The Obama administration has announced that it will reject the permit for a 1,700-mile oil pipeline project right through America's heartland.
This announcement is great news for our environment and our clean energy future. It is another nail in the coffin for this terrible project.
Please send a message to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today. Thank them for rejecting the permit for the destructive Keystone XL pipeline.
SUBJECT: Thank You for Your Leadership on Keystone
Dear [Decision Maker],
Thank you for your leadership on the Keystone XL pipeline project and for your courage in rejecting its permit.
President Obama had it exactly right when he shared his concerns about the pipeline with a Nebraska television station a couple of months ago:
"We need to make sure that we have energy security and that we aren't just relying on Middle East sources. But there's a way of doing that and making sure that the health and safety of the American people and folks in Nebraska are protected."
Simply put, the Keystone XL project will not protect the folks in Nebraska, the American people, or our environment.
Among other things, the pipeline would have:
-- Transported tar sands oil an exceptionally dirty kind of oil known as diluted bitumen 1,700 miles from Canada's boreal forest to American refineries in Texas.
-- Cut across the already-stressed Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in the world and a critical source of fresh water for more than 2 million Americans and the U.S. High Plains' agricultural industry part of America's "breadbasket."
-- Bisected the Sandhills of Nebraska, 1.3 million acres of wetlands and home to more than 1,000 species of mammals, birds, fish, and plants.
-- Accelerated the refining of the gooey toxic tar sands oil, which generates more global warming pollution per barrel than conventional oil.
It was a terrible idea and I thank you for standing up for our communities and our clean energy and climate future.
