Enviros quickly press victorious Obama to nix Keystone pipeline

Environmentalists are planning a demonstration on Nov. 18 to put fresh pressure on President Obama, the projected winner of a second term, to reject the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Climate activists including 350.org founder Bill McKibben and Sierra Club head Michael Brune announced the White House demonstration Tuesday shortly after Obama was projected the victor over Mitt Romney.


“In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as the warmest year in American history draws to a close, as the disastrous drought lingers on in the Midwest, everyone is looking for ways to make a real difference in the fight to slow climate change,” an open letter announcing the event states.

“We’d like to ask you to come once more to Washington, to resume the battle to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, mid-afternoon on Nov. 18th,” states the letter from activists including author Naomi Klein, Nebraska anti-Keystone advocate Jane Kleeb, outspoken NASA climate scientist James Hansen and others.

The White House in late 2011 delayed a decision on whether to permit TransCanada Corp.’s project to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

The decision followed demonstrations — including a large number of civil disobedience arrests in August 2011 — by environmentalists who bitterly oppose the project.

The administration plans to make a decision as soon as next year on Keystone. Republicans, business groups and a number of unions support the project.

Romney and other Republicans, on the stump, had sought to transform Obama’s indecision on Keystone into a political liability by touting jobs the project would create and energy supplies from a friendly neighbor.

But environmentalists say the project will worsen global warming. The open letter says it would negate the climate benefits of tougher auto mileage standards that the Obama administration has put in place.

“Keystone XL is still a crazy idea, a giant straw into the second biggest pool of carbon. Even if it doesn’t spill, it would add 900,000 barrels of oil worth of carbon each day to the earth’s atmosphere, or as much as the new auto efficiency regulations would save,” it states.

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