Keystone XL Pipeline

The Keystone XL Pipeline is being proposed to bring crude oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas, providing America desperately-needed jobs and a safe and secure source of energy, extracted from a socially progressive, democratic and free country known for having the very best working conditions and highest respect for human rights.

Nevertheless, IT MUST BE STOPPED!

You may already be familiar with the protests going on in Washington, but did you know that I helped proof-read the action letter they sent out? Well it's true. In fact, here is the final draft that David Suzuki himself sent my way, along with my notes.

- * - * - * -

Dear Friends,

This will be a slightly longer letter than common for the internet age—it’s serious stuff.

RV> So print up copies for all your friends. In colour.

The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will likely get you arrested.

RV> We're open to suggestions, but climbing in your cars and driving to Washington to break the law is probably the only effective way to help the environment.

The full version goes like this:

As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we’ve seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.

RV> And please immediately report anyone who says differently.

And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.

RV> Unlike us, who are interested in our long-term profit.

These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a certificate of ‘national interest’ to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called ‘Keystone XL Pipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to Texas refineries.

RV> P.S. What does the phrase "so-called" actually mean? Never mind, we'll just use it anywhere.

To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communities—First Nations communities in Canada, and tribes along the pipeline route in the U.S. have demanded the destruction cease.

RV> Ask anyone in Alberta and they'll tell you that the tar sands are the worst thing to ever happen to them.

The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Oglalla Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous—and though the pipeline companies insist they are using ‘state of the art’ technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year.

RV> Call us old-fashioned, but we prefer the oil come to us across the ocean, where spills don't matter. So bomb those pipelines, folks!

These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.

RV> Or at least, that's the plot to Charlie Sheen's "The Arrival."

How much carbon lies in the recoverable tar sands of Alberta? A recent calculation from some of our foremost scientists puts the figure at about 200 parts per million. Even with the new pipeline they won’t be able to burn that much overnight—but each development like this makes it easier to get more oil out.

RV> And if we don't use it trust me - no one will. We're pretty much the only ones interested in oil.

As the climatologist Jim Hansen (one of the signatories to this letter) explained, if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate “the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground.” In other words, he added, “if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over.” The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game.

RV> Logically, the best way to phase out coal emissions is to shut down all the alternatives.

"Unless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, we're going to be stuck," said Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week.

RV> And if Ralph Glass can't find another market for the oil, I'm sure there isn't one, because he's clearly the best.

Given all that, you’d suspect that there’s no way the Obama administration would ever permit this pipeline. But in the last few months the president has signed pieces of paper opening much of Alaska to oil drilling, and permitting coal-mining on federal land in Wyoming that will produce as much CO2 as 300 power plants operating at full bore.

RV> We're pretty sure the Republicans have him drugged, because Obama would never willingly do any of that.

And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she’s ‘inclined’ to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it’s because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it’s also because of intense pressure from industry. TransCanada Pipeline, the company behind Keystone, has hired as its chief lobbyist for the project a man named Paul Elliott, who served as deputy national director of Clinton’s presidential campaign.

RV> If only we had high-powered big names backing our campaign.

Meanwhile, the US Chamber of Commerce—a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined—has demanded that the administration “move quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,” which is not so surprising—they’ve also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can ‘adapt their physiology’ to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.

RV> The last thing America needs now is affordable energy, jobs and - worst of all - profit! YUCK!

So we’re pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington. A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continent—from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, they’ve spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes won’t be crossed by this pipeline, our joint home—the earth—will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it.

RV> We'd much prefer our joint home be wrecked by terrible weapons we're helping Venezuela and Middle Eastern countries buy instead. Again: we're old-fashioned.

And we need to say something else, too: it’s time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces.

RV> These decisions should be made by government power, for their ulterior motives are less clear!

We don’t have the money to compete with those corporations, but we do have our bodies, and beginning in mid August many of us will use them. We will, each day through Labor Day, march on the White House, risking arrest with our trespass. We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes—who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals.

RV> Because normally conservatives are the dangerous radicals. Get it? High five!

Come dressed as if for a business meeting—this is, in fact, serious business. And another sartorial tip—if you wore an Obama button during the 2008 campaign, why not wear it again? We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young Senator who told us that with his election the ‘rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.’

RV> Because The Obama possesses such a power.

We don’t understand what combination of bureaucratic obstinacy and insider dealing has derailed those efforts, but we remember his request that his supporters continue on after the election to pressure the government for change. We’ll do what we can.

RV> As you recall, we gave the previous President the same benefit of the doubt when he was in office, and assumed it was some issue with that pesky paperwork.

And one more thing: we don’t want college kids to be the only cannon fodder in this fight. They’ve led the way so far on climate change—10,000 came to DC for the Powershift gathering earlier this spring. They’ve marched this month in West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal; Tim DeChristopher faces sentencing this summer in Utah for his creative protest.

RV> Ah ... Fun, Fraud and Felony: the 3 F's of creativity!

Now it’s time for people who’ve spent their lives pouring carbon into the atmosphere (and whose careers won’t be as damaged by an arrest record) to step up too.

RV> The arrest record won't damage your career nearly as much as our potential success might cost your job, retirement savings, and the tax revenue on which your social programs rely.

Most of us signing this letter are veterans of this work, and we think it’s past time for elders to behave like elders. One thing we don’t want is a smash up: if you can’t control your passions, this action is not for you.

RV> As Harold Ramis said in Stripes: "I want you guys to know that if we ever get into really heavy combat ... I'll be right behind you guys. Every step of the way."

This won’t be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, to the date in September when by law the administration can either grant or deny the permit for the pipeline. Not all of us can actually get arrested—half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada—the decision-makers need to know they’re being watched.

RV> And trust me, it takes real guts to launch a protest in Canada, the most dangerous and hostile oil exporting nation on the planet!

Winning this battle won’t save the climate. But losing it will mean the chances of runaway climate change go way up—that we’ll endure an endless future of the floods and droughts we’ve seen this year. And we’re fighting for the political future too—for the premise that we should make decisions based on science and reason, not political connection. You have to start somewhere, and this is where we choose to begin.

RV> And actually, winning will cause the oil to be shipped to Asia instead, burning even more oil, while we continue to burn oil bringing it in from the Middle East. So don't worry about winning - we actually want to lose this one, folks.

If you think you might want to be a part of this action, we need you to sign up here. As plans solidify in the next few weeks we’ll be in touch with you to arrange nonviolence training; our colleagues at a variety of environmental and democracy campaigns will be coordinating the actual arrangements.

RV> Break as many laws as you want, providing you're non-violent it's all ok - just ask Kenneth Lay.

We know we’re asking a lot. You should think long and hard on it, and pray if you’re the praying type. But to us, it’s as much privilege as burden to get to join this fight in the most serious possible way. We hope you’ll join us.

RV> And the most serious possible way is to trespass, hang out with celebrities, sing chants and disrupt those who are on their way to work to deal with this in silly ways.

Maude Barlow
Wendell Berry
Tom Goldtooth
Danny Glover
James Hansen
Wes Jackson
Naomi Klein
Bill McKibben
George Poitras
David Suzuki
Gus Speth

RV> A group of people spread all across the political spectrum, who consult with a wide array of perspectives to examine these issues from a number of different angles.

p.s. Please pass this letter on to anyone else you think might be interested. We realize that what we’re asking isn’t easy, and we’re very grateful that you’re willing even to consider it

RV> Speaking of which, I've already forwarded it to Hugo Chavez and Saudi Aramco, who are both very interested.

- * - * - * -

Powerful stuff, I know. So what are you waiting for? Get on the right side of this issue! Even if it has to be shipped halfway across the planet, DEMAND that your oil comes from somewhere that respects the environment, like Saudi Arabia! Or do you think you know better than Margot Kidder?


Want more current events jokes?