“Politico” Ad Calls on President to Stop Dirty Fuels Pipeline

NWF, Sierra Club and NRDC are stepping up the pressure on the White House to intervene and stop construction of the massive and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline that would further addict the U.S. to dirty fuels and oil generally. The ad is running Politico today. Click here to see the ad: Download Ad Tar Sands_r6. It leads off:  “Mr. President – Stop the next oil disaster before it begins.”

 

The ad follows nationwide protests organized by public interest groups opposing the pipeline last week. Fire 1 The groups are raising alarm that the high pressure pipeline slated to use thinner steel to save costs is a heartland oil disaster waiting to happen.

The United States is the primary target for the refining and sale of dirty tar sands oil. Oil companies, and Canadian company TransCanada in particular, are fast at work building an extensive pipeline network that would deliver this dirty fuel from Alberta, Canada to every corner of our nation.

Currently, there are three pipelines in different stages of construction that are designed exclusively to transport tar sands oil to the U.S. If they are all completed and filled to capacity, the U.S. will more than triple its tar sands oil imports. Not only would this move us in the opposite direction of building a clean energy economy, it would result in increased pollution from refineries, putting local communities that already fail to meet basic clean air standards at further risk.

The U.S. Department of State is currently going through the permitting process for the latest and largest tar sands pipeline. TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would move up to 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily from Alberta, Canada to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, traversing 2,000 miles through rivers, farmland and forests from Montana to Texas. Unless we stop it, this pipeline would effectively open the entire U.S. market and international markets to this environmentally damaging and high-carbon fuel.

(Photo – image from a 2007 Minnesota pipeline fire)