In case you missed it, the U.S. State Department announced yesterday they have rejected TransCanada’s permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. This is a huge victory – and we can’t thank you enough for all your hard work to make this happen.
Our CEO Maggie L. Fox issued a press statement yesterday – take a look.
Statement on Obama Administration’s Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline Permit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 18, 2012
Washington, D.C. ⎯ The U.S. State Department announced today they have rejected TransCanada’s permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The extension of the pipeline was designed to carry oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast in Texas.
Maggie L. Fox, President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project, issued the following statement:
“This announcement is a victory in the fight against dumping more carbon pollution into our atmosphere and a positive step towards fuel choices for a sustainable future. If built, this pipeline would bring one of the dirtiest fuels on earth all the way from Alberta, Canada to the U.S. gulf coast for almost 50 years. A lifecycle analysis from “well to wheels” shows that oil from Canadian tar sands has a larger carbon footprint than any other fossil-fuel based transportation fuel on the planet. The EPA estimates that annual well-to-tank carbon pollution from the Keystone XL pipeline could be as much as 82% higher than average crude refined in America. This amounts to an additional 27 million metric tons of carbon pollution, the equivalent of adding roughly 4.8 million cars to our roads. If we are going to solve the climate crisis, we cannot go down this road.”
“Instead of building pipelines to transport the world’s dirtiest transportation fuel 1,700 miles, we need to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency. Clean energy is already the fastest growing industry in the U.S. today and one of the fastest growing worldwide. We have a choice to make about our energy future: stay with the dirty fuels of the past, or move forward with clean energy.
“We still have a lot of work to do in the fight against climate change but today we can breathe a little easier now that plans for this polluting pipeline have been put on a shelf.”
For more information on the Climate Reality Project go to: climaterealityproject.org
Jan Moore
January 21st
No, this was just a rejection of the permit to build the extension of the Keystone project to the Gulf of Mexico. This wasn’t a rejection of the enire project. This extension can still be reapplied for and approved as long as it doesn’t go over the Ogalalla Acquifer. But of course, that will happen after the election. This is a temporary stay so to speak, because these vipers in the fossil fuel industry and their minions are not going to give up. And to be honest, I am incensed because of the spin on this on all sides because it is an election year. Republicans are saying this will now cost a huge amount of jobs when that simply is not true and Democrats will spin it to make Obama look like a hero, which sorry I don’t see him as on this. Shell will still be allowed to drill the Arctic, and BP once again allowed access to the Gulf with fracking as well. And this entire XL project has been used as a political football from the beginning and the climate has exactly been what has been forgotten in all of this.
Did you know that the Alberta Clipper line was already built from Alberta to Wisconsin and already pumps tarsands here? I also believe there is another one that goes to Illinois. Emissions went up 5.9% last year and the tarsands are still going strong XL or no XL. The only saving grace of this is that the Ogallala Aquifer has been spared. Unfortunately, I have such a forboding feeling that Transcanada will reapply after the election, get another permit and build that pipeline somewhere else here. This is the epitome of what the Occupy movement is talking about and what we have to fight.
We should be building a “solar pipeline” down that route to supply clean energy to our country. But will that be the obvious lead in conversation from this?Will shutting down the tarsands actually be the true focus now as it should be to avoid “game over?” So while there will be those who will celebrate this as if Obama actually cured all of the world’s ills, some of us who don’t use this as a political wedge see it for what it is and that he shouldn’t now be so cocky to think he can rest on his laurels. This planet is in serious trouble as the tarsands continue and we aren’t talking and doing nearly enough because we can’t even admit we have an addiction!
Jan Moore
January 21st
Oh, and just to add: bitumen crud is already filling our tanks and being refined in this country in about 50 refineries. I think it is disingenuous to lead people on in statements made about this as if it has been stopped in total when it hasn’t, simply for political reasons.
Andrew Leitch
January 29th
I find it interesting that the Keystone issue has become such a lightening rod of controversy. I am firmly believe that climate change is a severe and dangerous problem but I don’t believe that attacking delivery of tar sands oil is the solution. Oil from the tar sands is a supply that is meeting a demand. Attacks against the pipeline is addressing the symptom and not the cause. As the other commenters point out, tar sands fuel is already reaching consumers; the delivery system or pipeline is incidental.
If we ask ourselves why tar sands is considered worse than other sources, the inevitable response is that the tars sands are dirtier source of petroleum. What we are really upset about is that the oil value does not include the significant cost of the negative externalities, most notably GHG emissions. If GHG emissions are appropriately included into the cost of business, issues such as the Keystone pipeline dissolve for the simple reason that companies such as TransCanada will not be build infrastructure that is unprofitable. My suggestion to fellow concerned citizens is to focus on promoting binding international climate legislation. If this is done properly, issues such as Keystone will cease to exist.