Nationwide Day of Action Condemns Risky Canadian Dirty Oil Pipeline
For Immediate Release
July 8, 2010
Contact:
Kelly Trout, Friends of the Earth U.S., 202-222-0722 (office), 717-439-0346 (cell), [email protected]
Tony Iallonardo, National Wildlife Federation, 202-797-6612, [email protected]
Nationwide Day of Action Condemns Risky Canadian Dirty Oil Pipeline
Clean energy advocates, landowners, indigenous activists unite to say pipeline puts lives, environment and property in peril
Washington, D.C. – Clean energy advocates, landowners, and indigenous activists are uniting today to condemn a proposed pipeline that would bring toxic tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. in demonstrations, community events and meetings with government officials happening across the country.
(Media contact information for individual events provided below.)
About 100,000 Americans wrote the Obama administration urging it to stop the pipeline, called the Keystone XL, during a public comment period that closed July 2. Following a July 16 deadline for agency input, the administration will determine whether Canada’s pipeline is in the “national interest.” The administration’s final permitting decision is expected this fall.
Concerned citizens are gathering today at Canadian consulates in Boston, New York, Seattle and Detroit, and demonstrating outside the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C. to speak out against more dirty oil and for clean, safe energy alternatives.
In states that would be crossed by the pipeline, including Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, citizens are holding events and meeting with their elected representatives who are home for the congressional recess.
A group of landowners whose property would be encroached upon by the pipeline is also in Washington, D.C. directly appealing to Obama administration officials and members of Congress to protect their farmland and livelihoods. TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, has applied for a safety waiver that would allow it to use thinner-than-normal steel.
“People have watched one oil tragedy unfold in the Gulf of Mexico and are demanding action to prevent another,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth and a speaker at the Washington, D.C. event. “If President Obama is serious about leading our country to safe, clean alternatives to oil, he can make no choice other than to reject this pipeline, which endangers people’s health and ecosystems from Canada to Texas.”
Organizations sponsoring the day of action include Corporate Ethics International, Friends of the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club.
Event Contact Information:
Washington, D.C.
Location: 501 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, across from the Canadian embassy
Speakers include: Actress and National Wildlife Federation board member Gloria Reuben and Friends of the Earth’s president, Erich Pica
Contact: Kelly Trout, Friends of the Earth U.S., 202-222-0722 (office), 717-439-0346 (cell), [email protected]
Boston
Contact: Ben Wright, Environment Massachusetts, 617-747-4313 (office), 813-283-8034 (cell), [email protected]
Detroit
Contact: Jesse Worker, Clean Water Action, 812-606-1748, [email protected]
Houston
Contact: Evelyn Merz, Sierra Club, 713-644-8228, [email protected]
Lincoln, Nebraska
Contact: Jane Kleeb, 402-705-3622, [email protected]
New York City
Contact: Lauren Schuster, NY Public Interest Research Group, 347-729-4829, [email protected]
Rapid City, South Dakota
Contact: Chas Jewett, 605-431-3594, [email protected]
Seattle
Contact: Robyn Carmichael, National Wildlife Federation, 206-285-8707 x. 110, [email protected]
Sioux City, South Dakota
Contact: Pete Carrels, Sierra Club, 605-216-1233, [email protected]