American Petroleum Institute Debates Top Activist Over Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline As Thousands Protest Project in DC (Video)

Thousands of environmental activists from across the continent plan to gather in Washington, D.C., this weekend to launch a two-week protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists plan to hold sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience outside the White House every day in order to pressure the Obama administration as it decides whether to approve the pipeline's construction. The massive pipeline would cross the Yellowstone River, as well as the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest freshwater aquifer in the United States. Many local Midwest and Southern communities are concerned about possible risks to human health and safety and environmental pollution posed by the pipeline.

Supporters of the pipeline say the pipeline will create some 20,000 construction jobs, and the company behind it, TransCanada, has already signed agreements to employ the members of four international unions if the project is approved. Last month, the Republican-controlled House passed a measure that would force a decision on the Keystone XL by November 1.

As the Obama administration faces industry pressure on one side and sustained grassroots protest on the other, Democracy Now! hosted a debate between Cindy Schild, the refining issues manager at the American Petroleum Institute, and Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, a group taking part in the Washington protests.

Click here to read the complete transcript.

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Comments

[geetrls]

10:49 AM on 08/23/2011

Folks, remember WATER IS LIFE! The pipeline alignment runs thru east Texas where those of us who live in the rural areas have wells which reach into the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifier. The towns and cities along this pipeline across our country could have their water supplies contaminated if the crude gets into the watersheds. Given Keystones track record of pipeline failures, perhaps it would be in the best interests of our country for Canada and big oil to keep their tar sands for themselves.

[Var Enyo]

05:48 AM on 08/22/2011

Great, we take the oil spill risk and foreign markets will get the oil.

[motoGpifupleez]

07:37 PM on 08/20/2011

Jane Kleeb owned that rebate when she asked the API shill if the pipeline project is all about American national security and energy independence and not for the purpose of allowing the Canadians an easier access to the world markets, then put in writing that 100% of the oil will be for the American market only.

[yathink]

03:23 PM on 08/20/2011

Dozens have been arrested so far. Coverage almost nonexistent.

[Richard2]

02:34 PM on 08/20/2011

.... not a little of Stephen Harper's success in gaining a majority government (in Canada) came from refusing to engage, in any serious and convincing manner, with the politics of the planet-savers. Political correctness dictates some tepid genuflection towards the obsession with a warming planet, but Harper - and people know this - can be counted on not to jump on the carbon-counting express. He can be counted on to not bend in the face of the manufactured fury presented by professional activists and environmentalists, either to slow or stop the oil sands or introduce some ludicrous and wasteful "tax" on carbon dioxide. And while it may be a footnote to the national trend, Rob Ford's election as mayor of Toronto can also be read, in part, as a rebuke to the previous mayor's incessant tinkering with "environmental" measures - from plastic bag surcharges to bike lanes - at the expense of more basic municipal functions.

These are merely the local Canadian signals. But one can skip the globe and find almost everywhere that govern-ments, staring at the reality of recession and financial anxiety, have given up on their vague projections of green economics. Where is President Obama, who promised that on his accession "the rise of the oceans will start to slow and the planet begin to heal?" - surely the most fatuous declaration in the history of politics. - Rex Murphy - National Post

[Peatbog]

07:41 PM on 08/20/2011

Do you mean that additional CO2 in the atmosphere does not induce further warming? That is excellent! Please provide scientific backup I can use with my climate scientist friends. Thx.

[KarlaElisa]

01:55 PM on 08/20/2011

"To pretend that civilization can exist without destroying its own landbase and the landbases and cultures of others is to be entirely ignorant of history, biology, thermodynamics, morality, and self-preservation."
— Derrick Jensen (Endgame: Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization)

[Jeremyewilliams]

01:47 PM on 08/20/2011

Oil...it's going to be our end.

[KarlaElisa]

01:52 PM on 08/20/2011

i fear the same and it crushes my soul to see industrial civilization destroy this planet.