Keystone XL

The Keystone Fight Is Uniting Tea Partiers With Environmentalists

Brian Beutler | February 27, 2012, 5:51AM

In Washington, DC, the fight over the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline mostly divides common enemies: Republicans and Democrats; environmentalists and fossil fuel interests; big business and the federal bureaucracy.

But though the project exists in a state of suspended animation, TransCanada -- the company that wants to connect the tar sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico -- is preparing to build anyhow. In particular, on the portion of the pipeline that would link Nebraska to Texas, TransCanada has threatened to use disputed eminent domain powers to condemn privately held land, over the owners' objections. And that's creating unusual allies -- Occupiers, Tea Partiers, environmentalists, individualists -- united to stop TransCanada from threatening water supplies, ancient artifacts, and people's basic property rights.

Read more »

Lindsey Graham

Graham Plans to Grill Obama's Commerce Secretary Pick On Labor Issues And Service On Boeing's Board

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 5:25PM

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) plans to question President Obama's choice for Commerce secretary on an issue related to union bargaining rights and Boeing.

John Bryson, who Obama tapped Tuesday to replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, serves on Boeing's board of directors though he will be forced to step down and recuse himself from any matters dealing with the defense giant, if confirmed by the Senate.

Read more »

Barack Obama

Obama Taps Bryson As Commerce Secretary

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 1:27PM

John Bryson

President Barack Obama announced the nomination of businessman John Bryson to head the Commerce Department at the White House on Tuesday.

Bryson's name has been mentioned as a potential cabinet post since Obama won election in 2008. As a former chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, and a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, he has straddled business and environmental activist circles. He also has served as a member of the United Nation's advisory group on energy and climate change.

During his tenure as the head of the California Public Utilities Commission in the early 1990s, Bryson angered some in the environmental community by arguing against renewable energy construction projects and defending the state's reliance on nuclear power.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bryson would replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke who Obama tapped as the next ambassador to China.

Read more »

john bryson

Obama To Nominate John Bryson As Commerce Secretary

Susan Crabtree | May 31, 2011, 11:46AM

John Bryson

President Barack Obama plans to nominate businessman John Bryson to head the Commerce Department, according to a White House official.

Bryson's name has been mentioned as a potential cabinet post since Obama won election in 2008. As a former chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, and a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, he has straddled business and environmental activist circles. He also has served as a member of the United Nation's advisory group on energy and climate change.

Read more »

Barack Obama

Obama To Address Old Foe: Chamber Of Commerce

Jon Terbush | January 5, 2011, 4:20PM

Tom Donahue and Barack Obama

President Obama will give a speech on the economy and jobs next month to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group he's often battled during his presidency

The speech is scheduled for February 7 and was reported by The Wall Street Journal. It appears to be an attempt by the White House to court the business community and broaden support for their efforts to boost the struggling economy. In December, Obama met with the CEOs of 20 U.S. companies to discuss ways for moving the country forward.

The decision to address the Chamber of Commerce is also likely intended to mend relations with the chamber itself.

The Chamber of Commerce has fought the president on a number of his signature initiatives, including the health care overhaul and financial regulator reform. Obama struck back at the organization this past fall, questioning whether the business lobby was using foreign donations to finance Republican candidates in the midterm elections. The chamber--which is not required by law to reveal its donors--spent at least $75 million in the elections, the bulk of it on Republicans, prompting many on the left to question where the money came from.

Tea Party

Tea Party Group To Corporations: Support Obama And We'll Take You Down

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 23, 2010, 11:45AM

A tea partier holds a sign at a March 2010 health care protest.

The tea party movement has a new target: Corporate America. Leaders of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey's branch of the conservative revolution, tell US News' Paul Bedard that the tea party movement is now ready to go to war with companies that the group says endorse "President Obama's progressive agenda."

On the short list are General Electric and Johnson & Johnson. Their crimes: "Their initial focus" of FreedomWorks' anti-corporate war "will be on consumer firms that lobbied for passage of Obama's agenda items that helped their firms." Those items include: "healthcare reform, bailouts, cap-and-trade energy policies or other issues pushed by the administration."

How will FreedomWorks take out these corporate giants? Through what it says will be a series of massive consumer boycotts Bedard likens to past anti-corporate protests mounted by Jesse Jackson.

"[A] Tea Party boycott could be bigger and impact the political world in Washington where corporations are generally viewed as supporting Republicans," Bedard writes.

Read more »