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Guest Post: Meet The Man Who Killed Keystone
Submitted by Wendy McElroy via Mises Canada,
On May 12, the United States Senate fell 5 votes short of the 60 required to invoke cloture. (Cloture is a way to close debate and cause an immediate vote on a bill.) The measure in question was the first energy bill to have hit that chamber since 2007. It was killed by the Keystone XL Pipeline project which would funnel Canadian crude oil from Alberta down to Texas refineries.
Republicans wanted to add an amendment to approve the project. Democrats wanted a stand-alone vote on it; with Democrats in the clear majority in the Senate, the project would have probably been defeated. But if Keystone had been approved, President Obama would have almost certainly vetoed it. The end result: no bill at all, with or without an amendment. Keystone is dead in the Senate, at least until 2015 when the November 2014 elections may have reversed the balance of power. Of course, there is always that veto waiting in the wings.
The stakes were especially high for about a half-dozen Democrats who do not tow the anti-Keystone line of fellow Democratic Senators. The dissidents come from states that are dependent on the oil or gas industry; they are nervously facing a tough re-election battle in November 2014. One of them is the influential new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. As the new chairman, she’s been campaigning for re-election on the promise of “getting things done,” which is clearly not the case.
One man stands in her way. No, not President Obama, but the billionaire environmentalist Thomas Steyer. The leftwing Steyer undoubtedly is sincere in his green beliefs but sincerity on an issue is easier if you also stand to make a fortune from it. The conservative Daily Caller (Nov. 8, 2013) noted, “Most of Steyer’s $1.4 billion fortune came through investments in fossil fuels. In fact, Steyer’s biggest cash cow is Farallon Capital Management. Farallon has stakes in a number of oil, gas and pipeline companies, including a large investment in Kinder Morgan, an oil and gas pipeline outfit that plans to expand its own TransMountain pipeline to transport oil from Alberta to refineries and shipping terminals in the U.S. and Canada.” (Steyer actually founded Farallon with $15 million in start-up money.)
Keystone threatens Steyer’s profits in several ways. A glut of Canadian oil would drive down energy costs in America, and the new supplier would be a competitor. But more than anything else, the method of supply would also compete with Steyer’s self-interest.
The Business Insider (June 17, 2013) observed that, if TransMountain’s “expansion is approved, TransMountain will be the only available outlet for Alberta crude. If Keystone XL is killed, it will leave TransMountain as the only game in town for transporting oil directly from the oil sands to export terminals, up to 900,000 barrels a day. And most of that oil will be shipped west to China.”
No wonder Steyer has not breathed a word of criticism about TransMountain, which is functionally the same as Keystone. No wonder he lobbied against the Northern Gateway pipeline which would take oil from Edmonton to the west coast. It, too, would compete with TransMountain.
Steyer does not speak of his own profit, however. When the Washington Post (April 22, 2014) compared Steyer to the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers, who donate millions toward election campaign, he reportedly “chuckled.” Then, he replied “Their policies line up perfectly with their pocketbooks, and that’s not true for us,” he said. “What we are doing is we are trying to stand up for ideas and principles that we think are incredibly important but have nothing to do with our incomes or assets.”
But, then, Steyer is used to misrepresenting facts. The Washington Post Fact Checker awarded Steyer four Pinocchios – its highest ‘honor’ – for the depth of his inaccuracy about Keystone. The proximate cause of the award was a 90-second ad, which he both funded and starred in. There he stated, “[a] vote for Keystone is a vote to raise gas prices on Americans and send the profits to a foreign oil company” even though more oil and more competition would almost certainly lower gas prices.
A 90-second ad, of which Steyer is the funder and star, claims that Keystone would create only 35 permanent jobs. And, yet, a 2000-page State Department study reported, “Including direct, indirect, and induced effects, the proposed Project would potentially support approximately 42,100 average annual jobs across the United States over a 1-to 2- year construction period (of which, approximately 3,900 would be directly employed in construction activities).” The State Department is a critic, not an advocate of Keystone.
Steyer backs up his misrepresentations with cold cash. A lot of it. For example, he reportedly poured $8 million into Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s re-election campaign. He funded the Virginia campaign for one reason alone; the governor’s rival was a notorious skeptic on global warming who would have backed Keystone. For $8 million, Steyer eliminated an opponent, bought a politician and impressed the remaining Democrats with political muscle he could flex on their behalf.
For 2014, Steyer has announced plans to use his advocacy group, NextGen Political Action, to funnel about $100 million into the campaigns of Democratic congressional candidates. PACs, such as those founded by Steyer, are political action committees that can legally raise an unlimited amount of money from entities such as corporations and individuals; within loose restrictions, the money can then be directed to a specific party or candidate.
The Washington Post commented on Steyer: “He’s quickly emerged as a new and much-needed source of campaign money for Democrats eager to find ways to match the rise of conservative donors who are using new super PACs to spend millions of dollars attacking congressional Democrats on the airwaves …”
How desperate are the Democrats for money? They are willing to literally sell the Senate floor. From the evening of March 10th through to the next morning, about 30 Democratic senators held a 15 hour speechathon to address “climate change.” The event was planned at Steyer’s home with such influential Democrat Senators as Majority Leader Harry Reid.
How much did the Senate cost? With the dangled $100 million divided by 15 hours, the Senate was for sale at approximately $6 million an hour.
Political commentators are openly speculating on what Obama will cost. Keystone has strong bipartisan and public support; and even two environmental analyses by the State Department couldn’t point to any major negative impact of the project. Nevertheless, as the Sunshine State News (Fla., April 25, 2014) reported: “Never mind the Kochs. After assessing who did what bad to America lately, I nominate Tom Steyer for the top of the list. Last week the billionaire hedge fund manager from San Francisco bought off the White House to the tune of $100 million in order to delay the Keystone XL pipeline decision.” But, then, Keystone has nothing to do with “incomes or assets”; it is all about “ideas and principles.”
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d) engaging in ad hominem, then claiming he is not doing so.
e) changing his argument or backtracking significantly when he finds he's defending an indefensible position, then acting as if he's won the argument.
You responding to Nidstyles or that asshole NWENM (or however the fuck he spells it)?
Pointing out that someone is wrong is not Ad hom....
Reading ZH'ers comments on AGW science IS an insult to intelligence.
Flak always appears to defend blue team oligarchs and global warming proponents who would benefit greatly at the expense of the 99.9%. I never hear any of these "do-gooders" advocating smaller families which would be the most positive thing we could do for the environment.
It is net gain compared to full size SUV...
In reality no car is "a gain" to the environment....
So quit reading blog shit based on a 8 year old "study" discussed here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNW_Marketing_Research
See for example: How_Green?
Your undercutting the emissions of logistics greatly. Buying a small GM or Ford which are mostly made in North America is will have much less total emmissions. Chevy sonic: 40 MPG, mostly made in North America, and cost 5 thousand less than a prius c. Why would you even go to a full size SUV? That is fucking apples to oranges.
WTF, it wasn't me that was trying to claim an SUV was more "enviromentally friendly" than a Prius....
Relentless,
don't forget to factor in the huge scale enviro damage/pollution from the metals that go into one of those things. and the other battery vehicles out there are harsh too.
It's very simple. Control the means of combustion and you control the "means of production."
Buffet and him are laughing all the way to the bank. CSX was doing very well.
The lack of comprehension exhibited in the above post is astounding...
You are correct, the above post is lacking conprehension, although it's the one above mine.
This is coming from the guy who cannot grasp the difference between LPG, CNG and LNG....
In other words, methane and propane are the same thing in his worldview...
couple of krugmans over here
if its lacking con prehen its not lacking style of miserly shamanism.
If this is surprising to you, please raise your hand.
OK, anyone with their hand raised may now leave ZH.
Wow, and here I was assuming old uncle Warren (with his railroad interest) had bought off the government on this pipeline issue.....
Given how this is the first pipeline ever concieved of by mankind, yeah, I see how it's a) zany; b) libertarian; and c)a fringe idea...
This keystone meme is a joke. Today, currently, Alberta oil is pipelined to Kushing, Oklahoma and now down to the Texas coast for shipment.
It's amazing how coordinated the MSM is to not disclose this.
The more efficient route from Alberta through Nebraska to Kushing is unfinished. That's all that remains.
Keystone is live, well and operating - finished the Nebraska link would lower "shipping costs" to the Texas coast.
Talking heads and their producers are always looking for a juicy new talking point. And the masses eat that shit up! it's why Frank Luntz is a millionaire! There are no real teams and all of the bastards are for sale.
It's Cushing, OK....not Kushing....
don't push the Kushion down his throat.
As soon as the pay schedule for all the appropriate taxes, fees, surcharges, payoffs, back-scratches, and bribes is in place construction will proceed in earnest.
What is the difference with Keystone anyways? Why is it worse than the gas and oil pipelines running just north of my small town? These bring Canadian gas and oil to the Upper Midwest. Tar Sands are being mined, that oil will go to market, one way or the other. I fail to see what makes Keystone different than the tens of thousands of miles of pipeline running all across America. If I had to pick Keystone running by my land or fracking wells, I would pick a buried pipeline. Someone know what the real reason for the fight is? I doubt it is really about a pipeline, as these things are everywhere. How can this one be bad. when the others are already running.
last time i checked, construction jobs are not permanent jobs...
did the writer bother to mention that extracting and refining oil from tar sands is very bad for the environment?
.
"Keystone threatens Steyer’s profits in several ways. A glut of Canadian oil would drive down energy costs in America, and the new supplier would be a competitor. But more than anything else, the method of supply would also compete with Steyer’s self-interest."
Please - what about the glut of American oil trapped in the Cushing, Oklahoma market? Drive down American energy costs? Who writes this shit?
This Keystone XL issue is flush with snakes on both sides. It's just of question of which billionaire's point of view you are taking, or sucking up to.
That glut in Cushing is so 2010....
Good! Although this guy is doing this for environmental reasons which are of no concern to me, the inability of producers in Canada and the US to export their products more easily via the pipeline will cause production to be more limited to what the US and Canada need which is what it should be limited to in the first place to conserve those resources for our use.
Anybody with an IQ over 80 knows lobbying is the problem. Chute, even the king of Washington lobbying Jack Abramoff came out publically in January of 2013 explaining how it worked. Even Jack realizes that if this continues it leads to revolution or world war.
I believe it wont stop until one of those two things happen and I lean toward world war. Once family members of politicians wind up dead from it and there personal investments go to near zero they will wake up. Kind of a repeated pattern of learning by pain in evolution cycle. Unfortunately this may take 1/3 of us with it but those ratios are also not that unusual in history.
And recently a large delegation of Chinese Officials just happened to visit Toronto.Why you ask?Well it just so happens that Harper the Canadian Prime Minister and all the other Provincial Finance Officals met with the Chinese and the TSX Officials(note that the TSX and the Montreal Options Exchange are now owned by the major Canadian Banks),in order to make Toronto the North American hub for trading in the Chinese Yuan.It's called diversification since Canada's trade is too dependant on the United States.But,along with this comes less dependance by the Chinese on the U.S. Petro-Dollar system.And to add to this,Canada has also signed a free trade agreement with The EU to trade goods in the Euro.Already the pipelines are being reversed through Ontario and refineries in Quebec and in New Brunswick are being refit and expanded for oil shipping east.Oil terminals are also in Montreal for ships.The real question though is what interests in China and Europe have these billionaires got for the long term timeframe?I would say there's more interests there than in the U.S.
Russian natty gas deal with China and with Keystone held up we can expect a new Canadian oil deal with China. China will have all the energy it's needs, killing Keystone will not stop the tar sands so there will be no environmental benefit, and the US will get to pay higher energy prices forever.
Your grasp of the fact that currently mid-continent NA oil is the cheapest in the world is frightening... What happens when you get a pipeline to the coast?
Canada gets around NAFTA and gets more money for the oil. America pays market rates for oil (i.e., MORE).
That's a pretty good amount of free speech. It's not electoral contributions - cough bribery - it's free speech bux (or Liberty Bux - see below - or something more catchy if you can think of it).
As Jason Jones of The Daily Show said: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/h8p5tx/harry-reid-s-vegas-placation
To me this article is not about the KPL, it is about our government(s). I could name one industry after another including energy, health care, defense, etc. where government is at the root of the problem.
Highly paid (some higher than others) government employees are nothing more than extensions of industry and work to create inpenetrable barriers to entry and/or otherwise protect the current establishment.
We do not need a new political party, we need new government. The current ones are broken beyond repair. Every major government in the world today is part of a global communist network that keeps the poor fed, the middle class working their asses off, and the rich, well... rich.
WAKE UP!!! YOU ARE A SLAVE. YOU LIVE ON A PLANTATION. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT???
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A 90-second ad, of which Steyer is the funder and star, claims that Keystone would create only 35 permanent jobs. And, yet, a 2000-page State Department study reported, “Including direct, indirect, and induced effects, the proposed Project would potentially support approximately 42,100 average annual jobs across the United States over a 1-to 2- year construction period (of which, approximately 3,900 would be directly employed in construction activities).” The State Department is a critic, not an advocate of Keystone.
<<<
Mises Institute blowing smoke again. Temporary is not permanent. How permanent jobsmany did the State Dept. say?
Austrians, with friends like the Mises institute, you don't need enemies.
People like this man are the biggest threat to America's freedom, it's economic viability, our quality if life, and he's blatantly corrupt all in the name big government cronyism. A big sincere heartfelt wish to you Steyer. FUCK YOU.
According to the latest 13-F, Farallon Capital owns zero Kinder Morgan.
The voters couldn't care less. The media isn't interested in corruption unless it involves Republicans. And the average person is too stupid to understand anyway. We deserve what we get.
The voters couldn't care less. The media isn't interested in corruption unless it involves Republicans. And the average person is too stupid to understand anyway. We deserve what we get.
Puff piece alert...
Studies of that type are old hat...
The fact a few billionaires want to fund another is of little consequence except that they have ability to publicize it...
al gore sold current tv to the saudi's so his wealth is also oil wealth.
Building massive oil export lines and terminals won't lower oil prices for Americans, it will increase their competition for fuel and raise prices.
Basic econ, the supply is the same, the new line & terminal are only for demand. Constant supply+ more demand = price increase.
Having an oil pipe flow through your yard doesn't get you a discount at the pump, unless you own the oil.
Having massive oil assets with nowhere to go but American consumers does drive down oil prices, currently Americans are enjoying a fuel discount to the rest of the world on account of our lack of export facilities for oil sands oil, removing that barrier will drive up prices, Exxon even said so.
You do realize that the Keystone is aimed at displacing more expensive Vza. imports so as to export the refined diesel tax free...
A classic case of corporate welfare built in the tax-code and driven by NAFTA....
Add another to the list....
Tom Steyer's Environmentally Unfriendly House: http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/tom-steyers-house/
It should be pointed out that at one time Steyer was a major investor in Kinder Morgan(competitor to XL) and made millions in the Asian coal market before he got involved in the Global Warming Cult.
"For 2014, Steyer has announced plans to use his advocacy group, NextGen Political Action, to funnel about $100 million into the campaigns of Democratic congressional candidates."
Just a thought, but one of us should start a company dedicated to lobbying. Sell shares and then go buy some pols and crats. Call it CorruptoCorp, Inc. "When you just have to have a pol in your pocket."
Our first commercial will involve the hook/tag-line of: "Is that a pol in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?!"
Steyer v Buffet - two go in...
the cop or the pipe?
Adult Bullies (May 14, 2014)
Fuck you Maurice Strong and others..
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/01/22/the-u-n-s-global-warming-war-on-capitalism-an-important-history-lesson-2/
Oligarchy in effect!
S0 News May 16, 2014: BICEP Error, Atlantic Currents
Steyer, figure out how you can control the sun activity. You’re a fraud. Atmosphere is shrinking due to sun CME activity. Can you explain that phenomena to the mouth breathing fuckwits that watch TV all day? Try to explain MARS lost atmosphere when it became vanished. Did they have cars/people to create global warming to destroy the planet?
Sing us your round of new bullshit Steyer!!
Atmosphere contracting does not mean there is less of it, just that it is not puffed out as much from solar winds.
Earth loses around 300 tons of atmosphere per day, about 180 tons hydrogen and 120 tons helium if I remember correctly.
That is a process that only goes one way, and takes many millions of years.
Shouldn't a contracted atmosphere mean more clouds due to more cosmic rays? This would then retain more heat from the sun, which offsets the reduced output from the sun. Which way it nets out to, warmer or cooler, IDK.
Those evil, rich Koch Brothers...