American Indian activists Winona LaDuke, Clyde Bellecourt ,and Sandy Nichols took the stage at the Capitol last Wednesday to talk about the proposed tar sands pipeline going through the Leech Lake Reservation in central Minnesota. The Enbridge pipeline would carry this dirty energy source from the Canadian province of Alberta all the way to Wisconsin, running through various Minnesota communities along the way.
Ahh, War Games, what a movie. The summer of '83. Matthew Broderick was still playing teenagers. Ally Sheedy was still a TeenBeat pin-up girl you taped inside your locker at school. And the plot was two teenagers get the country to DefCon1 by hacking into an Apple 2e at the Pentagon that also talks. The great moral, of course, comes from the voice of this new Hal, who says rather than play thermonuclear war, "the only winning move is not to play."
We could use that advice now in regards to oil. We're already stuck with a deadly addiction to oil, and, now, some folks think our best option is to turn to Canada for more oil.
In the Minnesota Public Radio story, "
After the ethanol bubble," Fresh Energy Science Policy director J. Drake Hamilton talks about biofuels, tar sands, global warming, and the government's role in driving innovation with Keith Johnson of the Wall Street Journal and Matt Hartwig from the Renewable Fuels Association.
Here's a statement from a press release:
"The Aspen Institute proudly announces the winners of the second annual Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards, which will be presented at a special ceremony on March 27, 2009, during the Aspen Environment Forum."
Ok, so the Aspen Institute is giving awards to Van Jones for Thought Leadership (ok, great, applaud that), Wal-Mart for Corporate Energy Efficiency (ok, yeah, see that), and the Province of Alberta, Canada's Carbon Capture Initiative for Government (what the...).
Last week, City Pages picked up the story and quoted me saying this: "The key issue with these tar sands is that this is the bottom of the barrel, the last sludge of oil remaining in the world. It's the dirtiest and most polluting oil by far, much more polluting than conventional sweet crude. Its mining, extraction, refining, and shipping would all essentially move the refining capacity of the Gulf Coast up to the Midwest Great Lakes region."
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