“Profits Before Environment”

Oops! I guess he meant "Dirty energy for America."

I love Mark Bittman for his food. But now that he has a new column in the New York Times he has started covering a lot of environmental issues too. In his newest column in which he covers regulation of genetically-engineered crops and the Keystone XL pipeline, he has echoed a lot of the sentiments PSEC-ers felt at Powershift:

“I wasn’t surprised when the administration of George W. Bush sacrificed the environment for corporate profits. But when the same thing happens under a Democratic administration, it’s depressing.

“If Keystone is built, we’ll see rising greenhouse gas emissions right away (tar sands production creates three times as many greenhouse gases as does conventional oil), and our increased dependence on fossil fuels will further the likelihood of climate-change disaster. Then there is the disastrous potential of leaks of the non-Wiki-variety. (It’s happened before.)

“A truly environmentally friendly president (like the one candidate Obama appeared to be) would be looking for creative ways to leave fossil fuels underground, not extract them. Perhaps he doesn’t “believe in” global warming at this point, like many Republicans?

“When government defends corporate interests, citizens must fight. McKibben has helped organize protests at the White House against Keystone, and he’s one of hundreds who’ve been arrested in the last couple of weeks. These people are showing that the role of government as corporate ally must be challenged.”

Read the full article here. And thanks to the PSEC members who exercised their right to civil disobedience and got arrested last weekend!