A whole lot of people are going to comment about the Keystone XL Pipeline before the deadline at 11:59:59 ET on Friday night. Some commenters are top experts who will provide the equivalent of doctoral theses about the many reasons to be concerned about the plan. Others will click through from a site like 350.org, in effect saying “Yeah, what these people say!”
That leaves us with a crucial role to fill – we need to glue those two poles together.
You mission, should you choose to accept it: Comment on whether the Keystone XL Pipeline is in our national interest.
Comment here: regulations.gov
Great Source of Comment Material: Here and any other diary in this blogathon.
Comment more than once - it's totally allowed!
Experience shows us that technically and legally compelling information can be waved away by deciders at an agency, considered to be just technicalities or just legalities, unless there is a widespread expression of concern from the public. And those click-through comments, they matter too, but may be regarded as mostly demonstrating the ability of organizations to mobilize people to click on a link.
Anchoring the middle of the pyramid
Agencies really notice distinct, individually written comments from people who express their own concerns from their point of view. The quantity and quality of these kinds of comments are key to whether an agency gives the fully warranted review to a project like KXL.
Last year, we concluded a very successful public comment process about the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal here in northwest Washington State. The top line number was 125,000 public comments about the scope of the EIS. But the real attention-getter for agencies and elected officials was the 14,000+ individually written comments. Each comment submitted by someone who cared enough to put in the time and attention to write.
That’s you!
When you put in your comments (yes, that’s plural - multiple comments are totally allowed!), please consider including information, not just about the topic of concern, but why it matters to you.
To see why, consider the poor saps who have the job of sifting through the comments and putting them into piles by topic so they can be counted up. (Not actual paper piles these days, of course). They’ll see comments about the many and very serious impacts of KXL, all day long, day after day. At the end of a given work day, what will they remember most?
I’d be willing to bet a pile of depreciated rubles that the most memorable comments will be those that describe in personal terms why stopping KXL matters to all of us. The kind of comment that can bring a moment of clarity to that reviewer, so then she understands:
This. Is. Wrong.
Once someone gains that kind of understanding, they can’t un-understand it. As that agency staffer or consultant continues their work each day, by the book, tabulating and evaluating the comments, everything they do will be illuminated by that understanding. That’s the kind of understanding that can help people inside an agency stand up and ask the hard questions – and then discover that others share the same concerns.
A matter of conscience
When you bring some humanity to the process, you bring emotion. That’s a good thing, because informed emotion – the good emotion – is a key human capability. A lot of emotion occurs as a response to facts that really matter. When you provide straightforward, unadorned facts about KXL from your personal point of view, and you say why the impacts matter to you personally, you can create the kind of emotional response that guides a reader at an agency toward good decision. While the process may appear impersonal, the readers at the end of the comment pipeline are humans too. (We’ve checked into this - they really are).
Reason for KXL
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So when you submit your comments, don't hesitate to make it personal. Say who you are and why you care. Turn it into a matter of conscience for whoever will be reading your comments. [Be aware that comments are part of the public record, which could affect what type of info you choose to share.]
The business-as-usual of fossil fuels has been baked into all of our government processes for decades. Whether we like it or not, we have a key fact to face: KXL won't be defeated if some analysis shows that it is 51% against our national interest. Or even 60%, or 70%, or 80%. KXL will only be defeated if we can create a clear understanding that KXL, and projects like it, are unconscionable.
This matter of conscience has been captured in The Keystone Principle by writer K.C. Golden:
Keystone isn’t simply a pipeline in the sand for the swelling national climate movement. It’s a moral referendum on our willingness to do the simplest thing we must do to avert catastrophic climate disruption: Stop making it worse.
Specifically and categorically, we must cease making large, long-term capital investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure that “locks in” dangerous emission levels for many decades.
Now it's our job to illustrate the moral imperative of the Keystone Principle with thousands of personal, factual, meaningful statements on why right now is the moment we must stop making it worse.
Hey - one more thing. Commenting on a proposal like KXL is about creating a community conversation, not just piling content into a government web site. Don't forget to post copies of your comments (yes plural!) onto Facebook or your favorite media for all of your friends to see. That's just one more way to make sure that nobody around you suffers from climate silence.
Bring it if you've got it! Bring humor, bring cutting analogies, and irrefutable facts. Bring what you've learned along the way ,and the courage of your convictions. Most of all, bring yourself.
Our Future - Worth Saving
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Keystone XL Pipeline "Public Comments" Blogathon: March 3-7, 2014
The public comment period for the National Interest Determination ends on March 7, 2014. We have a coalition seeking public comments to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline.
You can write your own comment to post at regulations.gov. Or, you can copy from one of the comment templates available from the list below. It's preferrable to tweak the template a little with your own words so that it does not resemble a boilerplate comment.
Let your voice be heard by opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The deadline for submission of comments is March 7, 2014.
350.org
Bold Nebraska
Center for Biological Diversity
CCAN or Chesapeake Climate Action Network
CREDO
Energy Action Coalition
Environmental Action
Friends of the Earth
League of Conservation Voters
Moms Clean Air Force
Montana Environmental Information Center
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Northern Plains Resource
Oil Change International
Rainforest Action Network
Sierra Club
Our Daily Kos community organizers are Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, rb137, JekyllnHyde, citisven, peregrine kate, John Crapper, Aji, and Kitsap River, with Meteor Blades serving as the group's adviser.
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