Our last bit of Good News can be dealt with at rather shorter length than the previous one.With all that's facing us as a people, and with all the grandiose claims the right-wingers have made about what they are going to accomplish now that they control both houses of Congress, what did they start off with? What was one of the very first things they wanted to get done, the thing they introduced within hours of the new Congress convening?
A bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry tar sands, about the most polluting source of oil there is, from Canada to refineries in Texas.
I have gone over the reasons to reject this monstrosity, gone over the lies of its proponents, several times and I won't repeat that here. What I will say is that the good news about this is that very soon thereafter, White House media representative Josh Earnest stated that Obama will veto the bill if it passes. He couched it in narrow terms, citing the fact that the issue of the pipeline's route through Nebraska is now before that state's Supreme Court, but still, he said it.
All along, I've been wondering if Obama's repeated stalling on a final decision on the pipeline was because he wanted to approve it but was afraid of backlash from his base, which includes the environmental community, or because he wanted to reject it but was afraid of backlash from energy corporations and conservative electorates in states where Democrats were hoping to hold onto seats. I still don't know how much of the stall was in a futile attempt to protect Dems, but at least it does appear - for now, anyway - that he is leaning toward rejecting it.Which, I say again, is Good News.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0106/Obama-to-veto-Keystone-XL-bill-according-to-press-secretary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-says-president-would-veto-keystone-pipeline-bill/2015/01/06/d41cb6be-95d7-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html
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