Friends,
Earlier today, the Nebraska Supreme Court avoided ruling on the current Keystone XL route in Nebraska, allowing the pipeline route to stand in the state.
Landowners had been counting on the courts to protect them from TransCanada’s bullying attempts to run tar sands through their homes. As happens all too often with Big Oil, our government institutions failed, allowing a risky route through sensitive land and water.
But where the Nebraska court fell short, President Obama can stand tall. He’s promised to veto legislation to approve the pipeline, and he’s talking more and more like someone who wants to reject it. Now he has a chance to show what his words are worth, and act to protect land, water and climate by rejecting Keystone XL.
Because of this breaking news, we’re moving up our planned “Reject Keystone XL Now” petition delivery to the White House. We want to show the President that a huge number of people are counting on him to stand firm on this.
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, we need you now — click here to add your name before the delivery: act.350.org/sign/reject-keystone-xl-now/
President Obama has said for months that he was only waiting on the legal process to finish before deciding about the pipeline. If he wanted, he could reject Keystone XL today.
Nebraska has been ground zero for resistance to Keystone XL from the very beginning, and farmers, ranchers and tribal leaders will continue their amazing work no matter what the Nebraska Supreme Court says. And we will continue to fight alongside them. The pipeline still doesn’t have a permit in South Dakota, where the No KXL Dakota alliance of tribal leaders and landowners are also taking the fight to Big Oil.
The climate impact of Keystone XL would be enormous, cutting transportation costs for tar sands producers and unleashing a flood of tar sands onto world markets.
That means the pipeline fails President Obama’s climate test, and the case for rejection is clear — and I think he knows it. But the longer he waits to act, the more likely it is that Congress will interfere.
President Obama can end this fiasco now by rejecting the pipeline. Click here to add your name to the petition before we deliver it.
It has been an honor to stand alongside you in this fight. Let’s finish it.
Duncan