Activists carry a 500-foot inflated “pipeline” at the head of the crowd (Photo: Avelino Maestas/NWF)

Often, inside the Beltway, it can be hard to separate the noise and chatter out from what what Americans really care about, and Keystone XL definitely falls into that category. The oil industry has spent years fabricating a series of myths around the pipeline: that it will boost U.S. energy security, for example, or take a big bite out of the unemployment rate, or that it’s an environmentally safe project. None of those are true, of course, but they somehow gave Congress the idea that Keystone would be a great idea, and put President Obama in between a rock (Big Oil and their bottomless wallets) and a hard place (the coalition of conservationists, tribes, and landowners who oppose the pipeline).

Photo: Peter LaFontaine/NWF

Last week we told you why we think President Obama will make the right call and stand strong against tar sands, but it’s crucial that we don’t turn the volume down yet. Already, groups are planning another rally for Presidents Day (February 18th) so keep an eye out for more information soon…Because who knows? Maybe your voice will be the one that scraps this project once and for all. Even better, the NFL season will be over by then so I won’t have to choose between pizza celery and keeping the world safe for people and wildlife.

Stand up against tar sands! Tell President Obama to say “NO!” to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Photo: Elvert Barnes

Only, last I checked, that hasn’t happened yet. We will hear the White House’s decision in a few short months, and here are five reasons why the country should expect a much different outcome:

1. The industry and its supporters have been wrong before

Pundits have long assumed that this pipeline was a done deal, but conventional wisdom isn’t the same as insight. Around this time last year, National Journal magazine polled “energy insiders” to see whether they thought KXL would get rubber stamped. More than 70% of these experts (I use the term loosely) said it would be approved before 2012, characterized by this sentiment:

“They’ve delayed it for a year to appease Big Green, but they will issue the permit in 2011.”

A month later, right before the massive, 12,000 person anti-KXL rally at the White House, the drumbeat was the same:

For the Obama administration, having an answer to high [gas] prices will be much more important in 2012 than it is today,” Kevin Book. managing director at the research firm ClearView Energy Partners, told CNN Money. ”We think it will get approved.”

We’re pretty close to throwing out those 2012 calendars and the pipeline still hasn’t been approved. Just sayin’.

2. Keystone XL has become a political liability

Opposition to tar sands is strong—and getting stronger (Photo: Lauri Gorham)

Asked to pick the highest priority to help solve America’s energy challenges, twice as many voters select renewable energy like wind and solar power (38 percent) than any other choice. Independents favor wind and solar over fossil fuels by a 4-to-1 margin – 48 percent pick renewable energy while just 12 percent select the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and only 11 percent prioritize more oil and gas drilling on America’s public lands.

A lot of this is due to Hurricane Sandy, which was a real wake-up call to a nation that had put climate change on the back burner for a couple of years. In an article for Forbes after the release of the poll, John Zogby noted the widespread and growing concern about extreme weather:

These results show the dramatic impact 2012′s extreme weather has had across party lines, with half of Republicans, 73 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats saying they’re worried about the growing cost and risks of extreme weather disasters fueled by climate change.

Corporate polluters have been shouting for a while that “Americans want this project!” and so the NWF/Zogby poll may sound like a big shift in public opinion,but it’s important to recognize what these studies measure and what they don’t. The NWF/Zogby poll took into account the basic fact that we can’t have a healthy planet and more tar sands; we need to choose one or the other. Previous polls only asked “should Obama approve KXL?” and didn’t put it in the context of a choice, or weigh how strongly people felt about the issue.

Although plenty of members of Congress still plug up their ears when you talk about about global warming, the Hurricane Sandy and this summer’s drought have helped create a a new political landscape—one where extremely polluting projects like KXL are unpopular and politically risky.

3. Big Oil bet big and lost

During the election, the fossil fuel industry and its allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat pro-environment incumbents and replace them with politicians who would maintain the pro-polluter status quo. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that firing Obama was their top priority, given the progress his administration made on things like stronger mileage standards for cars and trucks. They might as well have lit that money on fire, for all the good it did them: Mitt Romney (“I’ll approve Keystone on Day One”) lost and, as my colleague Joe Mendelson describes, Big Oil’s hand-picked Senate candidates lost nearly every race despite shattering fundraising marks.

Obama and moderates in Congress owe the oil industry no favors.

4. We don’t need Keystone XL—and we can’t afford it.

If you read my last article, you learned that the United States is already a net exporter of refined oil products like gasoline, and pipelines like KXL are intended to send oil overseas, too. Tar sands companies aren’t interested in lowering your gas bill (quite the opposite, actually) but they are interested in getting more oil out of the ground and keeping their profits rolling in. Meanwhile, the rest of us pay a steep price.

A glimpse of the future? Hurricane Sandy caused massive coastal flooding on Long Island and elsewhere. (Photo: DVIDSHUB)

Consider this: the giant international insurance company Munich Re says that climate change is “one of the greatest risks facing mankind” and estimates that extreme weather events like Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina cost North Americans over a trillion dollars since 1980. We know that climate change worsens these events, and we know that burning tar sands (or any fossil fuel) worsens climate change, so essentially when we use tar sands oil we’re raising our own taxes and insurance premiums, even if it’s not reflected in your gas bill.

Why should we pick up the tab for oil companies?

5. The next generation needs him (and us) to protect their future

Photo: David Katz/Obama For America

The President, like most fathers, cares more about the two people in the middle of this photo than he does about anything else—and that’s the most important reason he’ll reject the Keystone XL pipeline. He knows that, at its core, this is a choice about what kind of world we want to leave to our children and grandchildren, and one that has a right answer and a wrong one.

Make your voice count! Tell the White House to say “NO!” to Keystone XL and other tar sands pipelines.

Today I attended the first ever White House Summit on environmental education.  There were speakers ranging from Richard Louv to NASCAR. 

The Presidential Environmental Youth Awardees were inspiring.  And it was wonderful to hear Education Secretary Arne Duncan express his enthusiasm for environmental education and the new Green Ribbon Schools program (inaugural winners to be announced on 4/23/12!).

However, it was pretty clear from the onset that there was indeed an elephant in the room…

Just a few weeks ago the White House recommended to Congress (through its annual budget request) the effective elimination of three environmental education programs that were funded by Congress at about $35 million last year (or about 1/4 the cost of a F-22 Raptor fighter jet).

What does the elimination of these programs mean?  What is at risk?  First, let’s consider just a few examples pulled from thousands of local grants to schools, nature centers, parks, zoos, science centers, natural history museums, aquariums and other community-based organizations over the years:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri received an EPA grant to engage their youth in environmental education and outdoor experiences.
• The Galeton School District in Pennsylvania received EPA funds for under-served students to monitor water quality to determine the environmental impact of natural gas extraction from Marcellus Shale.  
• Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) in Denver, Colorado, received an EPA grant to provide career, leadership and life skills for you under-served youth through its Leadership Corps program.
• The Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire received a NOAA grant to create new partnerships across New England for teaching informal, outdoor ocean science to under-served families in five New England communities.
• The Science Museum of Virginia received NOAA funds to provide earth science and climate change education for visitors through its Science on a Sphere platform.
• Trout Unlimited in the Chesapeake region received a NOAA B-WET grant for their Potomac Waters Youth Education Initiative to educate students about the importance of headwater streams to brook trout and the entire watershed.
• The University of Wisconsin received a NSF grant to create a regional Great Lakes network to increase the adoption of effective climate change education programs by working with teachers, businesses and the public.
   

This is just the tip of the iceberg!  These funds support programs like National Public Lands Day and the development of innovative curricula.  The National Environmental Education Foundation has leveraged millions of dollar in public/private partnerships through a modest federal investment.

At the summit, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that EPA would maintain $5 million in funding for FY 2013, which is about half of what Congress provided last year.  This is a good step, but we still have not seen a detailed plan for how these funds would translate to grants and other support from EPA. 

Administrator Jackson also reinstated an inter-agency task force created by the 1990 National Environmental Education Act to improve coordination among federal agencies and stakeholders.

Unlike the steps announced by EPA, no one mentioned the major cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Program or the National Science Foundation environmental education programs.

At the end of the day I left with some new ideas and was pleased with the reinstated task force,  but I did not hear a commitment to the financial investment our nation needs to prepare the next generation to address climate change and enter the new green jobs sector.

Did you attend the summit?  Watch it online?  Please share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.  And stay tuned for future action alerts to support environmental education.

Sow Victory!

On the day that honors our nation’s first men, let’s acknowledge a few of the leading ladies behind America’s Commanders-in-Chief who’ve made sure environmental issues are on the White House table.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Facing the Great Depression and WWII head-on, FDR’s right-hand woman exemplified American self-reliance and sustainability by planting a victory garden at the White House – inspiring millions of families to do likewise.

Already concerned about the strip mining that, to this day, continues to devastate the mountains of West Virginia, Eleanor also had faith in the cultivation of domestic clean energy:

I have been wondering for a long time why some of our own defense officials do not put more emphasis on finding a good substitute for oil and worry less about where more oil is to come from.  New discoveries are all around us, and when we have to make them, we nearly always do.

Lady Bird Johnson, credit: Frank Wolfe, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions

Lady Bird Johnson

Time magazine’s “First Green First Lady” once said, “The environment is where we all meet; where all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.”

Mrs. LBJ worked tirelessly for over 40 years living by those beliefs. A strong advocate for protecting American natural resources, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center stands as a tribute to her work conserving native wildflowers and landscapes.

Where flowers bloom, so does hope.

Pat Nixon

In addition to being the first First Lady to wear pants, Mrs. Nixon sponsored the Legacy of Parks – a program resulting in the development of more than 640 parks from unused federal land.

Laura Bush

Laura Bush, who is an honorary chair of the National Park Foundation, has spent much of her time since the White House in efforts to protect the Texan coast and Gulf of Mexico. Standing up to the Vice President, she was a strong voice for President Bush’s end-of-term decision to designate almost 200,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean as conservation areas.

No matter where we live, in the city or the country, our lives depend on the quality of our native lands.

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama's organic vegetable garden, via The White House/Flickr

She has also been instrumental in “greening” the White House – growing the recycling program and incorporating environmentally-friendly products and materials into the household.

President Obama at the first White House Science Fair in 2010. No presidents ever came to my science fairs. Just sayin'. (flickr | cerebus19)

Exhibits will include designs for a future energy-efficient city, an ‘environmental cleanup’ video game and a more economical way to collect solar energy modeled on the natural design of tree limbs.

The fair is part of the commitment the president made in his Educate to Innovate campaign to inspire students to excel in math and science. On the occasion of the first fair, in 2010, he likened the honorees to our best amateur athletes:

 “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”

The president’s metaphor is apt: these STEM champs, like the players cutting down the nets each March, have positioned themselves well for a future in the pros. (Corny!)

That’s partly why we mention ‘STEM’ so often on Wildlife Promise. Sure, a young populace better versed in science is more likely to coalesce around sound conservation practices, but perhaps even more significantly, environmental education can actually help drive a more complete understanding of STEM by connecting core concepts to our actions on earth—an area of need for America’s students and our economic prospects.

STEM in Dire Need of Growth

If you don’t believe me that this is a problem, check the numbers: in 2002, the National Science Foundation reported that that 80%-90% of students opt out of science education before entering high school. The most recent assessment by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that American students ranked 17th and 25th in science and math, respectively, among 34 countries measured. The National Assessment of Educational Progress’s (NAEP) 2009 science survey found that less than one-half of U.S. students perform at or above the ‘proficient’ level in science in grades four, eight and 12. A 2007 National Academies report raised the specter that “the scientific and technological building blocks critical to our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength.” (Also over the last decade, the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation reported (PDF) that Americans don’t understand the environment as well as they assume).

Help and Learn More

Last winter, the president issued a call to action for nascent American innovators in all fields, calling this “our generation’s Sputnik moment.” The Center on Education and the Workforce forecasts (PDF) 8 million STEM-related jobs for which Postsecondary education is typically required by the year 2018, making it the third fastest-growing employment area in that category—and a prime staging area for that drive to all-around excellence.

• If you think environmental education should be a major part of that, you can ask Congress to pass the No Child Left Inside Act, a bipartisan bill intended to assist states in the development and implementation of stronger environmental literacy programs for K-12 students.
• Learn about the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s decision to include environmental education provisions in an amendment to the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
• Research the Eco-Schools USA program, which features curricula and activities to help educators engage students in math, science and critical thinking (more academic benefits (PDF)) and can help prepare schools for the U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award Program.

Aerial shot of Alberta tar sands taken during NWF flyover

Reuters reports a decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will be delayed by at least a year:

The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday it will explore a new route for a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, delaying a final approval beyond the 2012 U.S. election, sources briefed on the matter said.

The decision would be a victory for environmentalists, many of whom oppose the pipeline, and a setback for TransCanada Corp, whose $7 billion Keystone XL project is seen as the most important North American oil pipeline plan for decades. [...]

If the administration explores a new route, “it’s a huge victory, and it would probably be the biggest environmental gift that President Barack Obama has given us,” said Tony Iallonardo, a spokesman at the National Wildlife Federation.

UPDATE 2:54pm: The State Department has just issued statement regarding the Keystone XL pipeline project review. It reads in part, “Particularly given the concentration of concerns regarding the environmental sensitivities of the current proposed route through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, the Department has determinded it needs to undertake an in-depth assessment of potential alternative routes in Nebraska.”

It concludes, “Among the relevant issues that would be considered are environmental concerns (including climate change), energy security, economic impacts, and foreign policy.”

UPDATE 3:36pm: Dan Pfieffer, a White House spokesman, just tweeted reaction from President Barack Obama:

POTUS: I support the State Department’s announcement today regarding the need to seek additional information about the Keystone XL Pipeline.

UPDATE 4:34pm: Larry Schweiger, president & CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, reacts to the delay for additional review:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn more about the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline >>

It was only Sunday that I joined 12,000 activists encircling the White House to ask President Obama to block the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline – but already, the landscape has changed. Not only is Reuters is reporting the State Department is considering revising the proposed route to go around ecologically sensitive areas, but a new investigation has been opened into the State Department’s review process:

The State Department’s inspector general has agreed to probe the agency’s review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, a process that project critics allege is biased in favor of developer TransCanada Corp.

The inspector general’s office disclosed the “special review” in a Friday memo to Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns that was released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders is one of more than a dozen lawmakers who called for the review.

“The primary objective of the review is to determine to what extent the Department and all other parties involved complied with federal laws and regulations relating to the Keystone XL pipeline permit process,” the memo states.

On top of the new investigation, TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline was shut down after a power outage today. As the blog Michigan Messenger reports, “Despite assurances from TransCanada that the project would be environmentally safe, the first phase has leaked 14 times in the United States since it opened and at least that many times in Canada as well.” And now TransCanada expects us to stand aside and let it build Keystone I’s big brother?

I was proud to stand with Americans of all ages and backgrounds who’d come from all across the country to deliver our message at the White House on Sunday. We heard from organizers that there may have been enough of us there to circle the block several times.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn more about why Keystone XL would be such a risky, bad deal at NWF.org/TarSands, then take a moment to ask President Obama to say no to dirty tar sands.

Now, the President has the final say on the disastrous tar sands oil pipeline.

Bracing Against the Odds

Over the past few months we’ve learned a lot about the decision-making process delegated to the State Department on TransCanada’s permit. And it doesn’t look pretty. Here are few of the recent scandals:

1. 2 months ago the public discovered that TransCanada’s lead lobbyist, Paul Elliott, was the deputy director of Hillary Clintons 2008 Presidential campaign. An email exchange showed a “cozy” relationship between Paul Elliott and State Department staff.
2. Last month, public hearings were held in the right-of-way states (Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Washington, D.C.). The State Department hired a contractor that considers TransCanada a “major client” and has worked with them on previous projects.
3. Last week, during a speech at the University of Colorado, Obama said he was “looking into it”.
4. Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney announced that Obama is handing off this “hot potato” issue to the State Department; Carney said, the State Department “are taking into … account public comment and comments certainly from experts, both environmental, as well as energy experts.”
5. Additionally, the State Department has lost thousands of testimonies from the public hearings.

After attending the public hearings in Kansas and Washington, D.C., and seeing union workers bussed in by the Koch Brothers, I thought the “Yes We Can” attitude had been buried. But Obama’s interview on KETV in Nebraska showed me a glimpse of what I had seen in him 3 years ago. Now, he is taking responsibility for the Keystone XL pipeline issue for the first time and telling Nebraskans that he will make the final decision about the pipeline.

Why We Need to Take Action

President Obama has stepped up to the plate on this issue, and here’s hoping Big Oil will finally strike out. But he hasn’t rejected the project yet. Now is the time to let Obama know that he must make the right decision. Now is the time to take action.

This Sunday, Nov. 6, join us and thousands of people will encircle the White House to send President Obama one clear message: YES YOU CAN. STOP THE PIPELINE.

Community-level sustainability discussion leads to White House meeting with President Obama

President Barack Obama drops by a meeting with young leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, June 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Recently my community involvement around sustainability principles snowballed into an involvement and experience far greater than I could have imagined.  While in DC as part of the Young Leaders Assembly at the 75th NWF Annual Meeting, I re-connected with one of my oldest friends.  Her profession and connections ultimately led me to host a roundtable discussion in my community loosely centered on challenges faced by young Americans and our solutions to those challenges.

USDA Rural Development Director (WI) Stan Gruszynski and USDA Administrator for Housing and Community Facilities Program Tammy Trevino attend a roundtable discussion at UW River Falls hosted by Ian Johnson, Research Fellow for the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development, March 12, 2011. (Photo by Jens Gunelson)

Through my now longtime – and often professional – connection to the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development at the University of Wisconsin River Falls, I facilitated a roundtable discussion at the broad request of President Obama, who gave the directive to his Administration to attend 100 such discussions around the country.  Along with 15 very bright students, the meeting was attended by the USDA Rural Development Director for Wisconsin Stan Gruszynski and the USDA Administrator for Housing and Community Facilities Program Tammy Trevino.  Our topics were broad, but ultimately were tied back to discussions about sustainability.

When the roundtable was finished, I compiled the discussion results, typed a feedback memo to the White House Office of Public Engagement, and submitted it by the requested deadline,  figuring my involvement was mostly over.

I was surprised and delighted, however, when two weeks ago I received an email requesting my presence at the White House to follow up on what I heard and observed as a facilitator.

One week later, back in DC, I found myself at the Secret Service guard house at the northwest entrance to the White House.  After a final check on my personal background, I passed through airport-like security and made my way up the winding sidewalk through the lawn and into the West Wing.

In the Roosevelt Room, the meeting was led by senior White House Staff.  There were 10 other roundtable facilitators present and we dove in to discussion about our various issues.  The conversations in the room were diverse in context, ranging from such topics as sustainability (my own platform) to immigration issues, bullying in schools to LGBT issues, educational opportunities for minorities to poverty.  The participants were from all areas of the country and were from various associations including Universities, Non-profits and NGO’s, even high schools.

Partway through the meeting, President Obama joined our meeting, proceeding around the table to introduce himself to everyone personally.  Moments later, the President of the United States was standing in front of me, shaking my hand and thanking me for coming.

He then sat down at the meeting table and thanked everyone for their own hard work in the various areas they represent; said that our work as leaders in our topics of concern and our communities was exceptionally important to a well functioning country.  He then asked if we had anything pointed we would like to say – a chance that most of us jumped at.

I re-iterated my work as a Research Fellow at the Institute, told him a bit about my intrinsic passion for the natural world, and thanked him for his work on the environmental front.  I told him it was a tough row to hoe, to which he agreed and stated that it is especially tough when some people don’t want to believe in science.  I remarked that we need to choose as a nation whether or not we are going to believe the science and that, if we choose not to, then I’m afraid that America’s best days may be behind us.  I also told him that, as a former Marine, I have a good understanding of how important our national security is and that self-sufficiency in terms of energy, food, water, transportation, housing, etc. are paramount to our own national security.  In what is the most awe-inspiring and surreal moment of my life, President Obama, seated a mere three feet from me directly across the table, looked me in the eye, agreed with my sentiments about security, and thanked me for my service.

In the room, the presence of the President, his top aide Valerie Jarrett, Deputy Chief of Staff Nancy-Ann Deparle, even former movie star turned political office holder for the White House Kalpen Modi gave it an awe-inspiring sense of power and importance.  To think of the things that have been discussed in that room over the years with numerous Presidents; the people that have sat in the same seat I was in was a surreal and powerful experience that made my heart race and my head swirl.

It was very evident from the attention to our concerns that this meeting was not just for show, but a sincere attempt to bring Young Americans issues directly to the White House and tap into the intellectual capacity of our generation to find real solutions to our concerns.

Having this opportunity and the audience I did is testament to the President’s commitment to the people of the nation and his concern for all our issues.  Perhaps now more than ever, progress in Washington is a slow process, but having been there to discuss the issues raised in the roundtable discussion I facilitated shows first hand his commitment to fostering our generation’s leadership.

While I have returned to Wisconsin, the involvement is not over.  The Office of Public Engagement has been in regular contact since the roundtable discussions began, and there is a continued conversation with all the Young Americans who hosted these discussions in their community.  We have been promised more ‘homework’ in order to continue to engage our communities, address our issues, and keep Washington aware of what is going on around the country.

Ian Johnson lives in Hudson, WI with his family and works as a Research Fellow at the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development at UW River Falls.  He holds a M.S. in Sustainable Community Development from UW River Falls.

Here’s what Robin Schepper, Executive Director of Let’s Move!, had to say about the event: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Members of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), the Administration and others participated in five outdoor recreation activity stations to teach youth new skills to enjoy active time outdoors in nature.

The National Wildlife Federation and REI participated in a learning station where small groups of students received hands on experience in camping. They gained new skills for enjoying the great outdoors and now know how to pitch their own tents.  

The students were excited to engage in a variety of activities including rock climbing, kayaking, healthy snacks, fly-fishing and mountain biking - and even assembled their own healthy trail mix; the perfect healthy snack for their next outdoor outing! 

Later this month, in support of Let’s Move Outside and with the support of REI, thousands of American’s will participate in the Great American Backyard Campout on June 25^th and find close-to-home parks and green spaces through NWF’s Nature Find. 

It was a fun afternoon on the White House lawn to help support Let’s Move Outside.  And most importantly, the students had a blast!

For more updates on Let’s Move Outside and Great Outdoors Month, follow me on Twitter – @PatrickNWF.