Stop the Pipeline

[Karl Frederick]

It seems Big Oil will stop at nothing to get its way. Just weeks after President Obama derailed the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the oil giants’ Congressional allies are now planning to hold spending legislation hostage unless this destructive project is approved. In the House, Republican leaders are trying to force approval of the Keystone XL by attaching it to a bill extending unemployment benefits and the payroll-tax cut -- a bill they know President Obama urgently wants to sign. And they’re not stopping there. They’re looking to load up this fast-moving economic bill with other pro-polluter provisions that would otherwise stand little chance of passing both houses on their own. Tell your members of Congress to reject these cynical attempts to fast track the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and other anti-environmental measures by attaching them to last-minute spending legislation. In response to the public outcry you and I helped galvanize, the Obama Administration has already started a new review of the Keystone XL’s true environmental costs. Any thorough review will unmask the Keystone XL as a boon to Big Oil and a disaster-in-the-making for the rest of us. The pipeline would drive more destruction of the Boreal forest, turbo-charge global warming, threaten water supplies in the heartland, raise gas prices and lock America into the dirtiest oil on the planet for decades to come. And that’s exactly why the oil giants want this project railroaded through Congress before that review is completed. Please help stop them! Tell your members of Congress to reject any attempt to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and ram through other pro-polluter riders that would sacrifice our health and environment. Thank for you taking action at this critical moment. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council