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For Immediate Release, March 1, 2013
Contact: Bill Snape, 202-536-9351, bsnape@biologicaldiversity.org
Obama Allows Dirty, Dangerous Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline to Move Forward
State Department Urged to Declare Keystone Not in National Interest
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration today took the next potential step toward approval of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, despite the heavy toll the pipeline and its oil will take on the climate crisis, wildlife and the environment. Some 50,000 people protested outside the White House last month in opposition to the pipeline. Today’s announcement came in the form of a supplemental environmental impact statement on Keystone XL.
“If President Obama is serious about confronting the deepening climate crisis, he needs to take Keystone XL off the table,” said Bill Snape of the Center for Biological Diversity. “There’s simply no way to be in favor of this dirty, dangerous project and still think we’re going to avert climate catastrophe. The State Department should acknowledge the truth and declare this climate-killing pipeline to be not in the national interest.”
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would, every day, carry up to 35 million gallons of oil strip-mined from Canada’s “tar sands” – some of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The pipeline would cross the heart of the Midwest and deliver oil to the Gulf of Mexico, where most of it would exported to other countries. Along the way, the pipeline would cut through rivers, streams and prime wildlife habitat, including habitat for at least 20 imperiled species such as the whooping crane and pallid sturgeon.
Strip mining of oil from Alberta’s tar sands is also destroying tens of thousands of acres of boreal forest and polluting hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Athabasca River, in the process creating toxic ponds so large they can be seen from space.
Extraction and refinement of tar-sands oil produces two times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil and represents a massive new source of fossil fuels that leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called “game over” for our ability to avoid a climate catastrophe.
TransCanada’s existing Keystone I tar sands pipeline has reportedly leaked 14 times since it went into operation in June 2010, including one spill of 24,000 gallons. The State Department’s environmental reviews have pointed out that spills from Keystone XL are likely to occur, estimating that there could be as many as about 100 spills over the course of the pipeline’s lifespan.
“Oil spills, environmental damage, wildlife put in harm’s way, a doubling-down on the climate crisis: It’s hard to understand why the Obama government is even considering this project,” said Snape.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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Boehner: Keystone XL Pipeline Should Be Approved
AP | By By MATTHEW DALY Posted: 03/02/2013 3:23 am EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new State Department report is the latest evidence that the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada should be approved, supporters say.
The draft report, issued Friday, finds there would be no significant environmental impact to most resources along the proposed route from western Canada to refineries in Texas. The report also said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change.
The new report “again makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. After four years of what he called “needless delays,” Boehner said it is time for President Barack Obama “to stand up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone pipeline.”
Environmentalists see the State Department report in a vastly different light.
They say it was inadequate and failed to account for climate risks posed by the pipeline. The report also is based on a false premise, opponents say — namely, that tar sands in western Canada will be developed for oil production regardless of whether the Keystone XL pipeline is approved.
“Americans are already suffering from the consequences of global warming, from more powerful storms like Hurricane Sandy to drought conditions currently devastating the Midwest and Southwest,” said Daniel Gatti of the group Environment America. Production of oil from Canadian tar sands could add as much as 240 billion metric tons of global warming pollution to the atmosphere, Gatti said, a potential catastrophe that would hasten the arrival of the worst effects of global warming.
Gatti and other opponents said development of the vast tar sands is far from certain, despite assurances by the project’s supporters.
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Tell Me Again How Different The Republicans Are From The Democrats?
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President Obama Marks 40th Anniversary of Earth Day
Uploaded on Apr 12, 2010
President Obama speaks about forty years of Earth Day and his Administrations efforts to fight for a healthier environment.
I wonder where respect for the citizens who oppose contamination of our water and air went??
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[94] Jail Torturers Not Whistleblowers, Oceans: Humanity’s Landfill, War on Terror Killed Liberty
Published on Jan 31, 2013
Abby Martin Breaks the Set on Whistleblower John Kiriakou’s Fight for Truth, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and Post 9/11 Culture of Fear.
LIKE Breaking the Set @ http://fb.me/BreakingTheSet
FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin
EPISODE BREAKDOWN: On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin talks to former CIA official, and torture whistleblower, John Kiriakou, about his prison sentence and Obama’s war on whistleblowers. Abby then takes a look at America’s #1 product, trash, and US’ contribution the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. BTS wraps up the show with a discussion with Media Roots journalist, Robbie Martin, about the gradual deterioration of civil liberties in the US and its relevance to past times of war.
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Obama claims EPA regulations create jobs
Uploaded on Jan 17, 2012
New audio from the President shameless supports the unregulated and unelected body of the Environmental Protection Agency. Apparently, the outlandish regulations create jobs…?
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Obama’s Call for Natural Gas Drilling “A Painful Moment” for Communities Exposed to Fracking
Uploaded on Feb 2, 2012
democracynow.org — Last week, President Obama’s called the United States “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” in a speech about boosting domestic energy production. That concerns Wyoming farmer John Fenton, who already has more than two dozen gas wells on his property. The Environmental Protection Agency ruled in December that water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, was a result natural gas extraction and the controversial technique known as fracking. “Things changed pretty rapidly,” Fenton says, after fracking took place on his land near Pavillion, and now has to ship in water for drinking. “It didn’t take long to notice a significant impacts to the water, the change to smell like diesel fuel, methane was bubbling in the water. We had neighbors that actually had livestock die from drinking the water and we also saw really huge impacts to our way of life. The farm fields are full of wellheads now that we have to work around. We have people coming and going off our property 24 hours a day, and we’ve seen over a 50 percent devaluation in the value of our land.” We also speak with filmmaker Josh Fox, who was arrested for attempting to recording a Congressional hearing over the EPA report on Pavillion. Fox is producing a sequel to his award-winning film, “Gaslands,” about the impact of fracking across the United States.
Clean water is it ? Seems like the usual duplicitous ” DO as I say and Not as I do” BS to me . So much for Change we can believe in , huh ?
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Steve Horn On Obama’s EPA Censoring A Damning Fracking Report
Published on Feb 1, 2013
Steve Horn from DeSmogBlog discusses how President Obama’s EPA censored a damning scientific study on hydro-fracking.
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Seems to me like a whole lot of wishful thinking and mud slinging going on to cover up the fact that both sides stand for the same damn agenda! Can anyone say Psy Ops ???
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Stop Obama’s War on Fracking — WRAG PAC for Mahoning Valley Energy
Published on Aug 4, 2012
The Obama Administration and the EPA have waged war on domestic energy for too long. Obama has already destroyed the coal industry, and he is out to prevent fracking at every turn. Do not support the anti-energy president this fall, vote for the pro-energy candidates who will support energy jobs in the Valley and abroad.
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Related articles
- Boehner: No Reason To Block Keystone XL Pipeline (dfw.cbslocal.com)
- U.S. supporters say report shows no reason to block Keystone XL pipeline (metronews.ca)
- Boehner: Keystone XL Pipeline Should Be Approved (huffingtonpost.com)
- Boehner: No reason to block Keystone XL pipeline (rapidcityjournal.com)
- Boehner: No reason to block Keystone XL pipeline (cbsnews.com)
- Climate-change activists jeer as U.S. report says Keystone XL pipeline would have no major environmental impacts (theprovince.com)
- Keystone XL pipeline report slammed by activists and scientists (guardian.co.uk)
- State Dept: Keystone XL would have small impact on climate, tar sands (washingtonpost.com)
- Pipeline won’t cause major harm: study (news.yahoo.com)
- State Department: Keystone XL wouldn’t expand Canada’s oil sands. (fuelfix.com)
Great read, still reading and listening. just tweeted it for you through a generic twitter account a few use. Hope that is ok.
Thanks, it is much appreciated
No problem.
Can you follow this please? http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/
I don’t get notifications from you. Just emails.
Thanks
Shaun
I am following.
Strange that you wouldn’t be getting notifications unless the options have not been set on your list.