Keystone XL.

Details

Published on Friday, 24 March 2017 10:00

Written by editor

Dear Friends,

Today, nearly six years after the fight over the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline moved into high gear, Donald Trump approved the federal permit for the pipeline -- but this fight is far from over.

It’s not a surprise, but it still feels like a punch in the gut. A punch that should get us good and angry, not knock the wind out of our sails. Seizing this moment will require more of the things that carried us through to this point: passionate organizing, committed actions, and courage on all of our parts.

Prime Minister Trudeau has said that “only communities can grant permission” for mega-projects, and pledged to make Canada a climate leader. Keystone, just like the Energy East and Kinder Morgan pipelines, does not have community consent and, if built,... would cook the planet. If Trudeau is true to his word, he needs to oppose Trump’s approval of Keystone XL. Sign the petition today to tell Trudeau to reject Trump’s climate denial.

Here’s how I’ve been thinking about things today.

1) The approval doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. There’s no permitted route through Nebraska; native tribes are hard at work in South Dakota; and a team of lawyers are gearing up to play their role as I write.

2) We’ve already won an awful lot. Six years times 800,000 barrels of oil a day equals a lot of carbon emissions saved. Not to mention that six years of delay has cost Transcanada a small fortune.

3) More to the point, Keystone jumpstarted a whole new phase of the movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Now every new pipeline and frack well and coal port gets fought and fought hard. You’ve heard of some of these fights, like the Dakota Access and Kinder Morgan pipelines, but there are now hundreds more of them across the world.

There are many people, including Indigenous communities on both sides of the Canada-US border, who’ve been working to stop Keystone since the beginning, and they’re gearing up for this next round of the fight.

On the other hand, Trudeau’s Natural Resource Minister, Jim Carr, is cheerleading Trump and TransCanada -- applauding Keystone’s approval from Ottawa. Let Prime Minister Trudeau know that this is unacceptable.

We know what to do. We organize, we build big movements, we fight. I wish there was a silver bullet but moving forward, there’s just more of the hard work we’ve been doing for years.

Stay tuned. My friends from the Canada team at 350.org will be in touch with you soon about some of this work, and from what I’ve heard, it’s going to be exciting.

See you in the fight ahead,

Bill

350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and r38