© Counter Current News
DeSmog: a "source for accurate, fact based information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns" reports:
As reported by Steve Horn of DeSmog:Ever heard of the Obama Administration's U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council? We reveal its members and industry connections in this new investigation, plus detail some pipeline projects you may not have heard about.
U.S.-Mexico Energy Business CouncilOn September 9, the Obama administration revoked authorization for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on federally controlled lands and asked the pipeline's owners, led by Energy Transfer Partners, to voluntarily halt construction on adjacent areas at the center of protests by Native Americans and supporters.
However, at the same time the pipeline and protests surrounding it were galvanizing an international swell of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its Sacred Stone Camp, another federal move on two key pipelines has flown under the radar.
In May, the federal government quietly approved permits for two Texas pipelines — the Trans-Pecos and Comanche Trail Pipelines — also owned by Energy Transfer Partners. This action and related moves will ensure that U.S. fracked gas will be flooding the energy grid in Mexico.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is also set to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), but in the northern U.S., from North Dakota's Bakken Shale Formation through several Great Plains states to Illinois.
Within a two-week span in May 2016, as the Sacred Stone Camp was getting off the ground as the center of protests, the U.S.Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued presidential permits for the Trans-Pecos andComanche Trail Pipelines. Together, the pipelines will take natural gas obtained from fracking in Texas' Permian Basin and ship it in different directions across the U.S.-Mexico border, with both starting at the Waha Oil Field.
Similar to the case of North Dakota oil wells whose oil will likely be transported via Dakota Access, and like the name Dakota itself, the Comanche Trail Pipeline's nomenclature originates from a Native American tribe.
Today the Comanche Nation is headquartered in the southwestern part of Oklahoma in Lawton, and was removed from Texas in the aftermath of theComanche Wars. As part of those wars, this nomadic tribe used the Comanche Trail which crossed West Texas and through what is now Big Bend National Park.
Like many other tribes, the Comanche Nation has come out in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Some members have formed a support group calledComanches on the Move, which has taken caravans on the road from Oklahoma to the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota.
The same month the Obama administration permitted the Comanche Trail and Trans-Pecos Pipelines, the U.S. and Mexican governments announced the signing of an agreement creating the U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council. This council's objective is "to bring together representatives of the energy industries of the United States and Mexico to discuss issues of mutual interest." Its membership list is a who's who of major oil and gas players.
The list includes a senior-level lobbyist for Halliburton; the president of oil and gas industry services giant Honeywell Mexico; the CEO of Hunt Consolidated Energy (and former energy policy adviser for George W. Bush's 2000 campaign); theCFO of Sempra Energy's Mexican subsidiary, IEnova; and the president of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA), who worked on the press team in the George W. Bush White House and 2000 presidential campaign.
Reader Comments
We are all aware how sensitive the Earth is because we have all felt the land tremble below our feet. This move is likely to really piss her off. No wonder Obama waited till he was almost out the door before signing.
Ancient spirits are set in stone and aren't very forgiving.