Tar Sands Action: We’re Off!

In an hour, Barbara, Nathan and I head south to Washington.  We’re meeting our favorite musicians, Christina and Ben, and more than 6,000 other people who have registered to join hands around the White House  in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline: the one that will use the American heartland as a great conduit for the world’s dirtiest crude to reach world export markets.

I’ve talked a lot about the basics on the tar sands, but here’s the nickel version:

• Tar sands oil emits 83% more CO2 than conventional oil, turning your Hybrid into a Hummer;
• Tar sands mining totally destroys indigenous lands and waterways – like strip mining, but worse;
• It has caused outbreaks of rare cancers among native peoples who rely on the Canadian lands where it’s mined;
• It uses vast amounts of natural gas – relatively clean-burning stuff – to produce the oil, trading clean for filthy, and making it more difficult to replace coal-burning power plants with cleaner gas; we lose a gas-based power-generating alternative, and end up burning more tar sands oil and more coal;
• The KXL pipeline will carry this highly corrosive, hot and pressurized crude across 1,904 American streams and rivers, and across the massive Ogallala aquifer, threatening the U.S. agricultural heartland;
• The pipeline is NOT a jobs program – it will likely destroy far more than the 6,000 temporary jobs estimated during construction; and
• The pipeline does not contribute to energy security; rather, it gives foreign oil companies the ability to bypass the American Midwest and sell their oil on world markets.

Surely, the President is beginning to hear us.  You can help!

Our country desperately needs to develop a sustainable energy future.  But doubling down on the dirtiest crudes is exactly the opposite of what anyone who cares about our Father’s world and our children’s futures would hope for. That’s why we’re headed to DC.

But YOU CAN’T COME!  You’re in Kijabe, or Mundri, or Ann Arbor, or Los Angeles!  You’ve got six patients who need you on tomorrow’s day shift!  You’re teaching Sunday school tomorrow morning! These are important things, and we’re so glad you’re honoring your calling and commitments.

EVEN SO, YOUR VOICE CAN STILL BE HEARD!  In less than a minute’s time, you can write the President and tell him that you stand with us against the KXL Pipeline.  All you have to do is click here, and in no time, you will have doubled and tripled the effect of our efforts.

Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow.  But if not, we’ll be encouraged to know that many of you have joined us in asking the President to set our country on a track that will provide for our needs without sacrificing our children.

Thank you so very much. And may God bless you.

J. Elwood

Follow @John_Elwood