The fight against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has reached another crucial turning point. Big Oil has teamed up with Republicans in Congress to push a bill that would strip away decision making authority from the President and allow the Senate to resurrect the project.
As rumors fly around Capitol Hill, Keystone opponents are gearing up for an all out push to keep Keystone XL off the table. LNS is joining allies to start a united 24 hour push to send over 500,000 messages to the Senate by Tuesday at noon.
Oil companies and other pipeline advocates argued that the nation must choose between jobs and the environment. But in an era of climate crisis, this is a false choice: there will be no jobs on a dead planet. Building the Keystone pipeline will throw open the spigot to the Tar Sands in Canada, considered the dirtiest oil on the planet, and drive us ever closer to climate catastrophe.
Hurricanes, floods, and droughts are already having a devastating effect on American jobs, and that is nothing compared to what will happen in the future if Tar Sands carbon and the other greenhouse gasses that cause climate change are not rapidly reduced. The way to solve the economic catastrophe facing our working people is to go to work solving our climate catastrophe.
But at the same time, workers need jobs now. That’s why it is urgent that we begin investing in a new sustainable economy that puts people to work mitigating climate change. Rather than polluting pipelines, we need to create ‘climate jobs’ that retrofit buildings, green our eroding water and transportation systems, and build a new alternative infrastructure for the future.
So we are asking LNS members to join the 24-hour blitz to gather 500,000 signatures by noon on Tuesday. LNS and other pipeline opponents are rapidly assembling an online army of Davids to take on Big Oil’s Goliath. Bloggers are lining up to help spread the word. Celebrities are preparing to tweet up a storm. Activists in DC are preparing to deliver box after box of signatures to the Senate on Tuesday morning.
President Obama did the right thing when he stood up to Big Oil and stopped Keystone XL. Now it’s time for the Senate to follow his lead. The sustainability movement might not win this round of the Keystone fight — Big Oil has more money than God, after all. But one thing’s for certain: if any Senator thought that the movement would roll over and stop fighting Keystone XL, they’ve got another thing coming.
List of Partners
Credo Mobile, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, Moveon, League of Conservation Voters, CCAN, Solar Mosaic, Environmental Action, Center for Biological Diversity, Labor Network for Sustainability, Oil Change, Bold Nebraska, Rainforest Action Network, US Climate Action Network, Patagonia, Indigenous Environmental Network, Public Citizen, Green for All, Sierra Club, Rebuild the Dream, Energy Action Coalition