I’m participating in the big anti-Keystone XL blogathon next week, so I don’t want to take up too much space here, but today’s the right day to share my Keystone op-ed in this morning’s New York Times. I know a lot of you agree with me that Keystone is about more than just one pipeline – it’s about how our government handles scientific decisions. Every day we remind people of what’s really at stake is another day we help defeat this big, bad deal. That’s why I’m writing this.
When President Obama replaced President Bush, a lot of us hoped the days of big oil writing environmental policy were over. Well, the jury’s still out, and Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to get this thing approved no matter how many conflicts of interest they have to overlook or how many EPA concerns they have to sweep under the rug. I’ve made this fight my own because I don’t believe we can go back to the bad old Bush days ever again. We have to stop them here. That's what my op-ed is about.
If the president approves the Keystone XL pipeline on the basis of the lobbying and bad science that has been offered to support it, much of his good work will be undone and a business-as-usual atmosphere will settle back on Washington like a heavy cloud. It would be a bad end to what could still be a very strong environmental legacy.
The pipeline has drawn more critical attention than its corporate sponsors seemed to expect, and it is important to understand why that happened. Keystone is a bad deal for the American taxpayer on the merits, but that’s not the only reason. More important, environmentalists have decided that enough is enough.
I'm hoping to convince the president to stop the pipeline. I’m also hoping you can
contribute a bit to my campaign today. You know I don’t like asking for money from working people, but even the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus has to win an election every two years and it’s still not free. We can elect a good new generation of progressive leadership this year – leadership that won’t even give bad projects like Keystone a second look – but we have to put some money where our mouths are. If you believe, like I do, that industry shouldn't be able to buy the "scientific" results it wants, I'm asking for your help.
You’ll hear more from me about Keystone and what I’m doing to stop it next week. Until then, thanks for all you do.