DeSmogCAST 7: Obama’s Keystone Veto, U.S. Oil Exports and the World’s Unburnable Carbon

By Carol Linnitt

Jan. 13, 2015 2 min. read

This article is more than 10 years old

In this episode of DeSmogCAST our team discusses Obama's recent promise to veto legislation put forward by a Republican-led Congress to expedite construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. While the fate of Keystone remains uncertain, the Obama Administration made changes in the final days of 2014 that now allows for the export of U.S. crude oil. As Justin Mikulka reports, the change doesn't lie in a newly passed bill but rather in a language game used to mask the difference between crude oil and condensate.

Finally we take a look at a new study recently published in Nature that analyzes the globe's total carbon reserves and pinpoints those that must remain unburned if we are to stay within the 2 degrees Celsius warming limit recommended by scientists and policy makers. That study highlights the Canadian oilsands and almost all coal reserves in the U.S. as carbon deposits that must remain in the ground in a carbon-constrained future.

For more episodes of DeSmogCAST visit our DeSmogBlog Youtube page.

See below for articles mentioned in this episode:

White House Confirms Obama Will Veto TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline

New Senate Majority Puts Keystone XL At The Top Of To-Do List

Obama Admin's Year-End Gift to the Oil Industry Quietly Allows Light Oil Exports

Development of Oilsands Incompatible with 2C Global Warming Limit: New Study

And in case you missed it on our DeSmogBlog Youtube page, here's episode 6 of DeSmogCAST where we talk about the influence of the fossil fuel industry in international climate talks and what you didn't hear about the New York fracking ban.

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