Keystone XL

Tribes In Three States Ask Obama Veto KXL

January 17, 2015 Kate Sheppard, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Energy, Environment, indigenous, Keystone XL, Law

An association representing 16 American Indian tribes in three states along the Keystone XL pipeline route sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week urging him to reject the pipeline permit application. The association represents tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, and is also seeking a meeting with Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to discuss their concerns about the pipeline. John Steele, chairman of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association and the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, notes in the letter that TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, is still awaiting recertification from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. The company received certification for the pipeline from the PUC in June 2010, but because construction did not begin within four years of obtaining that permit, TransCanada had to file for recertification.

Reject KXL Rallies Held In All 50 States

January 15, 2015 350.org, www.350.org Resist! Climate Change, Environment, Keystone XL

Last night thousands of people took to the streets in all 50 US states (plus Washington DC!) to tell President Obama to reject Keystone XL now! Over 150 events were organized in about 72 hours, and most of them took place in the freezing cold — some in the single digits. In Native American communities across the US, #OcetiRising vigils lit fires in solidarity with Oceti Sakowin pipeline fighters in the Keystone XL route. We also delivered over 500,000 petition signatures calling on the President to act now to stop the pipeline to the White House. The cold last night wouldn’t stop us: we know that if Keystone XL is approved, it would carry 830,000 barrels per day of tar sands, the world’s dirtiest oil, with the equivalent carbon footprint of 50 new coal plants — and that’s just a little too much heat.

The Secret Service Detained Me For Wanting A Better Future

January 14, 2015 Jake Ducey, www.facebook.com Resist! Canada, Environment, Keystone XL, Law

Is the only way to protect their profit to have the Secret Service detain our youth? It seems so. I was prisoner number fifty-nine, and this is my story: I flew from San Diego to Washington, D.C., in 2013 to peacefully protest in front of the White House against bringing to light one of the darkest shadows still within the earth. That shadow is in a place most of us will never go—Alberta, Canada. Alberta is home to forests that cover sludgy bitumen beneath the ground that can be refined into Canadian Tar Sands Oil, at the expense of precious land, tons of clean water, and the releasing of one of the largest carbon reserves on the planet. The more carbon in the atmosphere, the hotter the earth will get, and the more common strange patterns of extreme weather will become.

Keystone XL Opponents Undaunted After Tough Week In Congress

January 13, 2015 John Zangas, www.cetology.org Resist! Congress, Environment, Keystone XL, Law

On Saturday, January 10, groups opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline rallied at the White House to urge the administration to stop it after the new Republican-led Congress made getting the pipeline built its first issue of business. On Thursday, the Senate Energy Committee passed a bill to expedite the construction of the northern leg of the KXL. On Friday, the House passed its version of the bill. The full Senate will begin debating the bill on Monday. Also on Friday, the Nebraska State Supreme Court ruled against three landowners in the Keystone XL’s path, and upheld the constitutionality of a law which they had challenged.

Obama Hires Former Keystone XL Lobbyist As Senate Liaison

December 25, 2014 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Keystone XL, Obama

The Obama administration has appointed as new Senate liaison a former lobbyist whose job included pushing for construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline—an appointment that required the waiving of an ethics rule. As deputy assistant for legislative affairs, Marty Paone "will be the White House’s main staffer responsible for outreach to the Senate," the Wall Street Journal reports. Paone worked from 2010-2014 as Executive Vice President at the Prime Policy Group, whose clients included a group "dedicated to the development of Canada's vast oil sands,"according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Also citing the Center's data, Reuters reports that Paone's "firm received $280,000 in 2013 and 2014 from the In Situ Oil Sands Alliance, a group of four companies working to develop oil sands in Alberta, Canada, that would be exported to the United States should Transcanada's Keystone XL pipeline be constructed."

Oil Pipelines Are So Last Year, Says Wall Street Journal

December 12, 2014 Heather Smith, www.grist.org Organize! Energy, Environment, Journalism, Keystone XL, Media, Oil & Gas

What a difference a year makes. At the end of 2013, Keystone XL looked like a done deal. KXL South (a.k.a. the Gulf Coast Pipeline) was already built and weeks away from being turned on. Now, a year later, that renowned pinko/green publication known as the Wall Street Journal writes that the fight against Keystone XL has been so successful that it’s become the training model for at least 10 other anti-pipeline fights. Seriously. There’s a slideshow and everything. National groups provide access to money and tactical knowledge, while local groups can deliver on-the-ground pipeline opponents, including farmers, ranchers, and tribal leaders.

PR Firm Fired By TransCanadaAfter Leaked Document

December 4, 2014 Ian Austen, www.nytimes.com Educate! Canada, Energy, Environment, Keystone XL, Media

TransCanada has cut ties with the American public relations firm Edelman, amid controversy over a proposed communications strategy for a major pipeline project. The move, which was announced on Wednesday, follows the leak of documents about Edelman’s proposed strategy, which advocated vigorous attacks on opponents of one of TransCanada’s oil sands pipelines. In the documents that were obtained by Greenpeace, Edelman proposed that the pipeline company should investigate opponents of Energy East, a plan to convert a natural gas pipeline to Eastern Canada to carry oil sands production and to extend it to a new tanker port in Quebec. The public relations firm further advised the company, which is also behind theKeystone XL project in the United States, to use front groups, relying on third-party surrogates to disseminate unflattering findings.

Keystone XL Fight Won In Lame Duck Senate. GOP Congress Approval?

November 20, 2014 Anne Meador, www.cetology.org Educate! Congress, Keystone XL, Law, Oil & Gas

On November 18, the Senate effort to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline fell one vote short of the necessary supermajority. As the last votes were counted and Senator Mary Landrieu’s hopes of proving her undying fealty to Big Oil were dashed, a lone voice from the gallery burst out in song. The Lakota singer proclaimed a warrior’s victory. At the same time, his wail lamented the craven, soulless spectacle of a body enthusiastic to build a “continent-spanning death-funnel.” Outside the Chamber, in contrast to the noble song, cue the Imperial March played on a kazoo. Senator Mitch McConnell greeted the press, eager to say that Keystone XL will be “early on the agenda” of the next Congress.

Activists Organize To Battle A Pipeline In Iowa

November 3, 2014 Mara Kardas-Nelson, www.truth-out.org Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Fracking, Iowa, Keystone XL

Farmers and environmental activists are trying to fight a proposed pipeline that would bring Bakken crude through Iowa. But with little information from the company or the government, they're left in the dark - and are struggling to organize across ideological divides. Apparently - supposedly - it caught everyone by surprise. Without any previous announcement or public consultation, Iowa media reported in July that a Texas company, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) plans to build a $5 billion, 1,100-mile pipeline to go through 17 Iowa counties. It would bring at least 320,000 barrels of crude per day from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa and to refineries in Illinois before it's finally shipped to the Gulf Coast, primarily for export.

The Energy East Pipeline Won’t Get Built Either

October 31, 2014 Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org Resist! Canada, Energy, Environment, First Nations, Keystone XL

fter TransCanada filed its official application with the National Energy Board today, environmental organizations in Canada and the United States, First Nations and community organizers said the Energy East pipeline will never be built. “It’s not going to happen,” said Patrick Bonin of Greenpeace Canada. “Energy East would negate all the good work on climate that has been done at the provincial level, pose a major threat to millions of people’s drinking water and disrespect Canadians in Eastern Canada, who care as much as any other Canadian about oil spills contaminating their homes, waterways and livelihoods.” Energy East – extending from Alberta to New Brunswick - would be the longest oil pipeline in North America and the single largest tar sands pipeline, transporting 30 per cent more oil than Keystone XL and double the size of Northern Gateway.

Resistance Blowing Huge Hole In Oil Industry’s Bottom Line

October 31, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Fracking, Keystone XL, Oil & Gas, Tar Sands

The growing tide of tar sands resistance—seen in blockades, tree sits, petitions, education efforts and calls to divest—is having a measurable negative impact on the bottom line of the tar sands industry, according to a new report, prompting researchers to declare that "business as usual for tar sands is over." Published Wednesday by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and Oil Change International, the report, Material Risks: How Public Accountability Is Slowing Tar Sands Development (pdf), finds that tar sands production revenues were down about $30.9 billion from 2010 through 2013. And according to the report, more than half of that lost revenue, roughly $17 billion, can be attributed to the fierce grassroots campaigns that have sprung up throughout North America in the past few years.

Nebraskans Raise Their Voices in Fight Against Keystone XL Pipeline

September 30, 2014 Mitch Smith, www.nytimes.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Keystone XL, Music

From the edge of a rye field teeming with grasshoppers, Willie Nelson and Neil Young sang on Saturday in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL project, warning through lyrics that a “company wants to build a tar sand pipeline where it don’t belong.” The site of the concert — a patch of farmland where 26 acres of corn were harvested early to create a makeshift parking lot — was as unlikely as the coalition of Nebraskans who have united against Keystone XL and made this state the legal and emotional center of the pipeline opposition. “I’ve told them, ‘You’ll have to haul me out from in front of that bulldozer, because I’m going to protect this farm,’ ” said Art Tanderup, who with his wife, Helen, hosted the concert. Their land in the rolling hills of northeast Nebraska would be directly along the pipeline route.

6 Years Of Powerful Resistance To KXL

September 25, 2014 Anastasia Pantsios, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Environment, Indigenous Rights, Keystone, Keystone XL, Land Rights

Six years ago climate activists, Native American groups, ranchers, farmers, students and other began their ongoing campaign to block the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to be shipped overseas. In that time, more than 2,000 activists have been arrested, more than 50,000 rallied in Washington, D.C. in February 2013 to protest the pipeline, and countless small groups have gathered in their own communities to demonstrate against it. Because the pipeline is unbuilt, 1,818,530,000 barrels of tar sands oil remain in the ground, and more than one billion metric tons of CO2 has been keep out of the atmosphere.

Cost Of Protest: KXL Pipeline Doubles

September 21, 2014 the Canadian Press, www.cbc.ca Resist! Climate Change, Environment, Keystone XL

TransCanada Corp. says costs for its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline will likely balloon to as much as US$10 billion, up from US$5.4 billion. CEO Russ Girling told the Wall Street Journal that the price tag could rise to a "number that gets you into the high single digits to a 10 number" as the project remains in limbo. Company spokesman Shawn Howard has confirmed those remarks, adding the higher costs will be passed on to refiners and consumers in the end. TransCanada is marking what it calls an "unfortunate milestone" for Keystone XL — six years precisely since it applied for a U.S. permit to build the pipeline.

State Department Takes Illegal Action To Support KXL Pipeline

September 18, 2014 Lisa Song, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Keystone XL, Oil, Pipeline, State Department

A Canadian pipeline company's plan to bring more tar sands oil into the United States without waiting for a federal permit is drawing resistance from environmentalists who say it's skirting the law. Last week, 18 green groups sent a letter to the U.S. State Department asking the agency to "take immediate action to halt this illegal increase in tar sands crude oil imports until it completes its ongoing environmental review." Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) expressed similar concerns in a separate letter to the agency. The issue highlights uncertainties in the way international pipelines are regulated, and the growing opposition to tar sands oil, which releases 17 percent more greenhouse gases than conventional crude and is harder to clean up when it spills into water. The pipeline in question is the Enbridge-owned Alberta Clipper. It delivers 450,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin, where it's shipped through other pipelines to refineries in the Midwest and South. The Alberta Clipper carries the same type of oil that would flow through the proposed Keystone XL.

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