The Green Voters League

Since President Obama’s decision to delay construction of the $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, congressional Republicans have been looking for a way to both attack him as dithering on a potential job creator, and simultaneously wanting to wrestle away the President’s authority to approve the pipeline, and do it themselves. Most recently, John Hoeven (R-ND) is attempting to write new legislation that uses congress’ powers to regulate international commerce to bypass President Obama’s power to veto the pipeline’s construction.

This most recent move by congressional Republicans is made more urgent by language included in December’s payroll tax holiday bill that forced Obama to come to a decision on the pipeline within 60 days. That deadline is fast approaching and some republicans fear that in forcing Obama’s hand, he may veto the pipeline’s construction. Obama is caught in a political tug-of-war between his party’s two large constituencies, environmentalists who want the pipeline eliminated and labor unions who want the pipeline’s construction jobs. Hoeven and House Senate Republicans claim that the pipeline will increase oil security in the western hemisphere by making the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil (even though Canada is, technically, a foreign country), and will create as many as 20,000 jobs in the U.S. Environmentalists, on the other hand, believe that it will make no significant different to oil prices within the U.S. and will only create about 5,000 jobs at the expense of putting thousands of miles of ecosystem and agricultural farmland in danger. Read more about Republicans Looking To "Steal" Passage Of Keystone XL Pipeline

In 2008, every major Democratic and Republican candidate professed a belief in the impact of human activity on the gradual heating of our planet. Since then the science has become more conclusive, and more unanimous on the subject. Scientists recently discovered that planetary warming may have even been slowed somewhat in the last decade by deep oceans that have managed to trap large quantities of the planet’s heat. More researchers agree that the planet is warming beyond the rate of what could be considered “natural”, what is causing this warming, and that it is actually accelerating, than did back in 2008. Why is it then that so many of the GOP leadership in Washington, and the GOP candidates for President in 2012 deny climate change is real, some more established politicians even walking back their positions on climate change from the era of 2008. Read more about The Climate-Change Denial Industry

A recent "open letter" by Jamie Henn to president Obama, published on The Huffington Post, is a seriously reply to one of President Obama's fundraising letters. The letter, responding to Campaign Manager for the Obama for America Campaign, Jim Messina, effectively refuses to donate a single dollar to President Obama's reelection campaign until he commits to stopping TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline. The 1,700 mile-long pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from the Canadian border to Texas oil refineries, is proposed to be built over precious Midland agricultural and nature preservations through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the rest of our the U.S. bread basket. Furthermore, the pipeline travels over hundreds of mile of the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest freshwater source for millions of Americans in the midwest. Were any portion of this pipeline to rupture, it could have catastrophic effects on natural wilderness, food production, and our water supply. Its easy to see why Henn, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans, feel so strongly about stopping this pipeline, and why they're willing to lean on President Obama, in an election year, to do it. Read more about Pressuring Obama To Refuse Keystone XL Pipeline Permit

The collapse of Solyndra and the subsequent federal investigation, branded by Republicans slavering for an end to green tech as "Solargate", has called into question the viability of renewable energy. House Republicans have called Solyndra typical of the White House's push for "pet alternative energy", wanting to end their green initiative and, evidently, send that money to oil companies instead. However, the anti-green element in Washington and their conservative punditocracy are missing the point. The point is that solar energy is the fastest growing industry in the country right now and, regardless of how one feels about alternative energy or environmentalism, the simple fact remains that it's one of our best hopes for stimulating job growth.

The average cost, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab report, of solar panels and installation fell 17% in 2010, and as of June this year, has fallen another 11%. In addition, solar energy manufacturer's created a $1.9 billion trade surplus domestically, meaning the money created by solar manufacturing and installation in this country was sold overseas, creating a profit for solar manufacturers in this country. Compare that to oil, where we sport the highest trade deficit in three years with $50.2 billion losses each year from importing foreign oil. Solar energy, at least at this point, is a much smaller industry (clearly) than petroleum, but at least solar is American jobs creating American wealth. Furthermore, the solar industry's growth has not slowed in ten years despite the economic recession. In fact, if anything, it's quickened. Having grown, on average, 25% each year for the past ten years; including 102% in 2010 and an estimated 66% just in the first half of 2011. What the solar industry represents in this country is a growing demand, and an expanding industry to meet the it... both factors of a healthy economy. Read more about Solar Power Fastest Growing Industry In US