Republican senators are now pushing an amendment to a massive transportation bill that would allow for the immediate construction and operation of the dangerous Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline. A vote on the amendment is expected this week, so please -- contact your senators right now and ask them to oppose the Keystone XL amendment.
If built, the 1,700-mile pipeline would transport up to 35 million gallons of oil every day from Canada's tar sands -- one of the dirtiest energy sources in the world -- to refineries in Texas, where it could be exported to global markets.
The pipeline would increase our dependence on the fossil fuels driving global warming and directly threaten pristine wildlife habitat, freshwater supplies for millions of people and at least 20 endangered species, including whooping cranes and pallid sturgeons.
Please join the Center for Biological Diversity and ask your senators to stand up against the Keystone XL amendment now.
SUBJECT: Please Oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline
Dear Senator,
I am writing to ask you to oppose the amendment to the transportation bill that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
The proposed pipeline would cross U.S. wetlands, rivers, agricultural and drinking-water resources and wildlife habitat. An earlier Keystone pipeline has already leaked 14 times since 2010, and the Keystone XL pipeline is certain to spill as well. The risks of approving the Keystone XL pipeline are simply too great. Indeed, many landowners are resisting eminent domain because they don't want their land polluted by spills.
Canada's tar-sands development is one of the most destructive and dangerous activities on Earth. First, extracting oil from Canada's tar sands destroys boreal forest and wetlands where migratory birds breed; second, burning that oil creates massive, additional global warming pollution that will help commit us to devastating climate damage.
If this weren't bad enough, the Keystone XL pipeline will allow for export of dirty tar-sands oil to the global market. The American public will bear all of the pipeline's risks to line the pockets of multinational oil companies.
I urge you to reject the amendment to the transportation bill that approves this controversial and harmful pipeline.
