State Signals Approval of Keystone Pipeline Project

Far away from the desert, oil tycoons are plotting to build another pipeline to bring their goods to the market. The Keystone XL oil pipeline would connect Canada's tarsands with customers in the US and ports for shipment abroad. The State Department signaled its approval of the pipeline in its draft supplemental environmental impact statement issued today, suggesting the Obama administration continues to hold to its destructive "all of the above" energy policy.

The Keystone pipeline will unleash nearly 800,000 barrels of oil a day, and destroy grasslands in the Midwest.  For the desert, the pipeline will add more climate pressure, as well as insult to injury.  Washington has approved thousands of acres of utility-scale solar and wind facilities on pristine desert habitat with the insincere excuse that it is addressing climate change, and ignoring saner alternatives, such as rooftop solar or facilities built on already-disturbed lands.  This energy policy has run amok, and shows no regard for the climate or our wildlands.

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