Governor Kristi Noem doesn’t get to invoke her corporate-fascist anti-protest laws for her TransCanada patrons just yet. Upholding a February decision from Montana U.S. District Judge Brian Morris, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday refused to let TransCanada start construction work along the Keystone XL route:
“The record shows that the district court carefully considered all applicable factors in denying the stay of its injunction,” a two-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in its decision. “We see no abuse of discretion in refusing to stay the order. The district court has previously narrowed the scope of its injunction.”
Friday’s order leaves in place a ban on construction while the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals considers an appeal by TransCanada and the State Department of Morris’ original order overturning the pipeline’s permit.
…On Nov. 8, Morris overturned the State Department’s approval of the pipeline permit, ruling the agency:
» Disregarded prior factual findings by John Kerry, secretary of state in the Obama administration, that the pipeline would worsen climate change.
» Failed to conduct an adequate survey of Native American cultural resources that could be impacted by the pipeline.
» Failed to adequately analyze the cumulative effects on greenhouse gas emissions.
» Didn’t do a good enough job modeling potential oil spills and impacts on water.
» And didn’t consider effects of current oil prices on the viability of the project.
Morris’ ruling required the government to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement before proceeding [Karl Puckett, “Keystone XL Construction Still Banned Following Court Ruling,” Great Falls Tribune, 2019.03.17].
Maybe Matt McCaulley will convince Governor Noem to sue the Ninth Circuit, saying that ruling against our favorite foreign pipeline corporation and saying that their pipeline was approved illegally only encourages pipeline protestors, and that’s riot boosting!
maybe we will find out just how much of a corporate prostitute our state government is shortly. by the way don pay, nick meinhardt died in 1991. he was a tremendous help to the black hills alliance & of course the american family service the he was associated with.
“» Didn’t do a good enough job modeling potential oil spills and impacts on water.” That is the heart of the matter. What this black snake will do to our water. The Cheyenne River now is at flood stage and above. Not only underground pipeline on dry land, but this snake crosses a very important river…that floods…Think of the Yellowstone River, as it looks like the Judge has.
Marvin, All this time I was under the impression that Nick had pulled himself together and was living the good life. I have tried through the years to find him. Never could. I guess I never asked you. It’s heartbreaking to learn he died long ago. Without Nick pushing us we never would have organized the initiative against the nuclear waste dump. And he was the spark plugs and on the initial fight against heap leach mining. He should be in the South Dakota Hall of Fame, as should you, Marvin.
There may be a dual purpose for this pipeline, mainly water. As we are seeing now in Wisconsin with Foxxcon and it’s rejuvenated attempt at fleecing Wisconsin and federal taxpayers, there is the concern of Great Lakes water thievery for industrial consumption.
“https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/16/debate-rages-over-whether-foxconn-bid-tap-lake-michigan-debate-rages-over-whether-foxconn-acceptable/511773002/
Large capacity pipelines going through South Dakota always bring my mind to the days of the ETSI pipeline coal slurry. That also had a final destination of Texas. We have these Missouri River lakes here that are just begging for corruption. The knock on the door may be Nestle as they have pretty much taken most of the good clean water from the indigenous communities in Canada presently.
IPCC gives just 12 years to cut fossil fuel usage in half to avoid worst consequences of anthropomorphic global warming.
Mining has destroyed water quality in 40% of the west. Fracking and pipeline construction add to water quality destruction. Renewable, carbon-free energy solutions are outpricing fossil fuels.
Bankruptcy of mining and coal capitalists leave cleanup bonds worthless. States have been incapable of adequately regulating extractive industry. Taxpayers are stuck with dealing with pollution left by billionaires.
According to Doc riot boosters and indigent Indians who drive cars should not have the freedom to protest in the face of insatiable appetites of greedy capitalist energy corporate climate denial billionaires. Nuclear power industry as a solution? Doubtful. Do they drive nuclear reactored cars? Boreholes and yucca mountains are nothing more than pipelines. Why build such environent-threatening infrastructure as the world PIVOTS from fossil fuels?
SHORT TERM GREED.
the problem is Republican packing the court systems with partisan unethical immoral judges like Kavanaugh Gorsuch ect all the way down to Neil at USDLaw.
This case illustrates the power of one lone ethical qualified moral federal judge.
But solving every Republican hurdle with costly litigation is phenomenally inefficient.
I will speak for myself, thank you. Don’t make me angry….I work with gamma radiation #BruceBanner #BetterGetSomeStretchyPants #CancelFineChinaShopTour…..
My preference is that protestors demonstrate that they could go without fossil fuels. Showing that such a path is viable would have the greatest impact upon those who are not doing any protesting. It is not easy to do so, it is not cheap, but it is non-violent.
That doesn’t say “You can’t protest”. Their messaging doesn’t run through me for approval. But using fossil fuels while telling others not to use fossil fuels is at best inconsistent. I will be interested to see if there is interest in at least reducing their carbon footprint given the resources they have (i.e. emit less carbon, not just buy carbon credits).
If this is about clean water, one can be consistent in using fossil fuels and wanting them to be safe. There is a path whereby the fuel is delivered, but a greater effort is undertaken to promote pipeline safety and reclamation, which means promoting the investment in environmental monitoring and testing of pipes, pipe materials, and pipeline systems.
Nuclear energy plus renewables could provide the carbon-free electricity we need to support the electric vehicles that displace fossil fuels from our transportation sector. I have previously laid out the amount of clean energy we will need for recharging if we are to actually go without fossil fuels in transportation.
It is substantial, and I don’t see how we will get there without all hands on deck.
Current mining disaster. Today 03/18/2019
“WINDOW ROCK
The plant that treats the wastewater that drains from the Gold King Mine has failed.
That message was sent to the New Mexico Environment Department on Thursday by the State of Utah.
The failure led to a power loss, which was caused by heavy snowfall, wrote Utah officials.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Crotty sent a message to farmers along the San Juan River on Friday, urging them to close their intakes if they were open.
“The Gold King Mine treatment facility failed,” she wrote.” https://navajotimes.com/reznews/gold-king-mine-wastewater-contaminating-the-rivers-once-again/
Corporate Amerika cannot be trusted for the well being of water. Look at how this plays out. Then think of Keystone XL . This footage is from 2015 and is playing out today for a return on something that was said to never happen again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=167&v=ZBlR05tDCbI
Are you going to finally stop buying gold?
I just want to drink clean water for myself and my grandchildren’s grandchildren. I have no interest in gold and have never had. I cannot speak for them, but gold is so yesterday.
9th circuit couldn’t save Dick Dale’s life. He died touring to pay medical bills. RIP King of Surf Music. OMG he was of Lebanese descent. A durned furriner and self taught guitar master. Only in America’s America.
My humblest apologies for the off topic rant.
Gold is a good conductor, so it may have some use in various renewable technologies if not in everyday electronics.
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-gold-nanoparticles-solar-energy-storage.html
So sorry, but a lot of the electronics you use probably has at least a tiny amount of gold.
https://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml
“Nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, and most of them contain about fifty cents worth of gold.” Bad news….we do not recycle these small amounts, and have to mine more gold as a result.
The problem is always the waste. Just like with this Keystone XL, the problem will be the waste as it contaminates the water. The 9th circuit is correct..once again
Robert McTaggert
You seem to have the answer to all things scientific, particularly when it comes to energy.
I would like to challenge you to provide needed technical assistance as needed to all South Dakota Lakota tribes and water protectors to develop non-fossil fuel transportation to and from protest sites.
I’m no longer active in protests and will remain a “riot booster”.
Wow, Dick Dale. Sad to hear that even with his advancing age, he could not enjoy it due to medical bills. Too bad he was not a European, he could’ve at least lived his life without that burden. He should’ve considered moving back to Lebanon. There, there is a system private healthcare that is very affordable and is one of the best in the Middle East.
Who is Robert McTaggert?
Robert,
You are, my apologizes for misspelling your last name.
Roger C, it never gets any easier for you and your family of man, does it?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/native-american-children-court-adoption_b_5c87c91ae4b0e79725d51419?
Apologies once again for off topic post.
OK Roger,
I would not be surprised if it were pretty difficult to recharge the vehicles with a stand-alone wind/solar system, much like one would have for home use. If it were easy, it would be happening already. That is not cheap, and would probably take a while for the recharge. And there isn’t anything like publicly available fast charging yet.
So if you had an electric car, the best thing to do is find a home to do the recharging, say no more than 25-50 miles away. If the range is 100 miles plus, give yourself some leeway. They would likely need the fast recharging capability at said home if you have multiple cars. And remember that the range is worse in the winter.
The caveat here is that I cannot promise that the electricity used for recharging would be generated by carbon-free methods. There is probably a good portion of it coming from gas and coal, particularly if you are charging when you want it, not when the wind provides it. But that is a price of fast charging without having nuclear on the grid.
If you cannot do the electric car plus fast charging option, then you should probably try to enhance your sustainability instead of going carbon-zero, which means E85. Energy density is less, but it probably is the lower cost option. A hybrid is somewhere in-between.
Doc has got his circuits crossed, poor soul, we are talking about the 9th circuit and he is clearly over amping.
If I were, I could recharge an electric car for you ;^)….
You need to consider and worry about your short fuse
Donald’s mention of the SD Hall of Fame makes me wonder: how many members of that honor roll are real boatrockers, and how many are good members of the Establishment?
I’d say Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Spotted Tail and Young Man Afraid of His Horses are definitely boatrockers. I’m open to Red Cloud being a boatrocker, but he was more of a hang around the fort guy. I’d put Vine Deloria, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and Linda Hasselstrom in the writer/boatrocker category. I am making a category for establishment boatrockers, such as Richard Pettigrew and Tom Shortbull. There might be some others, but I don’t have enough info.
So, no, not many boatrockers. No one, for example from AIM. You could put Russell Means and Dennis Banks in there for boatrocking and movies, Though Banks was from Minnesota, he did a lot of boatrocking in South Dakota. No one from the United Family Farmers is included. That was the first and most important environmental fight in South Dakota with colorful characters like John Sieh, the Carpenter Brother, Ted Albright, Jay Davis and Curt Hohn, father of the domestic use water pipelines in South Dakota. A whole host of rabble rousers are just ignored.
Hooray for the 9th Circuit Court. Hooray for the environment.
I can’t speak for certain for the boatrockers, but I’ll bet folks like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Spotted Tail would not give one toot for their induction into some Hall of Fame.
We build our real monuments with the history we make. In some cases, the boatrockers’ monuments are the things that are not built, the good earth that is left intact.
well said cory.