Secretary Clinton Backs Off Support for Dirty Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

For Immediate Release
March 2, 2011

Contact:
Kelly Trout, 202-222-0722, [email protected]
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748, [email protected]

Secretary Clinton Backs Off Support for Dirty Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today acted appropriately by refusing to weigh in on a proposed mega-pipeline to pump tar sands oil from Canada to Texas in response to a question posed by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at a hearing, campaigners at environmental group Friends of the Earth said.

By declining to weigh in, Secretary Clinton backed away from comments she made last October indicating support for the Keystone XL pipeline. Those comments provoked a firestorm of criticism because her agency is responsible for ensuring a thorough and rigorous review of the pipeline’s environmental dangers.

Alex Moore, dirty fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, had the following response:

“We’re happy to see that Secretary Clinton learned her lesson and did not lend support to this dirty oil pipeline, which threatens the health of communities across America’s heartland.

“The Keystone XL pipeline is an environmental disaster in the making and Secretary Clinton must ensure her agency conducts a thorough review of all the dangers it poses. Such dangers include the potential of a spill over the Ogallala Aquifer, threatening drinking water upon which two million Americans depend, new air pollution impacting communities that live near refineries, and increased climate-damaging pollution.

“We are confident that if Secretary Clinton fulfills her legal responsibility to fully assess these serious dangers of this dirty oil project, her agency will have no choice but to axe it.”

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Friends of the Earth and our network of grassroots groups in 76 countries fight to create a more healthy, just world. Our current campaigns focus on 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.