Click sign letter to Senators to oppose Keystone XL pipeline - action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16719 Dear Senator, I write to you today to urge you to oppose S. 2280. This irresponsible legislation would grant approval to build the Keystone XL pipeline, waiving numerous longstanding laws and processes. Congress is not set up to be a permitting authority. It is especially inappropriate for Congress to approve a project that doesnt even have an approved legal route. The oil that would be carried by this dangerous pipeline is the most environmentally destructive on the planet. Extracting and upgrading a barrel of tar sands into synthetic crude oil requires two to four barrels of freshwater, and causes approximately three times more greenhouse gas emissions than producing a barrel of conventional crude oil. This accounts for the 81 percent difference in well to wheel emissions between tar sands and average oil used in the U.S. With climate change already harming our communities and pocketbooks across America, now is the time for clean energy, not the expansion of dirty energy such as tar sands. This massive pipeline would pass through one of our country’s largest and most important aquifers, threatening the health and livelihoods of thousands of Americans. Approximately 571,000 workers are directly employed in the agricultural sector in the states along the Keystone XL corridor. We have seen in the past few years that even new tar sands pipelines spill with alarming frequency -- TransCanada’s Keystone 1 spilled 14 times in its first year of operation. The risks that come with these pipelines are simply not in our national interest. Serious questions remain about tar sands pipeline’s safety, the frequency with which they will spill, and the public health impacts resulting from the inevitable spills. We have seen the ramifications of the unanswered questions about tar sands pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas, and four years ago in Marshal, Michigan. The impacts of these spills are still being felt -- almost four years later, the Kalamazoo River still isnt cleaned up. The Keystone XL pipeline would benefit oil companies at the expense of the American people. TransCanada, the Canadian company proposing to build the Keystone XL pipeline, is on record before the Canadian Energy Board stating that the project would, in fact, increase the price of oil in the Midwest, by manipulating the supply of tar sands oil in the U.S. Additionally, studies have shown that much of the product from the pipeline would be exported out of the country. Despite these risks, S. 2280 would undermine numerous environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. Americans should not be asked to shoulder the risks that come with this massive pipeline, so that oil companies can reap the reward. We urge you to oppose S. 2280. Sincerely,
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 19:43:06 +0000
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