President Obama has made it clear that Keystone XL can’t be in our national interest — and thus must be rejected — if it increases carbon pollution and makes climate change worse.
It has always been clear that Keystone XL will do just that. In 2014 alone, three major tar sands projects were canceled because they were simply unprofitable given rising costs, lower oil prices and lack of market access from pipelines like Keystone XL. Approving Keystone XL would open the floodgates of climate-damaging tar sands crude flowing through the U.S. — which is just what Big Oil needs to expand production.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Friday authorizing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, despite a renewed pledge by the White House to veto the legislation after a Nebraska court removed a major obstacle.
Listen to this NPR interview with Brian Jorde, the lawyer for the Nebraska landowners trying to fight for their property rights, explaining why this might actually be a blow to TransCanada.
If you have never seen the devastation caused by the mining operations in this Canadian area of Boreal Forest (or what was Boreal Forest), watch this video with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
It is time for President Obama to kill this project once, and for all time. Stop this abomination before it’s too late for our environment, our clean air and water.
I urge you to send an email to the President (we know how tuned in he is to social media) urging him to permanently settle this argument. Here is a sample letter I received from the Sierra Club that you can use and email it to Barack Obama –
Dear President Obama,
You have consistently promised to reject the Keystone XL pipeline if it would increase carbon pollution and worsen climate change. It is becoming clearer every day that climate-polluting tar sands development needs Keystone XL in order to expand. This means that your decision on Keystone XL will decide whether massive amounts of carbon pollution will be kept safely in the ground, or whether it will be burned to fuel the climate crisis.
In the year since the State Department’s final environmental impact statement was released, it has become obvious that its predictions severely underestimated Keystone XL’s impact on climate. Far from being “inevitable,” tar sands production is faltering. Three major tar sands projects have been canceled in 2014 alone due to the unprofitability of tar sands extraction. The lack of market access is part of this, and contrary to the State Department’s predictions, transporting tar sands by rail has proven not to be an economically-viable alternative to pipelines.
Even the State Department’s biased analysis considered a scenario where low oil prices would mean building Keystone XL would lead to substantial increases in tar sands production — and that scenario is now playing out. Current oil prices have fallen to around $50 a barrel and many analysts see oil prices staying low for quite some time. This is well below the price range of $92 to $145 per barrel the State Department projected would support continued tar sands expansion without Keystone XL. This carbon pollution is in addition to the carbon pollution — equivalent to adding up to 5.7 million cars to the roads — that the State Department predicted even under the most favorable market scenarios.
Mr. President, there’s no way around it — approving Keystone XL is incompatible with your promise to act on climate. You alone have the power to stop this pipeline from irreparably damaging our climate for ourselves and future generations. I urge you to stay true to your word, base your decision on the plain facts in front of you, and reject the climate-damaging Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
As you can see from this last video, Enbridge is trying to run this dirty oil through one of the most pristine areas of coastal forest in British Columbia, Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest.
Nature Needs A Voice
Comments on this entry are closed.
Wow, Larry, you’ve put together an amazing library here! I’ve watched just the first video, will check out the rest. The cover image is beautiful — despite the ugly nature of this issue. It amazes me that people can still be snowed by the “drill at home” meme when even the most rudimentary understanding points to a global oil racket, not domestic self-sufficiency and sustainability. I saw a quote the other day from a well-known person, wish I could remember who it was. But it related to the archaic industries of the fossil age, and spoke to the sunlight revolution. We need a revolution of light — both literally and metaphorically.
Thanks Ingrid. This is and has been arguably the most important environmental issue on my list since it’s inception. It is a subject that really gets me riled up. It is such an obvious hoax being played by the big oil companies, not only against the American people, but the world environment as well. If it is allowed to be built, in my opinion (and many others with more knowledge than myself) it will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes of our time.
I hope you make it back to view the “TarNation” video as it shows the totality of environmental destruction in just a small area of Alberta where the tar sands are mined.
And the last video of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is simply breathtaking. A place you would never want oil tankers to traverse.