NWF President and CEO, Larry Schweiger, speaks at the Keystone XL public hearings

Watch NWF coverage of the press conference, public hearings, and rally here. 

Our cause is serious but the protest united us in a spirit of hope.

“Yes you can. Stop the pipeline,” chanted Keystone XL pipeline opponents on Friday, directing their call toward the White House three blocks away and echoing President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan. Opponents held a rally outside the Reagan Building, site of the State Department’s last hearing on the proposal.

The diverse coalition of landowners, ranchers, Canadian and American indigenous peoples, national security experts, conservationists, students and religious leaders urged the Obama administration to reject TransCanada’s permit application to send 800,000 barrels of crude tar sands oil through a 1,700-mile pipeline every day through Midwestern five states. Hundreds packed the Reagan Building hearing room.

Larry Schweiger, NWF president and CEO, said, “Tar sands pipelines are dangerous and put our precious natural resources at risk while making the fight against global warming all but unwinnable. At a time when America needs big investments in homegrown clean energy jobs and solutions to global warming, turning to Canada for dirty fuels is the wrong way to go.” Keystone “will jeopardize our conservation heritage,” he told the State Department panel.

Landowners Say Pipeline Is Unjust

Nebraska rancher Randy Thompson, who’s stood strong in refusing pressure from pipeline builder TransCanada decried the Keystone plan as a “big oil subsidy, subsidizing TransCanada with private land.” The planned pipeline would cross his ranch. “We won’t roll over for them,” he warned.

The tar sands ralliers gathered outside of the Ronald Reagan Building (courtesy of greenpeace.org)

Endangers Our Troops with More Oil Addiction

Retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson, who ran fuel convoys in Iraq, argued that the pipeline “keeps us addicted to oil” and that providing fuel in Afghanistan and Iraq war zones is killing American soldiers. He said that 3,500 American soldiers have died from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) while hauling oil to battlefields. And he added, America’s “oil addiction” leads to global warming which is causing instability around the world.

Whistleblower Says Industry Unsafe

Michael Klink, a civil engineer and former inspector for the first Keystone XL pipeline in North and South Dakota, described “horrendous” construction failures like concrete that lost its strength by freezing and concrete foundations lacking reinforcing rebar. Calling the company’s response to flaws as a “coverup,” he quoted pipeline operators as saying, “It’s in the middle of nowhere. Nobody will care.”

The rally featured guest speakers and live music (courtesy of greenpeace.org)

Energy Security Suffers

Loren Stultman of Oil Change International argued that the pipeline will not bring the U.S. any energy security since it will be exported to Latin American and European growth markets.

Backdoor Dealing

Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica described emails his group secured through a freedom-of-information request suggesting that State Department officials are “cozy” with TransCanada’s Washington lobbyist. Pica quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying she would be “inclined to approve it.” “Are these hearings a farce?” he asked. “Why is the State Department allowing clearing and moving endangered species in Nebraska before making a decision?”

Pipeline a Ticking Time Bomb

Susan Connolly, a Michigan mother of pre-schoolers, described the lingering aftereffects of a tar sands oil spill on the Kalamazoo River. “They don’t know how to clean it up. We’re the guinea pigs,” she explained, showing photos of multi-colored streams and skin sores from the oil’s toxic emissions.

Protesters gathered to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline at the Tar Sands rally on Friday, October 7, 2011

More Suffering for First Nations

Saying that the pipeline would cross several Native American reservations, Deborah Whiteplume of the Lakota Nation, said the project is “against Mother Earth” and would be “genocide for First Nations.” “Say no, no, no,” she cried, pounding the podium.

George Fletcher, an indigenous Canadian who has lived near tar sands mining for 40 years, attributed rare cancers to tar sands oil. Maryland psychiatrist Lisa van Sustern linked tar sands toxics like benzene and arsenic to certain lymphomas and leukemias.

The Keystone XL pipeline would start in Alberta, Canada, snake through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and end at refineries in Port Arthur, Texas.

Send a message to the Obama Administration, urging them to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from being built.

Watch NWF coverage of the press conference, public hearings, and rally below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NWF President and CEO, Larry Schweiger, at the Keystone XL press conference (photo by Marine Jaouen)

It was a festive atmosphere outside the Ronald Reagan building in downtown Washington today, as protesters, many from National Wildlife Federation, flooded the plaza with chants, songs, and demands that President Obama reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.

Opposed by top scientists and riddled with charges of lobbyist abuses, the proposed pipeline has become the most controversial environmental policy item for the Obama Administration.

Nearly 1,000 people joined a noontime event that coincided with a final U.S. State Department hearing on the pipeline inside the Reagan Building. President Obama will soon decide whether to approve the $7 billion pipeline, which would increase carbon emissions equal to adding six million cars to America’s roads.

Inside the hearing room, dozens waited to testify against the proposed project.  Among them were NWF President and CEO Larry Schweiger.

Schweiger delivered powerful testimony calling for clean energy policies from the President and the administration.

Bill McKibben at the Tar Sands Action Rally (courtesy of 350.org)

Earlier in the day, he told a bank of reporters from most major TV networks,

“Tar sands pipelines are dangerous and put our precious natural resources at risk while making the fight against global warming all but unwinnable. At a time when America needs big investments in homegrown clean energy jobs and solutions to global warming, turning to Canada for dirty fuels is the wrong way to go.”

The Obama administration is expected to decide by the end of the year whether it will approve or reject the project.

WATCH: Below is a link to Schweiger’s testimony, where he caused quite a stir by asking why Secretary of State was not presiding and underscored that it was up to the President Obama to intervene in State’s broken process.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A 2007 Enbridge pipeline explosion. Could it happen again?

As the State Department likely wraps up a comment period on the second round of environmental review for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Monday, the US Department of Transportation today issued a first-ever “Corrective Action Order” for the leak-prone one year old Keystone pipeline. The order requires TransCanada to meet 14 conditions before the pipeline can restart and raises serious doubts about TransCanada’s ability to build safe tar sands pipelines.

Ryan Salmon, NWF energy policy advisor sees it this way, “We shouldn’t supersize a spill-prone pipeline that’s proven to be a hazard.”

DOT’s Jeffrey Wiese writes in the order,

“After evaluating the foregoing preliminary findings of fact, I find that the continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment. Additionally, after considering the circumstances surrounding the May 7 and May 29, 2011 failures, the proximity of the pipeline to populated areas, water bodies, public roadways and high consequence areas, the hazardous nature of the product the pipeline transports, the ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the failures, and the potential for the conditions causing the failures to be present elsewhere on the pipeline, I find that a failure to issue this Order expeditiously to require immediate corrective action would result in likely serious harm to life, property, and the environment.”

See the order here: 320115006H_CAO_06032011

Conservations groups and members of Congress have warned that TransCanada’s pipelines are unsafe and put property and the environment at risk.

In the video below, Nebraska landowner Randy Thompson expresses grave concern about Keystone XL running so close to area water supply.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many House members say Sec. Clinton's team bungled the environmental impact statement for a controversial oil sands pipeline.

June 1 Breaking News – Thirty four House members wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today to request a meeting over the agency’s “failed” environmental review.

They issue a series of conditions State should take prior to continuing the permitting process and twice request a meeting with the Mrs. Clinton and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Among the conditions – an analysis of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, an assessment of impacts toward meeting President Obama’s goals of reducing oil imports, an analysis of alternative routes for the pipeline, and several others.

Signer Rep. Chris Murphy sits on the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee and Reps.  Weiner, Inslee, Schakowsky, and Capps sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

See the letter here: SDEIS Letter to State and EPA

The period for public comment on the new assessment ends June 6. You can make your voice heard here.