TransCanada started operations in June 2010 by converting a natural gas pipeline into a crude oil pipeline and building a bullet line for crude, non-stop from Canada to the Midwest market in the U.S. In February 2011, an extension went into service from Steele City, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma, called Keystone Cushing (Phase II). The Gulf Coast Expansion Project would have a pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. It would incorporate a portion of the Keystone Pipeline (Phase II) through Nebraska and Kansas, to a delivery point near existing terminals in Nederland, Texas. People and legislators have expressed concern about the possibility of an oil spill and the impact on the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska and Texas and the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Texas, the primary sources of water for millions of people. It will be interesting to see if President Obama will be swayed by the liberal activists’ chain around the White House on November 6. He may cave in to environmental demands from his supporters and instruct the EPA to stop the project, or issue an executive order by the end of the year.