Between The Lines - Friends of the Earth's Erich Pica: Environmentalists Mobilize to Push Obama to Reject Keystone XL Pipeline (Week Ending Feb. 14, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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Environmentalists Mobilize Pressure on Obama to Reject Keystone XL Pipeline

MP3

Posted Feb. 5, 2014

Interview with Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, conducted by Scott Harris

The U.S. State Department released its long-awaited environmental impact statement on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project that would move tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas Gulf refineries. The report indicated that approval or denial of the pipeline will make no difference in the rate of extraction of tar sands oil, given that producers can transport the oil via rail tankers if the Keystone project is rejected. However, the report acknowledged that extracting or burning tar sands oil produces about 17 percent more greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, than traditional oil.

Environmental groups dispute many of the conclusions of the report and have called into question its credibility given that documents they obtained revealed that some consultants for the company that produced the draft impact statement had previously been employed by TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline. If an inspector general’s investigation confirms conflicts of interest in the environmental report, the State Department may have to undertake a new environmental review.

Advocates for the project maintain that the pipeline will create jobs and reduce U.S. dependency on oil from the volatile Middle East and from Venezuela. With the release of the report Secretary of State John Kerry must now make a recommendation on the pipeline to President Obama. Mr Obama, who will make the final decision, has said he’ll only authorize the project if it’s determined that the pipeline won’t worsen carbon pollution. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, who takes a critical look at the environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL project, and the steps environmental activists are taking to mobilize pressure on President Obama to reject the tar sands pipeline.

ERICH PICA: So the State Department released the final environmental impact statement and what should be known about the statement is that Friends of the Earth has been tracking the contractor who drafted this report for the State Department. The contractor's name is Environmental Resource Management or ERM. And what we found is that ERM has a series of links to the oil industry. They also neglected to disclose those connections, both financial and organizational, to the State Department. And this disclosure was required under the conflict of interest disclosure forms that they had to fill out.

And so Friends of the Earth and some of our partner groups have really been hammering the fact that ERM lied, in some basic documents to the State Department, by not disclosing their conflicts. And so, how can we trust much of the data that’s in this report, because of their ties not only to oil industries, such as the American Petroleum Institute, but also to companies, such as TransCanada, that will benefit financially from the Keystone XL pipeline?

We found that twice ERM worked with TransCanada over the last three years, which was supposed to be disclosed. So, once you remove the kind of the contractor conflict of interest, and then you get into the nuts and bolts of the report itself, the State Department really neglects one alternative when they do the environmental impact statement—which is, just keeping the tar sands oil in the ground.

There's a presumption in this report which we think is false—that the tar sands oil will get mined and drilled somehow, somewhere. And the facts just don't bear that out right now. Right now, the entire tar sands industry is banking on the likelihood that President Obama will approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which will be the lead infrastructure piece, the lead pipeline that will extract the tar sands from Alberta.

BETWEEN THE LINES: President Obama claimed during the summer that he would only approve the TransCanada pipeline if it was found that the project would not worsen carbon pollution. And this State Department report, in the minds of many supporters of the pipeline project, says this gives them the green light to go forward.

How would you refute that particular litmus test, if you would, the notion that this pipeline, by itself, won't impact carbon emissions?

ERICH PICA: In the State Department analysis, actually there's a scenario in there that indicates that greenhouse carbon pollution will increase with the Keystone XL pipeline. And the State Department estimate is that it will increase by between 1.5 million metric tons to 27 million metric tons a year. And that high number actually is equivalent to, I believe 5.4 ~ 5.7 million new cars driving on the roads today. So, there is a significant carbon impact, but the extent of it is all based on the assumptions that you make. And, you know, that in the State Department's environmental impact statement, the preponderance of assumptions are, that the tar sands oils are going to get mined, they're going to get mined regardless; therefore we don't need to count the greenhouse gas emissions. But there are a couple of assumptions in that report that actually do make the case that carbon pollution's going to increase from the extraction of these tar sands.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Erich Pica, what is your group and other environmental organizations and activist groups doing now to mobilize opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, to influence President Obama's decision?

ERICH PICA: Some of our sister groups led by Credo Mobile/Rainforest Action have asked volunteers to commit acts of civil disobedience. There are over 70,000 people around the country who have volunteered when the time comes – if the time comes – to do civil disobedience.

And then there's ongoing activism. We're going to have this 30-day public comment period which we plan to turn out tens of thousands of people too. And then there's just the ongoing work of debunking the myths that are in the State Department's environmental impact statement continuing to show that the contractor ERM has conflicts of interest and that this process has been tainted.

As well as trying to use whatever political leverage we have with Secretary (of State) Kerry and also with President Obama to demonstrate that he's got support – they’ve got deep support — from the environmental community if they oppose this pipeline.

For more information Friends of the Earth, visit FOE.org.