Tomorrow at the National Press Club in Washington, academics and activists will present damning new research about the Keystone XL pipeline and the development of tar sands.
The event coincides with a massive day of action against the KXL and tar sands in Washington on the President’s Day weekend. Rally information is here.
The research will provide further compelling evidence as to why the Obama Administration should reject the pipeline.
The new research will be in part presented by Lorne Stockman from Oil Change International, the author of OCI’s explosive new report, Petroleum Coke: the coal hiding in the tar sands.
The experts will explain that moving ahead with the pipeline would not only cause reckless expansion of the tar sands industry, but also will cause significantly more carbon emissions than anyone has reported.
Over the coming months, President Obama has to decide whether to approve KXL, which experts argue will increase global climate pollution and send the wrong signals about the United States’ commitment to fighting climate change.
This is especially true in the wake of the new U.S. National Climate Assessment that reported extreme weather events are increasingly having wide-ranging impacts in every region of the country, and the government’s recent declaration that 2012 was the hottest year on record in North America.
Indeed, yesterday eighteen top climate scientists, including Dr James Hansen and Michael E. Mann released a letter asking President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
They wrote “You take office for the second time at a critical moment. As you may know, the U.S. has just recorded the hottest year in its history, beating the old mark by a full degree; the same year that saw the deep Midwest drought, and the fury of Hurricane Sandy, also witnessed the rapid and unprecedented melt of the Arctic ice pack.”
The letter continued: “Eighteen months ago some of us wrote you about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, explaining why in our opinion its construction ran counter to both national and planetary interests. Nothing that has happened since has changed that evaluation; indeed, the year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is.”
The scientists finished by saying: “We hope, as scientists, that you will demonstrate the seriousness of your climate convictions by refusing to permit Keystone XL; to do otherwise would be to undermine your legacy.”
Press conference details:
Thursday, January 17, 10:00 am EST
National Press Club, Bloomberg Room
529 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20045
Speakers:
Moderator, Danielle Droitsch, senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council
Nathan Lemphers, Pembina Institute (Canadian environmental think tank)
Lorne Stockman, Oil Change International (Author of “Petroleum Coke: the coal hiding in the tar sands”)
Dr. Danny Harvey, University of Toronto Dr. John Abraham, University of St. Thomas
For more details: Lorne Stockman, lorne [AT] priceofoil.org,
This is exactly the kind of information we need to back up our presentations to local governments, intended to stop the tar sands oil pipeline through our region. We’re activists in western Maine and there are over 50 towns along the pipeline from Montreal to Portland, ME. We’re trying to organize and collaborate to maximize our impact and verified, fact-based info is critical to our cause. Thank YOU!
Expect that people would definitely protest for this horrifying plans they’ve made! It is the time to speak out and be heard or else we’ll all be dying in the future. What happens when this destroys our environment? The big companies earn a lot for this but what happens to many of us? It’s the best time to take actions.