Bill McKibben On Colbert Report Discusses Keystone XL Pipeline (VIDEO)

Environmental activist Bill McKibben appeared on "The Colbert Report" Monday night to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline.

In January, President Obama denied a permit for the pipeline to run from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

McKibben told Stephen Colbert that following Saudi Arabia, the tar sands in Canada are the second biggest pool of carbon on Earth. "It was burning Saudia Arabia that raised the temperature of the planet one degree. If we, knowing what we now know about climate change, do the same thing with the second Saudi Arabia, we're not as wise as we like to think we are."

According to McKibben, the challenge in ending oil dependence is that "the financial power of the fossil fuel industry has been enough to keep science at bay."

Colbert jokingly argued, "they don't have any power, you killed the XL pipeline," to which McKibben warned, "the XL pipeline may be coming back."

McKibben was referring to an attempt by Senate Republicans to keep the Keystone XL pipeline proposal alive by introducing an amendment to a transportation bill. McKibben's 350.org and fellow members of the environmental movement quickly launched a 24 hour campaign to gather signatures from anti-Keystone XL activists and demand the Senate reject the pipeline proposal. While the initial goal was to gather 500,000 messages in 24 hours, McKibben announced on the show, "we blew by that half million mark after 6 hours."

350.org later announced they had sent 781,000 messages to the Senate in 24 hours.

The anti-Keystone XL movement has gained support from many celebrities, including Robert Redford, who wrote on HuffPost, "This U.S. Senate has to stop looking towards the past and move into the new century. If only some of these politicians showed the same level of passion for creating new markets around cleaner forms of energy, as they're showing for crippling a sitting president with a dirty, potentially highly dangerous, old-school Canadian tar sands pipeline."

On Tuesday, TransCanada pushed back its Keystone XL project schedule to 2015, maintaining that it still plans to build the line, according to Reuters.

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Comments

[ssalunkhe]

05:26 PM on 02/16/2012

I don't understand, why did Obama denied this proposal.Need to rethink again on the same.

[Lou1123]

06:06 PM on 02/14/2012

I think this pipeline will be built. I'm indifferent about it because the pros and cons are very extreme on both sides.
However, I strongly agree that McKibben is right when he says that the only thing that will permanently reduce the price of gasoline, at this stage in time, is fuel efficiency and plug-in electric cars. Efficiency and conservation are going to have to be a huge goal for this decade, while renewable energy has time to grow.

[southerncal]

04:19 PM on 02/14/2012

The Keystone XL pipeline will have nothing to do with fuel for our vehicles. In fact it use up fuel for our vehicles. The Keystone XL pipeline will be used for pumping tar sands or tar. One use for this tar is patching our roofs and another use for tar is making Asphalt. If anyone can figure out how to run a vehicle on tar or asphalt let me know. ;)

[hposter71]

07:02 PM on 02/14/2012

Are you kidding? You need to read a bit more before you post a message. In doing so it will help you look credit worthy and then you can maybe use more "truthful knowledge" to educate others, but please start with yourself, it will only help us all, and yourself when you post.

These tars can be processed to crude that can be processed in to gas, that is how one has already figured out how to run a vehicle on tar. The Saudis have been helping us to it for many years ;) Now you know.

[pappy50]

10:16 PM on 02/14/2012

Hehe. You're joking right? That's funny man.

[pcs5141]

03:54 PM on 02/14/2012

Developing alternative energy takes time.We need the pipeline to further reduce the need for middle east oil which we only import 10% from anyway.Right now we need cheap energy and jobs.We need to use the money we flush down the toilet for foreign aid/wars/military to take care of our own country.

[Michael P Jones]

04:58 PM on 02/14/2012

How much time do we need? Every President since Nixon has said that line!

[Everett Martin]

03:44 PM on 02/14/2012

Folks at Huffpost: If you're posting videos on your Canada portal, it might be a good idea to make sure they aren't ones that are only visible from the USA, like Daily Show/Colbert Report. Thanks.

[Chad Niblett]

02:08 PM on 02/14/2012

Enjoy, China.

[personal beliefs]

02:07 PM on 02/14/2012

Of course it is coming back, and it will eventually get built.

[dim]

06:55 PM on 02/14/2012

Still waiting on that Superconducting Supercollider to come back.