“The Santa Fe City Council strongly supports public expression of resistance to approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, up to and including peaceful, nonviolent and dignified expressions of civil disobedience.”
Respectfully requests: President Obama to Deny the Permit Application to Construct the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Tonight the Santa Fe City Council passed a resolution respectfully requesting that President Obama deny the permit application by TransCanada to construct the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The resolution introduced on October 30, 2013 by Mayor David Coss and co-sponsored by Councilors Chris Calvert, Patti Bushee, Peter Ives, and Mayor pro tem Rebecca Wurzburger went to a vote this evening and passed.
The Santa Fe City Council strongly supports public expression of resistance to approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, up to and including peaceful, nonviolent and dignified expressions of civil disobedience.
“Climate change is happening, we see it with drought and forest fires,” said Mayor David Coss. “Santa Fe needs to be part of the solution and not part of the problem on climate change.”
“There’s nothing in the Keystone XL pipeline for the people of the United States,” said Councilor Chris Calvert. “We take all the risk and don’t benefit from any of the rewards.”
“Our Charter charges the Governing Body with the responsibility: to protect, preserve and enhance the City’s natural endowments,” said Councilor Patti J. Bushee. “The Keystone XL Pipeline would increase climate changing emissions yearly by 24.3 million tons. It is incumbent upon us to act boldly when dealing with the real threat of climate change and its impact on our environment.”
The resolution discusses several statistics discouraging the pipeline, including:
• 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil proposed to be carried daily from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast would increase climate changing emissions yearly by 24.3 million tons, the equivalent of Americans driving an additional 60 million miles per year.
• Over the course of the project’s lifetime, carbon emissions would increase by up to 1.2 billion metric tons. This comes at a time when the World Bank and International Energy Administration are warning that 66 per cent of known fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground if we are to have even a small chance at stopping the climate crisis.
• High rates of rare cancers, renal failure, lupus, and hyperthyroidism have been documented in indigenous communities living downstream from tar sands extraction.
• In the last decade, there have been over 2,500 pipeline mishaps, including recent tar sands pipeline breaks in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Mayflower, Arkansas.