Posts Tagged ‘Executive Order’
Keystone XL pipeline halted as Biden revokes permit
ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Jan. 20, 2021
TORONTO (AP) — Construction on the long disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline halted Wednesday as incoming U.S. President Joe Biden revoked its permit on his first day in office.
The 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
“The Permit is hereby revoked,” Biden’s executive order says. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his officials have been in frequent contact with President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration making the case for a long disputed oil pipeline that reports say Biden will cancel on his first day in office. (Chris Machian /Omaha World-Herald via AP)Chris Machian/AP
Keystone XL President Richard Pryor said over 1,000 jobs, the majority unionized, will be eliminated in the coming weeks. “We will begin a safe and orderly shutdown of construction,” he said.
First proposed in 2008, the pipeline has become emblematic of the tensions between economic development and curbing the fossil fuel emissions that are causing climate change.
The Obama administration rejected it, but President Donald Trump revived it and has been a strong supporter.
The premier of the oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta called Biden’s decision an “insult” and said the federal Canadian government should impose trade sanctions if it is not reversed. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a conciliatory tone.
“We are disappointed but acknowledge the President’s decision to fulfil his election campaign promise on Keystone XL,” Trudeau said in a statement.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden will call Trudeau on Friday, the first call with a foreign leader after Biden took the oath of office. Psaki said the pipeline will be discussed.
Trudeau raised Keystone XL as a top priority when he spoke with Biden in a phone call in November.
The project is meant to expand critical oil exports for Canada, which has the third-largest oil reserves in the world and is America’s number one source of foreign oil.
Trudeau and Biden are politically aligned and there are expectations for a return to normal relations after four years of Trump, but the pipeline is an early irritant as Biden has long said he would cancel it.
“Despite President Biden’s decision on the project, we would like to welcome other executive orders made today, including the decisions to rejoin the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization, to place a temporary moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and to reverse the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries,” Trudeau said in his statement.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Biden’s decision is a gut punch for his province, which has a stake in the project.
“It is a insult directed at the United States most important ally and trading partner on day one of a new administration,” Kenney said.
“The leader of our closest ally retroactively vetoed approval for a pipeline that exists and which is co-owned by Canadian government, directly attacking by far the largest part of the Canada U.S. trade relationship, which is our energy industry and exports.”
Critics of the Alberta oil sands say the growing operations increase greenhouse gas emissions and threaten Alberta’s rivers and forests.
But Marty Durbin, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute, said Biden’s decision is not grounded in science and will put thousands of Americans out of work,
“The pipeline — the most studied infrastructure project in American history — is already under construction and has cleared countless legal and environmental hurdles,”
Durbin said in a statement. “Halting construction will also impede the safe and efficient transport of oil, and unfairly single out production from one of our closest and most important allies.”
Environmental groups applauded Biden’s move.
“Killing the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all is a clear indication that climate action is a priority for the White House,” said Dale Marshall, national climate program manager for Canada’s Environmental Defence.
Third President: Thomas Jefferson (1801-09)
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was behind the formation of the Republican-Democrat Party against the Federalist Party that seek a strong executive power and supported by Alexander Hamilton.
Once in power, Jefferson switched to a “strong executive” concept and nominated Hamilton for the Treasury.
Jefferson was born in Virginia and inherited from his father 1,000 hectares of land with 200 slaves at the age of 14. His was educated at College of William and Mary and become lawyer. At the age of 25, he is elected at the Chamber of the Bourgeois, the colonial assembly of Virginia (the richest and most populous of the 13 colonies).
He published in 1774 the pamphlet “Summary View of the Rights of British American” which accused the British government of killing American individual rights. and was selected to represent Virginia at the Philadelphia Congress of 1775 and to write the essential parts of the Declaration of Independence.
From 1776 to 79, Jefferson is member of Virginia legislative body where he demanded the separation of Churches from the State.
At 36, Jefferson is elected governor of Virginia and has to confront the frequent incursions of the British.
In 1781, he retired to his property in Monticello and published his “Notes on the State of Virginia”. His wife Martha died in 1782 and Jefferson decided to return to the public life.
In 1785, he is appointed ambassador to France to replace Benjamin Franklin. Consequently, Jefferson could not be physically at the Constitution Convention of 1787, but approve the text globally.
He witnessed the French revolution of 1789. On the autumn of 1789, Jefferson is nominated by George Washington to head the department of foreign affairs. He has this certitude that only France can counter balance the power of England. His ideas on foreign affairs go counter to the Washington inkling and resigns in 1794.
Aged 50, Jefferson is enjoying the life of a land grower and focus on his studies. His friend James Madison is in charge of organizing the opposition to Washington.
Jefferson took residence in the new Capital of Washington DC in 1801. It has barely 3,000 people. His inaugural address:
“Minority own equal rights that an equal law must protect… We are all republicans, we are all federalists…” He walks to the Capitol without the traditional white wig and the formal reception is cancelled.
James Madison is nominated head of foreign affairs and replace most of the 600 executive employees with people of his party.
He launched in 1801 a naval attack against the Algerian Pasha for ransoming American ships.
Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 for $15 million and the negotiations are held in total secrecy from Congress and invented a new procedure: The Executive Order. This territory included all the States where the Mississippi River passes through. The mischievous story is that England extended the loan to the US for the purchase in order to get the French out of the American continent. Napoleon was preparing to invade England and needed funding…
That loan came with a heavy price: Alexander Hamilton convinced Jefferson to sign on the monopoly of the Rothschild family of England to print US paper money and eventually have control the expansion of the internal US market.
The second calamity attached to this monopoly is that England invaded the US in 1814 in order to pressure Congress to extend this license for 24 years…
The third catastrophe was that England (through the Bank Of US) cut-off credits to the settlers in Ohio and the North-West Territory and plunged the US in a deep financial crisis in 1819.
Jefferson imposes an embargo toward European ports in 1807 and denied any ships coming from Europe to accost on US ports. This decision is a blow to US trade and Jefferson decides not to seek a third term.
Jefferson returned to Monticello at the age of 66 and created the university of Charlottesville.
He died on July, 4, 1826: a date that coincides with the independence.
Adonis Diaries 