Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
As the US State Department holds its final public hearing today on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, one observer notes that the debate between the pipeline’s supporters and detractors is being framed in more ideological terms than in a manner that actually weighs the pros and cons of the project:
“Keystone has now become emblematic of the great divide that’s opened up in the United States between the left and the right; the Keystone debate defines the polarized political climate in Washington,” says Jon Entine, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, quoted today on cbc.ca:
“People are looking for ways to symbolize their political beliefs. The debate over the pipeline has taken on the most visible signs of the divide, so Keystone is never going to be debated on its merits.”
The left is exaggerating the environmental dangers posed by the pipeline, Entine says, while the right is exaggerating the jobs it will create.
The point is important, as the CBC points out, because President Obama has to decide whether to side with his liberal base who have “threatened to stay home in November 2012 if he fails to block Keystone XL” or “those who insist the pipeline will create jobs as the U.S. struggles to recover from a devastating recession.”
A decision on the project is expected by the end of the year.
2 Comments
1275Doubleneck
I remember back in the 80’s & 90’s when i was a kid being told not to use paper bags because at the time the fear and political flavour of the day for the environmental movement was deforestation. Now the paper bag and paper products have largely been replaced with oil based plastics due to fall out of the anti paper decades.
Anyone else see where im getting at here without writing a thesis on the relationship between paper, plastic and pipelines ?
Chris Armstrong
Baloney ! I am 100% free enterprise, and, until the ABOMINABLE record of LARGE pipeline spills in “America” is ELIMINATED, there should be NO/ZERO NEW PIPELINES ! Big Oil does NOT CARE A WIT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT ! (“lip service” is meaningless drivel – in view of the FACTS and their BAD RECORD !).