Obama sent the pipeline back for a lengthy and thorough review over the next 18 months, giving activists hope that TransCanada’s proposal to pipe tar sands extractions in Alberta to U.S. refineries will ultimately be shot down.
Fran Teplitz, Green America's director of strategic outreach, and David Levine, executive director of the American Sustainable Business Council, delivered a letter opposing the Keystone XL pipeline to the White House Office of Public Engagement. The letter, signed by more than 800 businesspeople, including GBN members, called for an end to the pipeline and for investment in the domestic, renewable energy sector. The letter was delivered in person on November 17, 2011 with a copy provided to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Green America continues to oppose the pipeline, as some of Congress work to advance the pipeline despite the Administration's decision to seek additional study before moving forward.
Geraldine Carter, co-founder of Climate Ride, has been working this fall with Teplitz to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline that would run through part of her state of Montana. The Administration is seeking further study on the pipeline, but House and Senate Republicans are now trying to force a decision in favor of the project. Read Carter’s op-ed that appeared in the Missoulian, calling for an end to the "KXL" and support for renewable energy development.
Organizers with Tar Sands Action, 350.org, and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) celebrated the victory in pushing the Obama administration to delay the project. But they have been quick to begin strategizing for the next fight on the issue, as well as coming battles over other extreme energy extraction projects, including new pipeline proposals and ongoing fracking.
IEN sent tribal leaders to a third White House Tribal Summit at the start of December to demand a complete shutdown of all future pipeline projects. They presented the Mother Earth Accord with details on the impacts of tar sands mining and pipeline leaks on their own communities where deposits are being mined in Alberta, and the disastrous consequences for the planet if more sequestered carbon in the bitumen is released.
The next round of tar sands pipelines are slated to go west from the Alberta deposits to the Pacific coast of British Columbia, there to be shipped via tanker to China. Organizers in Vancouver have begun to fight against the projects. The U.S. is the largest purchaser of tar sands oil, which maintains this extremely expensive and damaging method of energy extraction.
Tar Sands Action and 350.org are holding strategy sessions across the country. Watch the movement strategy session video to engage in the organizers’ national conversation.
