Friends,
Just now, the House of Representatives just voted to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, sending the bill to the President’s desk. This vote was a charade: Keystone XL is the President’s decision, and he pledged to veto this legislation — and we fully expect him to do so right away.
What’s more, Big Oil’s friends in Congress don’t have the votes to override the President’s veto.
Presidents don’t veto legislation all that often. This would be only President Obama’s 3rd veto in his entire Presidency. Once he vetoes this bill, the pipeline won’t be stopped, so we hope he will then use his power to reject the pipeline outright.
We wouldn’t be here today were it not for the unbelievable growth of a powerful climate movement, fighting on absolutely every front against Keystone XL, the tar sands, and the fossil fuel industry. We went back and tracked down information on over 750 #noKXL actions from the past 4 years, and put them all together on one map so that we can show the world how powerful we are.
Big Oil can buy votes in Congress but they can’t buy a movement — and it’s a movement that will make the difference in this fight. If you want to know why the President is pledged to veto this bill, here’s a glimpse of the movement that’s built over the past 4 years:
Map Key:
Stars: Major actions and events
Big Blue pins: Presidential events
Yellow dots: Draw the Line event (9/21/13)
White dot: FEIS vigil (2/3/14)
Green dot: Reject Keystone XL Now rally (1/13/15)
Red dot: Submitted event
There are over 750 actions with photos on this map, and we probably missed a lot too — if you see something missing, you can add your own to the map as well.
Once he’s vetoed this bill, the President’s next step should be to immediately reject the pipeline permit once and for all.
Right around the same time that the President will likely veto the bill, over 400 communities across 6 continents will take to the streets calling for divestment from the entire fossil fuel industry as part of Global Divestment Day. The divestment movement has already shifted tens of billions out of fossil fuels, and forced Big Oil to spend millions to try to protect their image.
We’ve not won yet. But tomorrow will be one more step on the long path to victory. Thank you for everything you’ve done — I can’t wait for what’s next.
Sara