Barack Obama

Environmentalists Win Big Keystone Decision -- For Now

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2011, 6:28PM

Liberals and environmentalists are rejoicing tonight over the Obama administration's decision to delay -- or in bureaucratese, "seek further review of" -- a proposal to build a massive pipeline from the Canadian Tar Sands to the gulf coast. But their celebration could be short lived.

Here's the full backstory. The so-called Keystone XL pipeline has become the frustrated environmental community's final litmus test for the President. Though the bureaucratic questions surrounding the project have to do with domestic health and safety concerns, environmentalists fear, with good reason, that the pipeline would assure the extraction of too much carbon for the climate to bear. So they've been hounding the White House and State Department for months in an effort to get the project scrapped altogether.

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Government Shutdown

Democrats Demand Boehner Avert Government Shutdown Threat

Brian Beutler | November 1, 2011, 10:57AM

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and the vast majority of House Democrats have signed a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) pushing him to strip partisan policy riders out of must-pass legislation to fund the government after the money runs out later this month.

Yes, here we go again. House Republicans are advancing appropriations bills loaded with controversial measures that would defund the new health care law, scrap key environmental protections and more.

"As you know, there is longstanding precedent not to use appropriations bills to enact major changes in national policy, and the bills being reported from Appropriations subcommittees this year violate that precedent," wrote Hoyer in a letter signed by 182 other Democrats. "While not all policy riders are objectionable, many of those included this year are not only controversial but blatantly partisan. Included riders would block the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, roll back important clean air and clean water protections, and place new restrictions on women's access to a full range of medical and health services, among others."

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