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The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was dealt a big blow in the 24 hours during which you asked your friends, family and neighbors to weigh in on it. In 24 hours, 800,000 of us raised our voices on this matter and yesterday all of your letters – that’s right, all of them – were hand delivered to Capitol Hill.
Every once in a while an opportunity comes along for all of us to be the solution. This is one of those times. We’re collecting a half million messages to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the next 24 hours.
This dirty, dangerous tar sands pipeline is not in the national interest. It’s that simple. And the United States Senate, officials of both parties, need to hear that message loud and clear and fast because some of them are threatening to push a bill as soon as Tuesday, to approve it.
Joe Nocera’s
Photo credit: EcoWatch
This week the GOP leadership, once again, has sided with Big Oil against the will of the American people. They are trying to circumvent President Obama’s decision to further investigate the impacts of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. GOP leadership is instead advocating for granting the permit now, or else they will hold up important legislation meant to benefit real people’s real lives.
They want you to believe it’s about jobs, but that’s not what the facts bear out. Just take a look.
“This is American democracy at its best: a President who listens to the voice of the people and shows the courage to do what’s right for the country. Thank you, Mr. President, for standing up to Big Oil. Thank you for standing up for us all.” – Robert Redford on Keystone XL Pipeline decision, Nov. 10, 2011.
Before President Obama entered office he promised to stand up to big oil. Now it’s up to him and his administration – not Congress – to stick to his promise and stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline once and for all. The pipeline will increase our dependence on foreign oil, create more pollution and threaten our land, water and climate. We’re going to rally in Washington D.C. on November 6th to let Obama know that he has the people’s support on this decision. If you’d like to do something about this, click to join the rally on November 6th, 2011.
When you challenge Big Oil in Houston, you can bet the industry is going to punch back. So when I wrote in the Houston Chronicle earlier this month that we should say no to the Keystone XL pipeline, I wasn’t surprised when the project’s chief executive weighed in with a different view.
The corporate rejoinder, written by Alex Pourbaix, president for energy and oil pipelines for the TransCanada Corp., purported to cite “errors” in my oped. Let’s set the record straight, point by point.
First, the Keystone XL, as proposed, would run from Canada across the width of our country to Texas oil refineries and ports. It would carry diluted bitumen, a kind of crude oil, produced from the Alberta tar sands. On those points, we all agree.
I say this is a bad idea. It would put farmers, ranchers and croplands at risk across much of the Great Plains. It would feed our costly addiction to oil. And it would wed our future to the destructive production of tar sands crude…