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Subscribe to RSSIt’s not just Benghazi anymore.
One of the most controversial energy projects in the nation also has become a flash point in the drama surrounding who may become the next secretary of state – and it’s coming from the left instead of the right.
Back on Nov. 28, “OnEarth,” published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, dug into U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s financial disclosures and found that she and her husband have a stake in TransCanada, the company pushing for the Keystone XL Pipeline to be built.
NRDC officials say it's an important issue that must be discussed during the nomination process. But the timing of the report raises questions, as it is being surfaced by an environmental activist community that has previously given support to another potential secretary of state candidate – Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
NBC News' Mark Murray explains why the partisan divide over the potential nomination of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is intensifying.
The decision on whether to approve the pipeline goes through the State Department.
“If confirmed by the Senate, one of Rice’s first duties likely would be consideration, and potentially approval, of the controversial mega-project,” Scott Dodd at “OnEarth” wrote. “Rice's financial holdings could raise questions about her status as a neutral decision maker.”
Dodd noted that “Rice owns stock valued between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada, the company seeking a federal permit to transport tar sands crude 1,700 miles to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, crossing fragile Midwest ecosystems and the largest freshwater aquifer in North America.”
Bill McKibben, an anti-pipeline activist, told the publication: “It’s really amazing that they’re considering someone for Secretary of State who has millions invested in these companies. The State Department has been rife with collusion with the Canadian pipeline builders, and it’s really distressing to have any sense that that might continue to go on.”
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, the NRDC's director of international programs, sounded a less strident tone a day later: "What's most important is that she rid herself of her holdings in TransCanada and other tar sands-related companies, and we're confident she will do that ... What's most important is that we have a good, thorough review done.”
Danielle Droitsch, a senior attorney for the NRDC and director of the Canada Project, told First Read: “We think Ambassador Rice has the credentials to be secretary of state, but if she were nominated, and then appointed, these holdings would have to be addressed.”
She added that “high-level officials dealing with Keystone should not have any conflicts of interest.”
The likelihood is that, if nominated, Rice will have to divest herself of her TransCanada investment to avoid a conflict of interest.
Will new Obama appointments come this week? Is there a way to get both John Kerry and Susan Rice into the Obama cabinet? NBC News' Chuck Todd and Time's Joe Klein join the discussion.
The environmental group’s effort to shed light on Rice’s financial interest in TransCanada could be just an attempt, if Rice is nominated, to get a “thorough review” and make sure it has a staunch ally in trying to thwart the project, as Casey-Lefkowitz said.
But could it also be a signal that the NRDC prefers another candidate for the job – Kerry, the other of the final two candidates reportedly being considered for the post?
After all, environmental groups have strongly supported Kerry in the past and have a long working relationship with him. Like they would for most Democrats in a presidential election, for example, the NRDC and the League of Conservation Voters, among others, ran ads in the 2004 election boosting Kerry.
LCV even endorsed Kerry before the New Hampshire Democratic primary that year, although it has notably not spoken out about Rice.
Droitsch, however, would not address whom the NRDC prefers for the job.
“We’re trying to signal that the pipeline decision has to be conflict-free,” Droitsch said. “That would pertain to any potential nominee. The president has the prerogative to nominate the person he believes is best for the position.”
The Senate will then raise questions, however, she said. And “now is important to raise the issue ... We want to make sure that anyone who’s being considered would be free of those conflicts. That’s our primary interest right now.”
The NRDC, which has been very involved in efforts to block Keystone, is the environmental interest group most pressing the issue of Rice’s financials.
But others might not be as keen to see Kerry leave Capitol Hill. After all, consider that green groups already spent a lot of money trying to oust Republican Scott Brown from the Senate – and were successful.
But if Kerry becomes secretary of state (or even defense secretary), his seat would become vacant, raising the potential for a costly and competitive special election.
“Who cares if the U.N. ambassador has a TransCanada stock. Who cares if the head of the FDA has TransCanada stock,” said a Democratic strategist and ally of the administration who is a veteran of confirmation battles.
“If she [Rice] were to be nominated, she would go through a process by which we look for financials conflicts. Maybe this stock would be identified as something that posed a conflict, and she would sell," the strategist said. "But she hasn't gone through that process, because she's not a nominee to anything. If they want to say that if she is the nominee, she should sell the stock, that's fine. But you can't legitimately hit her for having it now. And that is likely why NRDC backed off and no other environmental groups have piled-on.”
What really is going on here likely has less to do with Rice and whether she should ascend to secretary of state, and more with the NRDC leveraging pressure on the president and the administration to make sure the pipeline is rejected again once it comes up for approval. And that could be soon.
The next step in that approval phase, in fact, could come as early as next week, Droitsch said. TransCanada has applied for a shortened pipeline in hopes of having that approved – something the NRDC strongly opposes. A Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement could be released by the State Department as early as next week, Droitsch said.
“It is critically important for there to be independent decision-makers, free of conflict of interest, who can take an independent view,” she said.
She then tied the administration’s decision on the pipeline to climate change, an issue that has regained prominence as a result of Hurricane Sandy. In the days following Sandy’s landfall, in fact, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed President Barack Obama for his leadership on climate change.
How Obama decides on the pipeline “signals where the U.S. is headed in terms of importing dirty fuels, inconsistent with an administration that is committed to fighting climate change,” Droitsch said.
“We’re confident President Obama understands the seriousness around the issues surrounding this pipeline. Approving it sends the wrong signal about our country’s commitment to climate change. Yes, he’s under a lot of pressure, but the public is very concerned about this. It’s not a decision I know he’ll view lightly.”
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looks like obama is going to have a bad week. psy with his anti-american song will be at the white house this weekend for a party, rice with the pipe line deal, obama trying to get $60 billion for sandy relief. has the making of a bad week. not to mention the whole fiscal cliff thing.
I hope he has a bad four years...I hope he fails at everything he tries to do...I curse him and his evil doings...he is the destroyer of this country of everything good and decent about this country. he is the evil one from the pit of hell.
The melodrama is perhaps a bit much; could make a fella look like a loon.
Yes I admit a bit much however I must match the melodrama of Obama.....seems that is what this country thrives on.
True that!
Oh, and most Democrats are loons so it comes naturally to them.
Rice can't even tell the truth about Bengazi after she knew the truth....she has got to go....she will be a disaster to the world...but than again Hillary didn't do such a hot job either. The Middle East is on fire...the replacement of dictators for worse dictators is what she has to show for her 4 years....an Israel that is closer to devastation and now has a sour relationship with the US..an Iran that is closer to a nuke...a Syria that is killing it's own people....a China that is defiant....well well well this is Baracks world now...this is his screw up's. The US is about to go off the cliff and Mid East countries that hate us are about to go Nuclear. And just what was BO talking to Russia about when he go caught on tape saying...." I ll have more leverage after the election".....kinda makes one wonder if Obama is the enemy of the United Stares....actually I have thought that all along. He wants to destroy this country cause he grew up hating it...his parents hated the US he was raised by folks who hated the US....watch out stupid America...who voted for this enemy of our country again....you who voted for him have the fall of this nation on your hands.....!!!!!!!
Did they make any mention of her and her husband's shareholder status in the petroleum company that buys Iranian oil?
I wonder if Susan and her husband had a stake in an international "green energy" company, the left would be concerned.....
I think the lefties have found their flaw they have beeen looking for. They don't want Susan having to explain Benghazi and other statements she has made prior to her job as UN Ambassador while being confirmed. It's too risky that she might stray from the talking points that are given to her and possibly shed more light on the incompetence and corruptness of the Obama admin..Remember, EVERYTHING is a political calculation with the leftists.
At this stage of comrade obama's game, he may as well, just appoint putin as secretary of state???
If Conrad Obama did that the left would praise him...they would say he was a genius they would say he is going to go down in history as the best President who ever lived....Hollywierd would have a concert praising him... Fat Michael Moore would make a movie about the super hero Obama..Obama and Putin would make the rounds on late night TV making jokes about being "eye candy" all while they robbed the American people blind.........hmmmmm kind sounds like what BO is already doing.
You 2 are either just trolls or idiots.
They already think he is the best president ever, it is just those evil republicans that are not letting him prove it.
LMAO, you will be receiving your autographed knee pads, hand delivered by comrade obama, his own darn self????
or scarier....we are correct!........
I see the Benghazites are awake.
just people with common sense.
So are you :0)
Hey golkfleft,
FOUR Americans were murdered in cold bleed by Al'quida affiliates...something that Obama could have stopped...something that Hillary could have stopped. If those who were murdered had been your son's I don't think you would be on here blasting those of us who want to get to the truth.
He could have at least tried, then if it didn't work couldn't nobody say nuthin. As it is though........
beanne, please explain how Obama could have stopped the attack.
BTW beanne, the truth is out there.
I don't know much about Susan Rice, but based on the way she handled the Benghazi thing should we doubt her intelligence? It's no disgrace to be genius or dullard, but how does Rice measure up to previous SOSs? Investments aside, has anyone viewed her performance in prevoius positions? Has she beamed or bungled?
Where is the article about NBC being sued by Zimmerman????? I can't find it here???
It must have gotten caught in that invisible filter with all of the questions about who Barry O really is and how someone with NO leadership experience could/should be elected to such a high office not once, but twice.
Yes there is a huge file room that has above the door......." TOP Secrets about Obama we can't tell"....and that room is full.
Chowder, don't know how to use Google? I found the story.
His point was that the story is not easy to find on MSNBC Google or not.
It doesn't get much easier than putting "NBC being sued by Zimmerman" into the Google search arguement.
http: / / s1214.photobucket.com / albums / cc489 / secondtestoftime1999 / ?action=view¤t=untitled.jpg
http: / / s1112.photobucket.com / albums / k486 / twentyfourblocking25 /
Benghazi? What's Benghazi?? --signed, CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News viewers
John kerry would b e my last choice.....another phony politicians along with schummer and a few others....all about themselves and how they can take stage and look good.
why does she have that much money? Isn't it evil? She needs to give it away to her cult leader for redistributing to the "needy"
Nah. She's on 'their' side, so she can amass all the wealth she possibly can because she pretends to 'care' about the social issues.
i also find it odd people with money (the rich) are finding their way into obama's arms.
It's a lot easier to have power when you're loaded, Barry knows that. He only hangs out with the 99% during photo-ops. Then, it's back to Air Force One for another 18 holes at a private country club.
Dems or Repubs critiquing -blatant political in nature. A test of Rice's will if she's to be SOS. Regardless of what I think the President will make his choice. Yes simpleman2008 -I read the article.
It seems things are going to have to get a whole lot worse before you idiot liberals see how bad they really are. Rice or Kerry, what's the difference? They both have their 0bama kneepads on. Just like all of you fools who voted for them in the rigged election.
Eh, so what? Shouldn't people with money, that know a good thing when they see it, be able to invest in a sure thing to make more money? Look people, I have worked on that line already. TC is more environmentally conscience than the Federal Government, OR ANY other company I have ever worked for. I cannot tell you what it is I do, but TRUST ME when I say that TC is an AWESOME company, and they are more conscientious about the environment than the news media wants Americans to believe. Worried about the environment? Then tell the Feds to clean up the ground around their military bases of all of the seran gas, mustard gas, and nuclear materials buried in unrecorded holes in the ground so that no one, not even THEM, knows where they are. OR, perhaps they should find the Mark 15 Hydrogen bomb lost in the mud on Georgia's coast. There are SO many other things to worry about. I have personally seen toxic nightmares that the government will not address cleanup on. I see it all the time as an environmentalist (which is a pretty broad field). Want something for you people to focus on? Focus on governmental WMD cleanup, or the pipelines used in the 1950's that leak out of the ground. The REAL fight here about the pipeline probably comes from the fact it is planning to go right through Ted Turner's neck of the woods. Between the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy and interests that EarthFirst! has in Nebraska...that is the real story behind the headlines. Ever heard of the 'Pleistocene Park of North America'? These groups have been working on doing this for about 20 years...Google that! THIS IS THE REAL STORY!!!!! htt p:/ /prf america.o rg/speec hes/9t h/Pleisto ceneParkProjec t.h tml
Don't let the news media lie to you. These groups have been some of the major contributors to cloning of extinct species in order to put them in this park in the center of the nation, centered in Nebraska. I CHALLENGE THE NEWS MEDIA TO CHASE OUT THIS STORY, instead of focusing on the hatred we all have for petroleum companies. Dirty fuels is NOT what this is all about... DO YOUR JOB AND REPORT THE TRUTH! Stop pitting left against right in the US, and 'MAN UP'!
Building the pipeline or not building the pipeline wont change how much oil we use, it will only change where it comes from. If it doesnt come from Canada, it will come from Venezuela, or some other less friendly place.
Building the pipeline will create jobs in the USA.
If we dont build the pipeline to the USA, then Canada will build it to the West Coast and send the oil to China. So the environmental groups may think they are changing something by not building the pipeline. They arent changing how much oil the USA consumes, and they aren't changing how much oil Canada produces from tar sands, all they are doing it costing jobs in the USA, and perhaps raising the price of oil in the USA, since the oil will then come from a less convenient location.
As far as polution from the pipeline goes, yes there is a minor change of that. However, since there not enough pipelines to carry the oil we use, a lot of oil is currently being transported on trucks, and on railroads, which is far more environmentally risky than pipelines.
This opposition to the pipeline wont make the day we are oil free come any faster, it just makes current supplies less convenient, and costs some jobs.
I would much rather the United States develop their own oil resources much like the Bakken region of North Dakota has. Amazing what that has done for that region's economy. The oil must come from somewhere so why not the United States?
The Pipeline is just a PROJECT and when it ends so does the money. We are not benifiting one iota from the oil that will pass through this pipeline. It is going straight to a port in Texas to be loaded on Tankers, not be refined. My thoughts are simple, why should our enviroment suffer from a break in the pipe, (these do happen). The Canadians can pipe it across Canada to one of their ports and at their enviromental risk. The jobs won't be all that many and you probably won't benifit from it unless you are a Pipe Fitter or have a CDL in your pocket to haul materials, or own land along the route. Some towns along the will get a few dollars for a few days than it will go away as the pipeline moves on down the line. No I'm not an enviromentalist but see no point in it running across my country.
Kerry has a bigger problem. In our diversity obsessed culture, political correctness will prevail and he's the dreaded white male.
Ah, but kerry hasn't built anything, just mooched off of his wife which qualifies him for the obama admin???
There's no other better choice than 2004 Presidential Candidate Senator John Kerry for Secretary of State to replace Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton if it is that the United States Secretary of State is crucial to keeping us as the lead ANSI/ISO treasury bond money investment that minimizes friction with other countries' money markets seeing as though President Putin's Russia will start to gain on their more abundant resources and European layout advantage but for China wanting the consistency of our Library of Congress aeronautical information and fuel cooperative arbitration expertise that is the progress of solving problems of a large country that China might be able to realize more readily if in the Olympic nationalism of their country they find they have to reach for military aircraft carriers, missile guided moon visits, and further use of coal plants. Our chance I'd think there again would be a wise choice if it were Senator John Kerry for Secretary of State.
You left out Chinas Industrial Espianoge. You also have that New Beloved Republican Ted Cruz Representing them in Courts against American Companies who have lost and is still loosing money.
She is a typical Democrat talking and doing two different things. Democrats for the most part are unprincipled and this is yet another reminder of that. The only reason Obama was reelected is because the greater number of people in this country are unprincipled which does not bode well for our great nation. Soon corruption will be accepted much like a third world country.
Larry, You are really so full of yourself that I'm LMAO. You want to talk about Principles? Boehner, signed a Pledge in Conflict of Interest of his Senetatorial Oath. Boehner and his Cronies who are following Grover Norquist who is not even in Government and doesn't sign their paychecks. Boehner and his Cronies who had been squeezing your nuts for the last 4 years as a pawn for the game they are playing. Yeh Talk to me about PRINCIPLES.
I say he appoint Al Sharpton so that we can rid ourselves of him...seems the Sec of state stays out of the country for four years.
You might have a point there..... Only I certainly would not want to work for the state department while he would be in charge.
Maybe J.C. Watts? He is a good friend-getter. Or Michael Jordan? or maybe Harvey Gantt? I would say Barbara Jordan, but she has been gone from us a long time.
John Kerry (a Democrat like me) has received more money from the Big Pharma special interests than any other Congressman and is a prime reason Americans are paying 50% more for the same prescriptions as any other nation. He's never let Big Pharma down on a vote.
For these Environmental Groups to push his name just because another candidate owns stock in the companies involved in the proposed oil pipeline is disgusting. And I was the first president of the Maryland Waste Coalition, the RCRA Act-recognized and originally-funded citizens environmental watchdog group for Maryland, so don't label me anti-environmental.
Label me anti-idiot!
Everytime I turnaround lately there is some Self Professed Religious Hipocrit Zellest coming out of the woodwork. Although Ms Rice is being condemed for a doctured speech she gave about Benghazi as much as week after the event. That is a bunch of crap for republicans to throw out, that doesn't even add up to a half peanut size anything Politicaly. Since she was/is Ambassador to the UN that is a far cry from being Ambassador to Libya. Mc Cain probably is against her for the really good slam she gave him when he was running for President.
She had some Tar investment in Canadian oil deal to do with the Ketstone Pipe line. As far as I'm concerened here if it was a deal to make money, let the Canadians pipe it across there country and load it on a ship. Why should we put our enviroment at risk. The Pipeline is a PROJECT and once completed the money's dried up, gone.
My only question here is why did the Republicans fly out of the wood work pointing fingers before anything was said from the Democrats. Even Romney jumped on the band wagon and got a good Smack down in the final Debate when Benghazi came up. Eveytime a news Mogal writes a story you Clowns just keep on being an echo chamber for one another. You can say it here without embarrassment to yourself as no one knows who you are. Here read an honestly written News Article for a change. I personally don't feel she is the right person for the job at this time for other reasons.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57552328/sources-office-of-the-dni-cut-al-qaeda-reference-from-benghazi-talking-points-and-cia-fbi-signed-off/
I want the next Ambassador to Libya to be a Republican because the Republicans are incharge of supplying Security when it is Requseted, maybe they'll do a better job. I want to here the song and dance that they'll do when they fail one of their own. In fact I want to know why they were given $440,000 in ADVANCE to supply Security for Ambassador Stevens that they failed to do so. Why did they break Protocol on an investigation of this nature? There is a half a dozen other question I have for the Republicans in charge of Security.
You are correct, when the work is done, the pipeline jobs dry up.
You are correct, there is some chance of the pipeline leaking.
However, instead of shipping oil by pipeline we are forced to ship it by truck, and rail. Which is far more risky than by pipeline.
I guess the only good jobs are clean, permanent government jobs. They dont polute, and they dont make rich guys richer.
So we have a democrat fat-cat oil person trying to run the government lololol, and another fat-cat career politician trying to bring her down. Hypocrite democrats.
Mr. President think out of the box and give ex Secretary Powell a chance to clear his name and nominate him for your new Secretary of State and let John McCain and his minions something to sulk about!
Great idea but I doubt Powell would accept.
What about Pelosi and her insider info, that that made her millions or do you Dems only look for Republican things ? Oh I forgot,that is what you do and then skew it to the limits.