In politics, it is a time-honored tradition to release unpopular news late on a Friday afternoon in order to minimize both the news coverage and the reader/viewership. That’s why the Obama administration’s State Department waited until 4pm yesterday to release their report on the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s also why the administration chose yesterday afternoon to announce a somewhat curious list of pardons.
I’ll be honest. Writing well about environmental issues is difficult and I tend to defer to Steven D, who has more patience for delving deep into the source material. I haven’t had time to look at the State Department’s report, and the reaction has been so immediate and so heated, that I wonder how many people who are writing about it have actually read it.
One interesting thing about the report is that it was prepared over a two year period under the stewardship of Hillary Clinton. The new Secretary of State, John Kerry, has a strong environmental record and it is quite possible that his State Department would have come to different conclusions. It’s hard to know how much this is determined by the science, how much by the Secretary of State’s guidance, and how much by Obama’s guidance.
As a general matter, I am very concerned by the energy boon we’ve unleashed with the development of fracking and the exploitation of Tar Sands. Obviously, these are enormous opportunities to create wealth and to increase our energy independence, but they are also going to be sources that put a lot more carbon in the air and that carry all the environmental hazards associated with mining and drilling and transporting. Just the sheer amount of money that is involved creates tremendous political clout for the carbon-emitting industries, and the availability of all this energy undermines a needed sense of urgency about dealing with climate change. Even if these activities create something salutary, like lower energy prices, that can turn around and bite us by making cleaner fuels less competitive. That’s why I understand that the environmental movement opposes the Keystone XL pipeline on principle, regardless of the findings of the State Department report.
That’s not to say that the report cannot be deeply flawed, and some of the early criticisms seem valid to me. But I do think people should read and discuss it a little more before we jump to the conclusion that we’re all doomed. This is a really complicated topic, from the science to the politics to the mechanism the government goes through to approve or disapprove of the pipeline. It’s the last part that I particularly don’t understand well enough to jump to conclusions about the meaning of the report. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that this pipeline is going to eventually be approved, what tools does the administration have (unilaterally, and in concert with Congress) to mitigate or offset any increase in emissions? Can they wheel and deal, perhaps behind the scenes, so that final approval is informally linked with other anti-carbon measures?
I understand that environmental lobbyists are going to oppose the pipeline with every ounce of energy that they can summon, and they will denounce the administration and some will write them off completely and forever if the pipeline is approved. That is their job. But beyond the noise and heat, there is a more nuanced set of considerations.
With the release of the report, a 45 day window has opened for public commentary. The State Department will take a look at what the public has to say before they issue their final report which will approve or disapprove the pipeline. I recommend that you do your best to educate yourself and then make your own contribution to the debate. To some degree, I think that these types of decisions are foreordained and the people with the money tend to prevail, but John Kerry is not Hillary Clinton and the president nominated him for a reason. We could have some influence over the decision, even if it is just to provide cover for a very difficult decision not to approve the project.
My feeling is that the pipeline is not a good idea, but I plan on becoming much more educated about the issues involved before I start screaming like a banshee.
