Protests are ramping up again against the Keystone XL project after the US Department of State released a draft of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) covering the pipeline route from Nebraska to the Canadian border. The proposed pipeline remains under review at the State Department, and will take comments for 45 days. Obama recently announced that a decision is “coming soon” on whether he will accept or reject the final permit.
TAKE ACTION NOW urging Obama to make the right choice and reject the pipeline.
The Indigenous Environmental Network issued an initial analysis of the new Environmental Impact Statement, available in full here. They reported,
Chief Allan Adams, of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, Canada, whose people live downstream from the source of the toxic crude oil that will flow through this Keystone XL pipeline. Chief Adams said of the draft SEIS:
“I must stress my extreme disappointment with this report. The fact that the Keystone XL pipeline is deemed as non-consequential simply paves the way for its approval and is directly connected to the unabated expansion of Tar Sands in my peoples’ traditional lands….and the Keystone is a vital pipeline for expansion. Expansion of the tar sands means a death sentence for our way for life, destruction of ecosystems vital to the continuation of our inherent treaty rights and massive contributions to catastrophic global climate change, a fate we all share.”
Last month, massive mobilizations in front of the White House and dozens of other locations reinstated the widespread opposition to the project among US and Canadian citizens, environmental groups and Indigenous leaders. Forming together the #ForwardonClimate initiative, they demand stronger governmental action on climate change and to call for rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
[[{"fid":"60782","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":102,"width":102,"style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 102px; height: 102px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]]TAKE ACTION NOW urging Obama to make the right choice and reject the pipeline.
