Tell President Obama: Don’t ‘expedite’ Keystone XL

Yesterday, the White House applauded news that TransCanada would go forward with building the southern leg of Keystone XL, promising to help expedite the permits necessary to complete the pipeline’s route from Cushing, Okla. to the refineries and shipping ports of Port Arthur, Texas.

Breaking up the pipeline in this way is quite simply TransCanada’s latest end run around the State Department’s formal review process, which is required for any pipeline that crosses an international border. It will also make it easier for the company to trample property rights and immediately seize Americans’ land by eminent domain.

President Obama’s support for the southern leg isn’t a surprise — he specifically mentioned this project as he was rejecting the full pipeline last month based on insufficient time to conduct a thorough review.

But it is deeply disappointing that, just a month later, he would signal a willingness to backtrack on even that minimal condition, saying he would “take every step possible to expedite the necessary federal permits.”

The southern portion of Keystone XL carries the same risks of oil spills on American water and soil, and brings the tar sands carbon bomb one big step closer to being unleashed across the world. President Obama must insure that the Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers do not cut any corners in evaluating this project, and consider it’s full impacts on the climate.

Tell President Obama: Don’t expedite approval of the southern leg of Keystone XL or cut any corners to force this project through.

While the southern portion of Keystone XL does not turn up the spigot of tar sands bitumen that can be transported out of Alberta, Canada, it does ultimately accomplish the biggest goal of Keystone XL — to bring the landlocked tar sands to shipping ports and the global market so it can be burned across the globe, leading to disastrous climate impacts.

This should be enough for the President to publicly reject this project. Instead he’s not only applauding it, he wants to “expedite” it.

Instead of criticizing TransCanada’s bullying as it runs rough shod over the private property rights of Americans, President Obama is now acting to enable TransCanada’s ability to seize land via eminent domain.

President Obama can’t keep trying to have it both ways. He can’t claim to want to move our nation away from fossil fuels and fight climate change while he paves the way for the dirtiest oil on earth to be shipped and burned across the globe. He can’t try to appeal to environmental voters by rejecting this pipeline on an insufficient evaluation, and then turn around and allow the pipeline developer to circumvent the approval process, even accelerating the minimal process that remains.

Tell President Obama: Don’t expedite approval of Keystone XL or cut any corners to force this project through.

We knew this project would be back, and we meant it when we said we’d fight it everywhere, every step of the way.

There will be many local and national opportunities in the upcoming approval fight — but for now the least President Obama can do is maintain even the minimal commitment he made to us when he rejected Keystone XL just a few weeks ago.

A Victory on KXL — Now it’s Time to Lead on Climate

A huge victory against Keystone XL… and the fight continues.

This is why activism matters.

Six months ago, the Obama Administration was set to approve one of the single most environmentally disastrous fossil fuel projects imaginable.

Today, the Keystone XL pipeline is dead! Designed to bring filthy tar sands sludge from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas so that oil companies can profit by selling the oil overseas — it was dealt a severe setback yesterday when President Obama said no to an election year blackmail threat by the American Petroleum Institute and its lackeys in Congress.

But President Obama didn’t reject Keystone XL because he wanted to. Or because he thought it was the right thing to do. Or because he thought it would help his reelection campaign. He rejected it because you made him do it.

It’s a victory for activists. But because the President rejected the pipeline on a narrow technicality,¹ in no way has he set down a clear marker against the pipeline or the carbon bomb that burning Canadian tar sands oil in China represents.

We want to thank the many groups and thousands of activists, who, following the inspiring call of Bill McKibben, joined us in putting massive public pressure on the President. In fact, CREDO waged the single largest activism campaign in our history.²

It was this pressure that forced President Obama to initially delay the decision in November. And it was this pressure, combined with the Republicans’ overzealous and irresponsible demand of a 60-day deadline that forced him yesterday to reject the pipeline permit.

Our pressure overcame the lies and propaganda of Republicans and oil giants, and their threats of “huge political consequences” if he didn’t approve it.

Rejecting this pipeline was the right thing to do. But by rejecting it purely on a technicality, there are many things President Obama did not do:

• He did not close the door to this pipeline once and for all. In fact, he specifically opened the door to the southern portion of Keystone XL, which would allow this oil to be exported overseas — the real reason TransCanada wanted Keystone XL in the first place.
• He did not explain the imperative of stopping not just this project, but others that will expedite disastrous warming. Just the opposite — he touted the need to expand oil and gas drilling and made no mention of clean energy.
• He did not refute the lies of Republicans and polluters, whose biggest “jobs plan” is a foreign oil pipeline whose chief purpose is to export oil overseas.

The time to lead us away from dirty fuels and prevent escalating global catastrophes from climate change is here. And President Obama still can.

Tell President Obama: It’s time to lead on climate. Make the case in your State of the Union Address. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Until President Obama makes a clear and compelling case to the American people for sweeping action to reduce our dependence on any and all fossil fuels, the pace of our transition will remain slower than what is required to stem the onrushing danger of climate pollution.

Until he refutes the false choice presented by Big Oil and Republicans — that we must choose between a clean energy future and a stable economy — he empowers and remains vulnerable to their attacks.

Until he shows his commitment to clean energy over dirty fossil fuels, the energy of progressive activists will be spent fighting individual bad decisions, instead of pushing to support needed progressive policies.

And ultimately, until President Obama takes the opportunity for a true moment of leadership that publicly raises the stakes on the fight to stabilize our climate, the State of our Union will remain deeply clouded.

Tell President Obama: It’s time to lead on climate. Make the case in your State of the Union Address.

Click here to automatically sign the petition.

For now, it is clear that we must fight for every victory. It’s also clearer than ever that when we fight, we can win.

Let’s use this momentum to push for even broader victories to bring about the type of future that you and I know is still possible.

Thank you for being part of this historic victory.

Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. You can read President Obama’s statement rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline on a narrow technicality here.
2. CREDO activists submitted 1,188,106 petition signatures and public comments to the White House, the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, House and Senate leadership, the Nebraska legislature, and TransCanada. CREDO members also made 36,360 calls to the White House, Obama for America, and House and Senate offices, organized a protest with more than 1,000 people outside of an Obama fundraiser in San Francisco and submitted 156,615 public comments to the State Department as part of the formal hearing process on the project. Hundreds of CREDO Activists were arrested as part of White House civil disobedience and hundred attended public hearings along the proposed pipeline route.