fusclimate Mailing List: Fwd: BREAKING: Major Keystone XL news

[Scott Jackson (sjackzen46]

A petition to sign from Credo.

Scott Jackson
sjackzen46 [at] gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action <act [at] credoaction.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 12:44 PM
Subject: BREAKING: Major Keystone XL news
To: Scott Jackson <sjackzen46 [at] gmail.com>


    Dear Scott,

It’s the decision that the State Department and White House has been using
as their reason to delay: *The Nebraska Supreme Court just announced a
ruling that upholds the Keystone XL route.*

* That means President Obama must make a decision on Keystone XL.* Now that
Republicans control the Senate, even if the president rejects the pipeline,
they will try to force approval again and again and again. In fact, the
House voted today to force approval on a bill the president has already
declared he would veto because it falls outside of the official National
Interest Determination process -- which the Nebraska decision now restarts.

Regardless of what the fossil fuel industry is able to ram through
Congress, the next step in our fight to stop this dirty tar sands oil
pipeline is for the president to finally declare that it is not in our
national interest.

You’ve already signed our petition urging President Obama to immediately
reject Keystone XL, and we’ll be delivering your signature to the White
House next week. *This is a pivotal moment - please click here to share the
petition now to build pressure on the President to reject Keystone XL.
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/7824?t=1&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>*

The past year has made it clearer than ever that Keystone XL is a climate
disaster that fails the test he set. If President Obama is serious about
being a global leader for climate action and recognizing his moral
responsibility to act for future generations, he simply must reject
Keystone XL.

- Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action
 ------------------------------
  [image: CREDO Action]  *Tell President Obama: Time to reject Keystone XL*

*Sign the petition to President Obama:*
*This is a make or break moment for your climate legacy. Serious progress
against climate change requires consistent action, not just words.
Immediately reject the Keystone XL pipeline and apply your climate test to
all federal decisions on fossil fuel projects - whether for domestic use or
export. *

Add your name:
  [image: Sign the petition ►]
<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/obama_climate_test?t=2&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>

Dear Scott,

<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/obama_climate_test?nosig=1&t=3&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>

The surprise announcement of a major climate agreement in November between
the U.S. and China is good news.1 Most notably, it represents a major step
forward for China, which has, for the first time, committed to a timeframe
for reducing emissions – a pledge they can likely achieve.

But whether it amounts to real progress in the U.S. or merely a cynical
accounting trick all comes down to what President Obama does next, and what
we push him to do.

Simply put: If the president continues policies designed to unearth and
export to the rest of the world massive amounts of coal, fracked gas and
Canadian tar sands crude, then his commitment to reducing U.S. emissions
26%-28% below 2005 levels by 2025 amounts to little more than an empty
talking point.2

*The first big test he’s going to have to face is on the Keystone XL tar
sands pipeline.* It is the first item being taken up by Senate Republicans
now that they hold the reins to the senate. So President Obama will soon
have to make a decision after four years of delays and avoidance.

*This is a make-or-break moment for the president’s legacy on climate. And
if he’s serious, we need consistent actions, not just words;* starting with
Keystone XL, and applying the same climate test that Keystone XL so clearly
fails to all federal decision-making on fossil fuel projects, whether they
are for domestic use or for export.

*Tell President Obama: Immediately reject Keystone XL, AND apply the
climate test you set for it to ALL federal decision making on fossil fuel
infrastructure projects.
<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/obama_climate_test?t=4&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>*

Even with Republicans controlling the Senate, they will still lack the
votes to override President Obama’s veto.

*Keystone XL remains 100% his call. It is 100% clear that the project
flunks the climate test* that the president set for approval.3 (Even the
administration’s flawed and corrupt analysis says it increases climate
emissions.4) *And we must be 100% prepared to do whatever is necessary to
make sure he rejects* – including our continued commitment to unleashing
massive distributed civil disobedience through the Pledge of Resistance.5

But while Keystone XL is the biggest project proposed in the U.S. to
facilitate the detonation of the “game over for the climate” Canadian tar
sands carbon bomb, *it is not the only one.*

Even as it supposedly considers the climate test for Keystone XL, the State
Department is secretly allowing Canadian pipeline company Enbridge to move
forward on an illegal and unpermitted expansion of its Clipper pipeline
that would be more than half as big as Keystone XL – with no environmental
review whatsoever!6

CREDO Activists have submitted more than 100,000 comments opposing the
project. And environmental groups have filed suit to stop the State
Department’s illegal approval of the Alberta Clipper pipeline expansion.7

For a president genuinely concerned about climate change, it would simply
make no sense to consider the climate impacts of one project while ignoring
those same impacts for thousands of other projects – from pipelines, to
drilling permits, to coal and gas export terminals. *And it would be
especially incoherent to do so while bragging about his commitment to
greater emissions reductions.*

*If the president is serious, he must apply the climate test to all federal
decisions on fossil fuel infrastructure projects, starting now. Please sign
the petition now.
<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/obama_climate_test?t=5&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>*

While his new deal with China represents an increase from the president’s
previous goal of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, it is far from ambitious.
The E.U., by comparison, has committed to a 40% reduction from the more
significant 1990 levels, in the same time period.

The White House says we can meet the new goal with the rules already
proposed and on the books, most notably the president’s power plant carbon
rule – which we have criticized for not being nearly big enough.

*But there’s a real disconnect that President Obama must resolve between
his stated goals and his administration’s decision on new fossil fuel
projects.* In its evaluation of the impacts of Keystone XL, for example,
the State Department did not even consider a scenario in which the
administration achieved its 2020 climate goal. *In every scenario, the
State Department assumed we fail!*8

*If we’re objectively reviewing the president’s actions in his first six
years, it looks like he’s playing to fail, too.* He sped through approval
of the southern segment of Keystone XL to the Gulf Coast. He’s allowing the
massive expansion of the Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline. He’s
encouraged massive coal mining. He’s opened new coastal areas for offshore
drilling, and fast-tracked approval of natural gas export facilities,
ensuring an increased demand for fracked gas. As Bill McKibben wrote
recently: “If you pledge sobriety and then buy a keg of beer, people are
going to wonder."

*The White House and President Obama may be able to rectify on paper
approvals of massive projects increasing the U.S. contribution to global
CO2 emissions with some narrower calculations allowing the president to
claim impressive-sounding reductions in U.S. emissions. But in atmospheric
and climate terms, it's meaningless.*

*So we applaud this agreement, but it’s up to the president to make it
count for more than numbers on a page. And it’s up to us to push him.* The
president has shown in his 2008 and 2012 election campaigns, and in recent
announcements on protecting our free and open internet and immigration
reform that he knows how to play to win. Now it’s time for him to play to
win the fight against climate change - with more than just words. And he
can start by rejecting Keystone XL and applying his climate test to all
federal decision making.

*Sign the petition to President Obama now.
<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/obama_climate_test?t=6&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>*

Thanks for all you do.

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/109?t=7&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>

1. "The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate
Change. They Just Did.
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/7574?t=8&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>," The
New Republic, 11/12/14
2. "The Big Climate Deal: What It Is, and What It Isn't
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/7575?t=9&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>," Bill
McKibben, 11/12/14
3. "Obama Will Approve Keystone Only If It ‘Does Not Significantly
Exacerbate’ Carbon Pollution
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/1117?t=10&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>," Think
Progress, 6/25/13
4. "Keystone XL Will Fail Obama's Climate Test If Plunge in Oil Prices
Persists <http://act.credoaction.com/go/7576?t=11&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>,"
Inside Climate, 10/28/14
5. "The Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance
<http://act.credoaction.com/sign/kxl_pledge/?t=12&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>
,"
6. "Second Canadian Company Completing Tar-Sands Pipeline In the U.S.
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/7577?t=13&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>,"
Washington Spectator, 11/11/14
7. "Activist groups sue over border pipeline
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/7578?t=14&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>,"
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/12/14
8. "Kerry’s State Department Ignored Obama’s Climate Action Plan
<http://act.credoaction.com/go/3414?t=15&akid=12500.3204135.tzUft6>," Oil
Change International, 2/17/14

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