By Alex Plough November 21, 2014
Keystone XL Pipeline Protest at White House, © tarsandaction
Keystone Setback
The political battle over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would run from Canada to the US Gulf Coast reached a climax on Tuesday after Senate Democrats voted against legislation that would have required its construction—by a single vote.
The result was a victory for environmentalists who oppose the project given the environmental damage that extracting petroleum from Alberta’s oil sands would have caused, and the risks of pipeline leaks.
But victory may be temporary. The pipeline’s operator, TransCanada Corp, and Republicans, who will take majority control of the Senate in the next Congress, vowed to return to the fight next year.
Vox has produced a handy explainer of “9 questions about the Keystone XL pipeline debate you were too embarrassed to ask”.
Uber-Embarassment
Ride sharing outfit Uber is being slammed in the media this week after vice president Emil Michael suggested using private investigators to smear a journalist critical of the $18 billion start-up.
Last Friday, the Uber VP attended a private dinner where he told an influential New York crowd that the company should consider hiring a $1 million team of opposition researchers to spread details about the personal life of Pando Daily founder and editor-in-chief Sarah Lacy. (Pando Daily is a website dedicated to covering Silicon Valley tech startups.) He later apologized for the comments, and said he thought they were off the record.
Though a number of journalists attended the event, such as USA Today columnist Michael Wolff, only Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith reported the chilling threats.
Lacy had written a series of articles documenting some of Uber’s more questionable business practices, such as inadequate background checks for its drivers. She had also branded its corporate culture misogynistic.
But the firm’s Nixonian response along with its recent hire of former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe raises uncomfortable questions about the unchecked power of the tech industry, as well as the business media’s willingness to hold it to account.
On Thursday Lacy gave her side of the story to Bloomberg TV, claiming that “in online media today, journalists are confused about where their loyalties lie”.
Oil Price Plunge
Record US petroleum production has pushed the price of oil down by over 30% in the last five months. Gulf oil producers have so far resisted cutting their own production to reverse the glut and give the price a boost.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg journalist Rich Miller examined the geopolitical consequences of this trend, showing how it has enabled the US to maintain sanctions against Iran and keep up economic pressure on Russia.
Meanwhile Reuter’s analyst John Kemp looked at the options for the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). His take? “None of them are good”. The Upshot’s Neil Irwin recommended that oil producers struggling with low prices take a page from Kentucky’s Bourbon distilleries.
Bob Marley, in concert, July 6, 1980, Dalymount Park, Dublin. ©Eddie / monosnaps
Up in Smoke: Selling Marley’s Dope
A Seattle-based private equity firm is looking to cash in on the blooming consumer market for recreational marijuana by launching one of the first global cannabis brands.
This week, Privateer Holdings struck a deal with the estate of an icon of the cannabis subculture, Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley, to market a new range of plants and marijuana accessories.
Next year the venture, called Marley Natural, will start selling “heirloom Jamaican cannabis strains” based on those once preferred by the legendary performer. BIt’s hard to know how Marley, who died in 1981 of skin cancer, would feel about the new venture. Marley was anti-capitalist, but favored legalizing marijuana, something he sang about in one of his songs.
Correlation, Not Causation
Did you know that the divorce rate in Maine between 2000 and 2009 correlates almost perfectly with the per capita consumption in pounds of margarine in the US over the same period? It’s true.
For more bizarre coincidences in the world of data, head to the “Spurious Correlations” by author and law student Tyler Vigen. But remember the statistician’s maxim, “Correlation does not imply causation”!
