New Senior Adviser for Obama Campaign Lobbied for Keystone P

Pepe Silvia

hope!!!!!! change!!!!!! hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

oh wait, the majority of you will support him anyways....

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2 ... w.facebook

New Senior Adviser for Obama Campaign Lobbied for Keystone Pipeline, Comcast Merger
President Obama’s 2012 campaign has a new senior adviser — a former lobbyist for the company pushing the Keystone XL pipeline, who also lobbied for Comcast throughout the period that the media conglomerate was seeking approval for its merger with NBC-Universal.

The campaign hired Broderick Johnson of the lobbying firm Bryan Cave LLP this week. According to U.S. House of Representatives records, Johnson lobbied to “support submission of a presidential permit for Keystone XL pipeline” in the final quarter of 2010.

Environmentalists are upset with the pipeline and with Pres. Barack Obama’s unwillingness to reconsider the project.

According to Friends of the Earth campaigner Kim Huynh:

“President Obama ran for office in 2008 promising that the days of lobbyists setting the agenda in Washington were over, yet now he’s hired a top oil pipeline lobbyist into his campaign,” Huynh said. “This is a deeply troubling development. A lobbyist who has taken corporate cash to shill for this dirty and dangerous pipeline now has even more opportunity to whisper into the President’s ear.”

On October 6, Friends of the Earth and the Center for International Environmental Law and Corporate Ethics International amended (pdf) a Freedom of Information Act request so that it now includes a request for all State Department documents that pertain to interactions with Johnson and several other pipeline lobbyists.

Bryan Cave earned more than $1 million from 2009-2011 from its lobbying activities on behalf of TransCanada.

Johnson was also a lobbyist in Comcast’s massive effort to influence the Federal Communications Commission to approve a merger with NBC-Universal, which made it one of the biggest media conglomerates in American history, as the Minnesota Independent reported. Sen. Al Franken was a prominent critic of the merger, which consumer advocates said would reduce options and increase costs for customers.

Brian Cave LLP received at least $440,000 in lobbying income from Comcast from 2009-2011, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Johnson is listed on the House disclosure forms throughout the period, some of the forms disclose his role as “advocacy work regarding Comcast/NBC-U transaction.”

The Comcast merger was approved in early 2011. Later this year, Comcast snapped up FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who supported the merger, as the new Comcast vice president for government affairs, what’s known in Capitol circles as the “revolving door.”

Johnson himself has held a number of official and lobbying positions, including deputy assistant to the President for legislative affairs in the Clinton White House. Johnson was also an informal advisor for Obama’s 2008 election, according to his bio on another firm’s website.

Jeanwah

Pepe Silvia!! Where have you been?
:wave:

CH156378

:yawn:

tybird

I wonder if we environmentalists have been mislead by the Obama campaign from day one...... :?:

unsung

Well everyone else has.

polaris_x

tybird wrote:

I wonder if we environmentalists have been mislead by the Obama campaign from day one...... :?:

yes and no ... it was fairly early on that everyone could see obama caving and compromising to try and get things done ... it is no surprise that an issue such as the environment would be sacrificed as most americans do not consider it a high priority ...

but as an environmentalist - i didn't expect much from obama for reasons repeated over and over again here ...

brianlux

Obama has been a huge disappointment to those of us involved in environmental activism. In the early days of his administration, we felt hopeful. No more. I found reading the first edition of Bill McKibben's excellent book Eaarth and then later on reading the new afterword that came out in the softcover edition to be a perfect example of how let down we feel. McKibben originally expressed the same enthusiasm many of us felt in that first printing and later the huge disappointment many of us feel today.

Here's a place you can go to to voice you opposition to the Keystone pipeline. Better yet, if you live in the D.C. area, show up and join the human circle around the White House to tell Obama to live up to his promise to get us off our oil addiction:

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/2133/p/sa ... e_KEY=6006

Also, look for updates here:

http://www.350.org/

Jeanwah

I was really disappointed when people perceived Van Jones, whom Obama brought in as a green advisor of some kind, to be radical simply because he's motivated to make a difference in getting people involved in bettering our environment. He's already done a lot in California.

bgivens33

brianlux wrote:

Obama has been a huge disappointment to those of us involved in environmental activism. In the early days of his administration, we felt hopeful. No more. I found reading the first edition of Bill McKibben's excellent book Eaarth and then later on reading the new afterword that came out in the softcover edition to be a perfect example of how let down we feel. McKibben originally expressed the same enthusiasm many of us felt in that first printing and later the huge disappointment many of us feel today.

Here's a place you can go to to voice you opposition to the Keystone pipeline. Better yet, if you live in the D.C. area, show up and join the human circle around the White House to tell Obama to live up to his promise to get us off our oil addiction:

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/2133/p/sa ... e_KEY=6006

Also, look for updates here:

http://www.350.org/

Just curious, where would you prefer to get your oil from?

polaris_x

bgivens33 wrote:

Just curious, where would you prefer to get your oil from?

can't speak for brian ... but for me ... definitely from our current sources ... any place but the tar sands ...

i also believe, we need to wean ourselves off oil and no new reserves should be tapped

Pepe Silvia

Jeanwah wrote:

Pepe Silvia!! Where have you been?
:wave:

got married, moved from asheville to cherokee, been enjoying myself n seeing a lot of shows (saw guns n roses the other night, they played for 4 hours!!)

how have you been?

brianlux

bgivens33 wrote:

brianlux wrote:

Obama has been a huge disappointment to those of us involved in environmental activism. In the early days of his administration, we felt hopeful. No more. I found reading the first edition of Bill McKibben's excellent book Eaarth and then later on reading the new afterword that came out in the softcover edition to be a perfect example of how let down we feel. McKibben originally expressed the same enthusiasm many of us felt in that first printing and later the huge disappointment many of us feel today.

Here's a place you can go to to voice you opposition to the Keystone pipeline. Better yet, if you live in the D.C. area, show up and join the human circle around the White House to tell Obama to live up to his promise to get us off our oil addiction:

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/2133/p/sa ... e_KEY=6006

Also, look for updates here:

http://www.350.org/

Just curious, where would you prefer to get your oil from?

I work very hard to keep my oil consumption down and have been actively doing so for about thirty years. If the average American had and would do the same, we would not be having this discussion because there would not looking for oil in dangerous and highly polluting ways. I have also worked hard to encourage development of clean alternatives to fossil fuels. I did not personally add to the driving pool (i.e. did not reproduce). I've been active in environmentalism for as long as some PJ forum members have been alive. I'm not responsible for where the oil comes from and I have done as much as I can to lessen my energy consumption including tithing my income to projects that are working on alternatives.

I'm sorry if I sound defensive (and I humbly ask your forgiveness if I have misinterpreted your questioning), but your question seems to imply that I am as responsible as anyone for the tar sands mess. I'll repeat myself: If everyone would have and would continue to make the efforts I have, we would not be having this discussion. I've been fighting this battle for a long time. The current results are, to put it mildly, disappointing.

Jeanwah

Pepe Silvia wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

Pepe Silvia!! Where have you been?
:wave:

got married, moved from asheville to cherokee, been enjoying myself n seeing a lot of shows (saw guns n roses the other night, they played for 4 hours!!)

how have you been?

Awesome and Congrats!!!

Jeanwah

http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/big-n ... p-decision

brianlux

Jeanwah wrote:

http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/big-news-keystone-pipeline-obama-steps-and-takes-ownership-decision

Thanks for posting this, Jeanwah! Here's another one on Keystone:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar ... game-over/