BRATTLEBORO — Vermonters have the chance this fall to join a national movement working to stop a 1,700-mile pipeline that threatens our nation's health and safety.
The TransCanada corporation wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline from the province of Alberta - home of the world's second-largest reservoir of petroleum - through the heartland of the United States to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.
At first glance, this sounds like good news: a huge oil supply owned by a friendly neighbor. The problem is that mining, transporting, and refining this oil will be tremendously destructive to the environment.
The pipeline, for example, would run across a U.S. aquifer that's one of the continent's largest sources of water. It also would speed the burning of fossil fuel, and it would dump huge amounts of carbon pollution into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.
The decision to approve or deny the pipeline rests with the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she is “inclined to support” the project, even though every major U.S. environmental organization is voicing opposition.
In August, Vermont author and activist Bill McKibben organized a two-week Washington, D.C., sit-in to protest the project and encourage President Obama to live up to his campaign promise of taking strong action to address climate change.
Now McKibben is organizing a circle around the White House to demonstrate pipeline opposition on Nov. 6 - one year before the 2012 election.
You can help stop this environmental disaster.
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and voice your opinion, or consider joining me and other Vermonters in Washington for the Nov. 6 action. For more information, visit the Tar Sands Action website, or contact me at 251-8135 or by email.