State Dept. Releases Draft EIS on Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Pipeline to Carry World's Dirtiest Oil into U.S.
Published on Apr 10, 2010 - 9:06:56 AM

By: Sierra Club

WASHINGTON, D.C. April 9, 2010 - Today, the Department of State released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a massive pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada into the United States. Environmental groups have opposed the pipeline due to impacts on local communities as well as the pipeline's contribution to the deforestation, water pollution, and global warming caused by tar sands operations in Alberta. Publication of the DEIS opens a public comment period, and Sierra Club and other groups will be asking members and supporters to contact the State Dept. to urge officials not to approve the destructive project.

A summary of the DEIS is available here: http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/clientsite/keystonexl.nsf?Open

Statement of Sierra Club Dirty Fuels Campaign Coordinator Kate Colarulli:

The State Department would be making an enormous mistake to allow this pipeline to move forward.

The global warming pollution from this project is staggering. Building this one pipeline would be the equivalent of putting 6 million new cars on the road. Any analysis of environmental impacts must take the pipeline's global warming impact into account.

We've urged the State Department to reject permit applications for the project, based on concerns about water contamination, toxic waste, deforestation, and global warming pollution from tar sands operations.

The tar sands oil this pipeline would carry into the U.S. is the dirtiest form of oil in the world. It requires clear-cutting ancient forests, sucking up water supplies and leaving behind toxic lakes so big they can be seen from space.

Allowing the pipeline into the U.S. would represent a giant step backwards, right when our nation is poised to become a leader in the global clean energy economy.

We urge the Obama administration to use this opportunity to consider the full impacts of this pipeline, which will lock us into a dirty energy infrastructure for decades to come.

For more information, visit Sierra Club's Climate Crossroads post on tar sands.

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