We knew this moment might come. The United States Senate just passed a bill trying to force through the disastrous Keystone XL Pipeline.
The future of this climate-destroying pipeline is now in President Obama's hands.
If this pipeline is built, global exports of tar sands crude will multiply dramatically. President Obama alone has the power to do the right thing and reject the pipeline, helping to keep all that dirty oil in the ground where it belongs.
President Obama need to keep his promise to veto the pipeline while he waited for the "well-established process in place" to run its course. Now that open court cases have wrapped up,
President Obama will be facing an enormous amount of pressure from powerful lobbies to sign the bill and approve the deal. This is the moment we all need to pile on and push Obama to reject this pipeline once and for all.
Tell President Obama to stand up for the climate and reject the Keystone XL Pipeline now.
The struggle to switch the world to clean energy is one of the biggest fights of our time. This is not an overstatement. Climate scientists all over the world can't emphasize enough that if we don't kick our addiction to fossil fuels, in the words of former NASA head James Hansen, it's
"game over for the climate".
Believe it or not, the time is particularly ripe to stop this thing. President Obama has already negotiated an historic climate change deal with China and with no more elections in front of him, he has no reason to tarnish his legacy now.
Keystone XL represents everything that's bad about Big Oil. It would take
millions of gallons of tar sands bitumen -- the filthiest oil on the planet -- and carry it more than a thousand miles through pristine wilderness, prime agricultural land, irreplaceable watersheds and residential communities. And we know that pipelines spill. They always spill.
What's more, investing billions in this infrastructure will
create a dangerous precedent for the future of energy. This pipeline would carry bitumen all the way from Canada to Port Arthur, Texas, where it would get exported to the highest bidder. Producers in Canada's tar sands are desperate to find global markets for their dirty product -- just a few months ago, the first shipment of tar sands oil landed on the shores of Europe.
Join the call to President Obama to follow through and stop this disastrous pipeline for once and for all.
Make no mistake: the stakes have never been higher. We have been successful in delaying this pipeline for years. Now is the moment to finish the job. Back in 2012, SumOfUs members were part of a global movement that delivered over two million testimonials to President Obama to shelve Keystone XL,
everything has been building to this week. Let's stop this pipeline-- for good. Your voice matters now more than ever. Help protect our planet, join the millions of people calling on President Obama to reject this pipeline.
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More information:
Keystone XL project approved by US Congress, BBC, Jan. 29, 2015
Obama vetoes Keystone XL bill, Washington Post, Feb 24, 2015.