grist
By Rebecca Leber on 28 Jan 2016
The new pipelines criss crossing Pennsylvania are for exporting oil and gas overseas. The domestic market is saturated. And much of the international market for fossil fuel is saturated.
Fossil fuel is dying.
The more we invest in fossil fuel infrastructure the longer and slower it’s death.
"While the fracking boom changed the country's dependence on foreign oil, it's the pipeline development that is reversing the U.S. from an energy importer to exporter.That's a plan supported by the president and his federal agencies, including the commission that regulates pipeline development in Pennsylvania.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has received much scrutiny in the last year from landowners and environmentalists who say the agency favors industry, while private land is gobbled up for public use with little oversight."The big gorilla in the way is FERC," said Alex Bomstein, senior attorney for Clean Air Council in Philadelphia.It's difficult to put a legal block in front of a pipeline before construction starts because the federal regulatory process overrides a lot of other decisions, attorneys say.Simply put, a pipeline builder can cut down thousands of trees across Pennsylvania long before a county judge says it's allowed.It's a complicated legal system that seems to apply to just this industry. In many others, construction would have to cease while a legal challenge crawled through the court system.But in Pennsylvania pipeline fights, landowners lose before a judge issues a ruling."
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What clearly is not the public good is destroying our land and streams solely for the profits of big oil and gas corporations.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission represents big oil and gas companies. It has President Obama's approval. It has Hillary Clinton's approval.
Everything wrong with our political system comes from big money in politics. The only campaign issue with guts behind it is getting rid of big money in politics.
The only presidential candidate with guts, is Bernie Sanders.
