Feb 7 // Jan 24 2017
So much land; so many rules to reverse.
Next agenda item? Environment. Right on schedule.
If we have this right, a Republican has never met a river he didn't want to pollute, a piece of land she didn't want to desecrate or a tree they didn't want to cut down. After achieving these goals, where these same people would subsequently find clean water, grow healthy food or maintain the eco-balance of the air we all breathe remains a mystery to us here at Two Weeks Ago News but perhaps they've figured it out somehow. Regardless, President Trump appears to be doing his part.
Backhoes in place? Ready to go? Not so fast.
Two Weeks Ago News was a little surprised to learn that the Executive Order connected to Dakota Access and the Keystone XL Pipeline isn’t exactly a “go.” It’s the beginning of a long line of possibilities, stages, negotiations, reviews, caveats, regulations and compromises on the way to more oil and gas production in North America. And sure, if your company produces oil and gas, even a moderate move forward into more activity – even at a snail’s pace - is good news for you.
According to Forbes, here are the details and what we need to be aware of regarding Keystone before we all chain ourselves to trees and start chanting catch phrases:
TransCanada, the operator on Keystone XL gets to re-apply for their permit. (And apparently part of the permit is that United States steel is utilized in whatever pipes are constructed. President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the Buy American Act of 1933 for this same purpose.) Again, very good news for you if you happen to own a blast furnace; not so good if you don’t look forward to seeing a pipeline in your backyard or your cornfield.
Our government had previously denied TransCanada this very same permit, and environmentalists were delighted. Given that a new permit request is coming their way, should it get authorized, the government would then have to explain why their previous decision to turn it down was wrong. (The government admitting they were wrong is not something we’re very familiar with. Should be interesting.) Pretty sure their answer can’t be: “Because we have a new boss now.” Or maybe it can be. God knows.
Next up: The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Dakota Access Pipeline, which are in a different stage than Keystone (read: almost complete.) As near as we can tell, the Army Corps of Engineers and numerous state agencies reviewed everything relevant to the continued construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, including all the requirements from groups representing The Clean Water Act, The Rivers and Harbors Act, The National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and gave it a thumbs up.
The Sioux Tribe was dissatisfied with that and filed a lawsuit to reverse the decision. They were understandably concerned about any impact this would have on their drinking water. The pipeline, constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers would run beneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers and controlled by them since the early 1960s. (They built it because they fouled up another project and flooded Sioux land.) It is the only source of the tribe’s drinking water. Protestors appeared on site to support the Tribe.
Result # 1: After review, the Department of Justice denied the claim. The District Court denied it. And the D.C. Court of Appeals also denied it.
But there's more.
Result # 2: Last month (read: Before the inauguration of a new President), the DoJ, The Army and Department of the Interior said: Hold on. We’re not going to do this until we figure out if we need to review the decision we already made about approving this.
Two Weeks Ago News question (if we had a chance to ask a question): Okay. Not really sure why that’s necessary since you already did all that review and no less than three legal entities upheld your information and the Sioux lost their suit, but okay. Except….you can’t really get that done in a timely way, can you? Anything you decide to do will happen under the next administration, correct?
Answer: Correct.
And….we’re back. To President Trump signing an order which asked the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to “review and approve in an expedited manner” the pipeline; and to “consider, to the extent permitted by law and as warranted, whether to rescind or modify the memorandum” which signaled a new environmental impact statement on the reservoir.
We thought he just told them to keep digging. A lot of us were pretty darn outraged about it!!
Not that it matters. According to Sarah Krakoff, a professor of tribal and resources law at the University of Colorado, it is the Army Corps’s job to confirm or abandon this construction, not the president’s decision. Krakoff says: “Executive orders are legal orders – they’re law – but they can’t contravene legislative enactments. So an executive order can’t say, ‘Ignore the [National Environmental Policy Act] and give me a pipeline.”
Once again, our heads are spinning at Two Weeks Ago News. Did this get studied adequately or not? Does it need more study and will that take another two years? Is this another game of delay, delay, delay by one party toward another until they get more friendly faces in front of them? Is it a "follow the money" trail, if in fact President Trump has financial interests in the outcome? We're by no means fans of unsafe conditions for anyone but we are enormous fans of less dependence of oil from overseas and also big fans of a skilled workforce and jobs that pay more than minimum wage for thousands of people.
We're trying to keep up here but we still haven't gotten to the Affordable Care Act and the mortgage orders! Oh - and - the President was still whining about the election numbers! Dear God. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, "Tomorrow is another (two weeks ago) day."
So much land; so many rules to reverse.
Next agenda item? Environment. Right on schedule.
If we have this right, a Republican has never met a river he didn't want to pollute, a piece of land she didn't want to desecrate or a tree they didn't want to cut down. After achieving these goals, where these same people would subsequently find clean water, grow healthy food or maintain the eco-balance of the air we all breathe remains a mystery to us here at Two Weeks Ago News but perhaps they've figured it out somehow. Regardless, President Trump appears to be doing his part.
Backhoes in place? Ready to go? Not so fast.
Two Weeks Ago News was a little surprised to learn that the Executive Order connected to Dakota Access and the Keystone XL Pipeline isn’t exactly a “go.” It’s the beginning of a long line of possibilities, stages, negotiations, reviews, caveats, regulations and compromises on the way to more oil and gas production in North America. And sure, if your company produces oil and gas, even a moderate move forward into more activity – even at a snail’s pace - is good news for you.
According to Forbes, here are the details and what we need to be aware of regarding Keystone before we all chain ourselves to trees and start chanting catch phrases:
TransCanada, the operator on Keystone XL gets to re-apply for their permit. (And apparently part of the permit is that United States steel is utilized in whatever pipes are constructed. President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the Buy American Act of 1933 for this same purpose.) Again, very good news for you if you happen to own a blast furnace; not so good if you don’t look forward to seeing a pipeline in your backyard or your cornfield.
Our government had previously denied TransCanada this very same permit, and environmentalists were delighted. Given that a new permit request is coming their way, should it get authorized, the government would then have to explain why their previous decision to turn it down was wrong. (The government admitting they were wrong is not something we’re very familiar with. Should be interesting.) Pretty sure their answer can’t be: “Because we have a new boss now.” Or maybe it can be. God knows.
Next up: The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Dakota Access Pipeline, which are in a different stage than Keystone (read: almost complete.) As near as we can tell, the Army Corps of Engineers and numerous state agencies reviewed everything relevant to the continued construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, including all the requirements from groups representing The Clean Water Act, The Rivers and Harbors Act, The National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and gave it a thumbs up.
The Sioux Tribe was dissatisfied with that and filed a lawsuit to reverse the decision. They were understandably concerned about any impact this would have on their drinking water. The pipeline, constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers would run beneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers and controlled by them since the early 1960s. (They built it because they fouled up another project and flooded Sioux land.) It is the only source of the tribe’s drinking water. Protestors appeared on site to support the Tribe.
Result # 1: After review, the Department of Justice denied the claim. The District Court denied it. And the D.C. Court of Appeals also denied it.
But there's more.
Result # 2: Last month (read: Before the inauguration of a new President), the DoJ, The Army and Department of the Interior said: Hold on. We’re not going to do this until we figure out if we need to review the decision we already made about approving this.
Two Weeks Ago News question (if we had a chance to ask a question): Okay. Not really sure why that’s necessary since you already did all that review and no less than three legal entities upheld your information and the Sioux lost their suit, but okay. Except….you can’t really get that done in a timely way, can you? Anything you decide to do will happen under the next administration, correct?
Answer: Correct.
And….we’re back. To President Trump signing an order which asked the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to “review and approve in an expedited manner” the pipeline; and to “consider, to the extent permitted by law and as warranted, whether to rescind or modify the memorandum” which signaled a new environmental impact statement on the reservoir.
We thought he just told them to keep digging. A lot of us were pretty darn outraged about it!!
Not that it matters. According to Sarah Krakoff, a professor of tribal and resources law at the University of Colorado, it is the Army Corps’s job to confirm or abandon this construction, not the president’s decision. Krakoff says: “Executive orders are legal orders – they’re law – but they can’t contravene legislative enactments. So an executive order can’t say, ‘Ignore the [National Environmental Policy Act] and give me a pipeline.”
Once again, our heads are spinning at Two Weeks Ago News. Did this get studied adequately or not? Does it need more study and will that take another two years? Is this another game of delay, delay, delay by one party toward another until they get more friendly faces in front of them? Is it a "follow the money" trail, if in fact President Trump has financial interests in the outcome? We're by no means fans of unsafe conditions for anyone but we are enormous fans of less dependence of oil from overseas and also big fans of a skilled workforce and jobs that pay more than minimum wage for thousands of people.
We're trying to keep up here but we still haven't gotten to the Affordable Care Act and the mortgage orders! Oh - and - the President was still whining about the election numbers! Dear God. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, "Tomorrow is another (two weeks ago) day."