Pipeline Protesters Greet President Obama at Fundraiser in New York
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Alex Moore, Friends of the Earth, 503-886-9738 (cell), 202-222-0733 (office), [email protected]
Cat Glenn, New York Action Network, 912-398-1538 (cell), [email protected]
Pipeline Protesters Greet President Obama at Fundraiser in New York
Activists against piping dirty tar sands oil into the U.S. ask Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline
NEW YORK, N.Y. — As President Obama arrives here for a Democratic campaign fundraiser today, activists with signs and banners are calling on him to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry dirty tar sands oil to the U.S.
“The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would leave many communities vulnerable to oil spills and leaks,” said Alex Moore, dirty fuels campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “Piping tar sands oil across the United States would pollute the air and water, ultimately harming the health of people in the path of the pipeline.”
The demonstration taking place today outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan was organized by Friends of the Earth and New York Action Network. Demonstrators are confronting the president with a banner reading: “President Obama: Stop the Keystone Pipeline, Protect Our Water.”
At the same time in Washington, D.C., a delegation of indigenous leaders from the United States and Canada were meeting with the White House Council on Environmental Quality to express their concerns about tar sands development in their communities.
“When New Yorkers elected President Obama, we were voting for the clean energy future he promised, not more dirty oil pipelines,” said Cat Glenn, a student at Fordham University and member of the New York Action Network. “President Obama has an opportunity to show leadership by denying the permit for the pipeline and preventing future fossil fuel disasters.”
The Keystone XL pipeline would carry oil from Canada’s tar sands, the dirtiest oil available, through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In recent weeks, Congress has been investigating pipeline safety following incidents in Michigan and Illinois that spilled a combined one million gallons of oil.
More information on the Keystone XL pipeline is available at: /keystone-xl-pipeline
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Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) and our federation of grassroots groups in 77 countries are a force for the sustainable and fair use of the Earth’s resources. We’re progressives who confront economic factors fueling ecological destruction and injustice and who don’t shy from speaking sometimes uncomfortable truths to power. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, keeping toxic and risky technologies out of the food we eat and products we use, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.